Like a lot of people, as soon as my head hits the pillow each night, my brain finally “has the floor,” so to speak.
I’d start thinking about all the things I needed to get done the next day.
Or I’d replay conversations in my mind, thinking about things I wanted to say to people but didn’t get a chance to.
Or I’d play my favorite Spotify channel, “Things I’m Worried About.”
All of that activity would stimulate my brain and sometimes delay sleep.
Now, I’m a big believer in going to sleep with gratitude in my heart because it raises my vibration massively, and because I think it’s so important to acknowledge your blessings.
So I made some adjustments to my bedtime routine.
First, I started making a To Do List for the next day. I do that either at the end of my workday or about an hour before bed. That way I can get everything out of my head and onto the list. I trust that my list is solid and that it’ll be there waiting for me when I get to work in the morning.
If I’m worried about something, I set aside time during the day to make a plan for what I’ll do if that bad thing actually happens. I wrote about that in last week’s blog, “How I Learned to Stop Catastrophic Thinking.”
So by the time I go to bed, I have all my “worry programs” locked and loaded should I ever need them.
If I’m having conflict with someone and find myself rehearsing what I should have said or what I’m going to say the next time we interact, I handle that during the day too. I ask myself, “How do you actually want to proceed on this topic with this person?” Then I make a plan for what I want to say.
That means when I finally go to bed, I don’t need to spend that time planning, worrying, or rehearsing.
Instead, I start my gratitude program.
When you’re first starting out, you tend to hit the low-hanging fruit: “I’m grateful for having a roof over my head, food in my belly, and clothes on my back.”
And those things are absolutely worth being grateful for.
But I like to go deeper than that. I use it as an exercise in remembering and noticing all the little things that have happened in my life that I might not normally think about.
For example:
I’m grateful to the man who put two quarters in the parking meter when he saw I didn’t have any.
I’m grateful to my sociology professor for giving me extra time to complete my work when I was sick for a month.
I’m grateful my cat decided to barf on the tile instead of the carpet.
I’m grateful to the woman who helped me carry a heavy box to my car when she saw me struggling.
I’m grateful for the shady tree I found to sit under and recover from heat exhaustion while waiting in line to get an autograph.
Go long. Go deep. Go back in time.
Think about the people who helped you, the lucky breaks you got, the kindness you received, the disasters that somehow turned out okay, and the small comforts that showed up exactly when you needed them.
You may be surprised by how many things you’ve forgotten to be grateful for.
And as you remember them, you’ll likely notice your whole body beginning to relax. Your mind gets quieter. The problems of the day start to lose their grip on you.
And instead of drifting off to sleep thinking about everything that could go wrong tomorrow, you fall asleep remembering everything that has already gone right.
