Now, not everyone has sleep issues.
Well, not all the time.
But I am pretty sure that we have all, at times, struggled to get to sleep (and stay asleep), and perhaps woken up feel crappers.
And for some people, getting a bad night’s sleep, has become a full-time occupation.
Sadly too, a lot of the “solutions” offered by the medical cartel system, are pharmaceutical-based (meaning synthetic) which often come with some pretty dodgy side effects.
Therefore, I want to offer you a solution with no negative side effects, is easy to learn and do, costs you approximately $0, and takes about 8-mins.
Interested?
The other topic for today is when we lack energy, or what we might call “motivation“, and are not sure how to ramp it up, or get it back.
And no, the solution is not an extra hit of a double expresso.
The downside with using caffeine to power-up is that it just delays the mental crash, and doesn’t deal with any root cause issues.
It also becomes a bit of a crutch, where you get to the stage where you might lose your sh#t, if a decent coffee is not forth-coming, or heaven forbid, unavailable.
My preferred life strategy is to not depend on any crutches.
And have strategies which need no props at all.
What is most likely in the way
It turns out that the thing stopping you from sleeping well, and the thing cutting you off from abundant energy, have similar origins.
Well, a similar system at play.
Plus, a similar misguided message.
Based on one of the key functions of the older parts of the brain: protecting you by keeping you SAFE.
I learned in my early days that the role of the subconscious mind was to Learn and to Protect (i.e. keep us Safe).
The upper mind (cortex) is for more fancy stuff, but the cerebellum and central nervous system, are there to keep us alive as long as possible.
I have also heard the subconscious mind likened to a highly intelligent 2-year-old.
Meaning it has less discernment, can’t deal with complex stuff, and is more likely to keep using the SAME solutions, which worked once upon a time.
Which focuses us on the Autonomic Nervous System.
The nervous system is a big part of the protective system.
For instance, when it comes to sleep, as the authors of Rewired, so succinctly put it:
“Insomnia is rarely a sleep problem; it’s a safety problem. The nervous system has learned to treat the vulnerability of sleep as a threat, keeping you on high alert.” [i.e. awake]
At some point, maybe from a past experience, incident or trauma; the nervous system decided it was much safer for you to stay awake, than to go to sleep.
Unfortunately, the nervous system has not got the memo that the “threat” has passed.
They’re still operating under their old job description.
Sleep = threat to safety.
Now the same thing goes with “BLOCKS” to accessing motivation (and energy already available in the cells due to mitochondria).
Motivation is potentially blocked by the “protection” of the nervous system, who does not want you to fail, be embarrassed, experience shame, or hurt yourself; because that may have happened to you in the past.
Your nervous system is blocking you from doing things – especially new things – in order to keep you safe.
It might even be that “perfectionism” is your nervous system in disguise, stopping you from doing anything, unless it is perfect, reducing the number of things you actually attempt.
Less things done = less chance of something going wrong (and being unsafe).
My point being, there are a number of times where our subconscious mind and programs, are OVERLY protective, based on old information, and not relevant to the current situation, BUT we don’t know how to change their job description.
Or do we?
Having a chat with the nervous system
It turns there might be a way to change the job description for the Nervous System and rewire it with a new set of instructions, relevant for the present day and its unique circumstances.
It turns out it is really hard for us to consciously connect and dialogue with the subconscious and unconscious parts of our brain, via words alone (e.g. positive affirmations, pleas, demands, rants, tantrums, etc.).
Especially when we are in a conscious beta brainwave state.
It is easier much easier to communicate when we are in alpha, theta, and delta brainwave states, such as in meditation, or while using hypnosis, or other modalities, like NLP.
But there is an easier tool and practice, which seems to send a signal directly to the amygdala, to let it know things are safe.
Letting the bodyguard who is trying to keep us safe at 3am in the morning (by keeping us awake), to take a break.
Or that bodyguard protecting us from possible failure, embarrassment or shame, to stand-down.
The tool is – and yes, you have heard me say it before – Tapping on acupressure points, which influence the meridian lines of the body, and rewire memories and the emotions attached to them.
But.
Do not take my word for it.
Do not believe this benefits getting decent sleep, and accessing your motivation and energy.
Try it for yourself.
I challenge you.
About 8-mins per session.
8-mins before heading off to bed.
Tap, tap, tap.
Go to this LINK … scroll down to “Chapter 13: Reclaiming Restful Sleep“.
Or if motivation is your thing that is missing or elusive, scroll down to “Chapter 10: Tapping Into Motivation and Flow“.
And with Motivation, doing it once a day is great, but can you imagine the cumulative effect if you did it twice a day?!?!
BOOOOOM!! 🙂
And for extra points, check out the book “Rewired” by the Ortner siblings or The Tapping Solution App (which I just signed up for a 14-day free trial).
In Summary
The role of the primitive parts of our brain is to LEARN and PROTECT (keep us safe).
Sometimes the protection role, and protector (the nervous system) are operating on out-of-date Job Descriptions.
For example, the protector thinks staying awake at 3am is “safer” than going to sleep and being vulnerable to perceived threats.
Rewiring and reprogramming the nervous system is hard by internal dialogue alone (it is likely to ignore you as being too naïve or out-of-touch with its perception of the very scary and unsafe “real world”).
The act of Tapping on acupressure points, has the effect of sending signals of SAFETY to the amygdala, turning off the stress response (of the protector).
My Parting Words
Yes.
I have been banging on about this tap, tap, tappity thing.
My sole aim is to get you to try it, and see for yourself.
Most people think “That is interesting and might be really useful to me if it helps me sleep better“, and then DO NOTHING.
I don’t want that to be you.
I want you to give it a crack.
And preferably, not just once.
It is not a high quality “experiment”, if you just do it once.
Do 8-mins for 8-days and see your experience by the end of Day 8.
Then, you can make an informed decision.
Talking data and experiments, The Tapping Solution App has had over 32,000,000 sessions done on it!!!
That is a sh#t-tin of data to figure out if it works or not.
It turns out, the data says it DOES work – even better than most talk Therapy.
So, as I step down off my box, can I trust that you will give it a crack?
Get the link to the Guided Sessions here.
I only want the best for you.
All you have to lose is 8-mins a day.
Which I “suspect” is a lot less time than you spend each day scrolling stuff that has zero positive impact on you. 😉
Enjoy, and please let me know how it works out for you.
Have a super fabulous day and an insightful 8-days as you give yourself the gift of a balanced nervous system.
Take care.
Carl
Quotable QUOTE:
“Sometimes the protection role, and protector (the nervous system) are operating on old job descriptions. E.g. the protector thinks that staying awake at 3am is “safer” than going to sleep and being vulnerable to perceived threats.” Carl Massy
(Author of 18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be)
PS: Have you read or listened to this book yet? 18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be
