Boomer Connections This Boomer's Life

Do you know that 68% of Americans don’t get enough sleep? That’s a lot of us!  I’m talking about the recommended seven hours of sleep per night.  How about you … do you get enough sleep?

It’s happened to me and it’s exasperating.  I just want to sleep; however, my mind takes over and starts playing this game “Answer a Thousand Questions”.  Blissful sleep has been replaced by worry, questions, and more questions–instigating a toss/turn routine until I become so frustrated that anything reminiscent of dreamland is truly a “dream”!   And the next day, look out for a grouchy, tired, short-tempered, irritable walking zombie.  Don’t even consider throwing HAPPY in the mix … HAPPY is staying out of the way!  I end up with more of a “get the hell out of my way, leave me alone” kind of day.

We all have so many issues we’ve put on the back burner, hoping they would resolve themselves without us doing any proactive work to diminish their impact on us. We are fooling ourselves and sabotaging our well-being and health when we continue to maintain the façade that all is good, life is great.  We’ve all seen the T-shirt – “Life is Good”

Wouldn’t life feel so much better if we took one little step to face our issues?  What if we were to lighten up on ourselves a little and not give these issues such a prominent place in our thoughts?  Maybe, just maybe, we could begin admitting that most of our 3 AM issues are not as overwhelming as we fear. There’s this word called rationalization … it invades our minds to have us believe our lives are the way they are because of … (pick a topic, there are too many to list here!)  It is so much easier to place blame on something or someone else than it is to admit to ourselves that we are a key player in our own reality.

We can set priorities to manage these sneaky 3 AM nighttime issues: Just pick one and seriously think of what’s holding you back from facing this sleep-robbing gremlin.  Remember, we are all players in our own game of life. We either play or sit on the bench.  It’s when we are sitting on the bench that we tend to defer blame to someone else or something else.

When we challenge ourselves to find the root of our pain, we tend to feel we’re setting ourselves up to suffer more pain, so it’s just easier to ignore our issues and not deal with the grief.  It’s hard to dive into the abyss of our own mess when we often don’t even know the underlying issue(s) that are causing us so much worry.  At this point, our frustration level is at an all-time low, our productivity and creativity suck, our health has most likely been compromised and we might even be depressed!   Geesh!!   Is there any hope??

First of all…RELAX. Take a reality check:  Yes, we are still alive and kicking.  We just need to give ourselves permission to be open to new ideas, because this is when clarity begins to triumph over confusion. Our emotions begin to subside and we can begin to believe and trust there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it’s subtle.

Going forward in our journey takes courage, to push yourself to places that you have never been before and hard work to expose what has been hidden for so long. There is a path out there for each of us to take that will help diminish our pain; we just have to begin the journey to find it.  Our journey of life is about progress, not perfection. The best way out is always through … so let’s get going!

Interesting Articles:

Nick Orter – The Tapping Solution

https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/tapping-for-sleep-issues

Arianna Huffington

www.tedtalk.com

How to Succeed? Get More Sleep