Active mind

Photo by: Tim Bindner

I recently spoke to a friend who was having trouble sleeping. He was suffering from something that I and many people I know suffer from, which is an occasional restless night’s sleep, or in my case a routine restless night’s sleep. It is because of having an active brain.

What causes this? I am no expert, but I feel it has a common cause for most people, including myself. I honestly think the reason people struggle to sleep is that most of us are more easily distracted by our worries and fears during the day. During the day we are working, caring for others, indulging in screen time, and moving from one task or chore to the next. There is little time to be aware or focus on our thoughts that trouble us. However, when everything goes dark and quiet at night, we find ourselves alone with our thoughts, and the darker, deeper, more difficult and powerful emotions or worries easily present themselves.

As a society, it bombarded us with media, social media, and information overload. Everything is instantaneous and responses to anything are expected at hyper-speed. We plan answers, or opinions before we hear the question or know the complete story, we built our retort or defense without listening to all the facts; we are taught to respond quickly to any subject thrown our way.

My friend called me, stating he was “not sleeping well at night and struggled with his thoughts.” He was looking for advice. I told him how I journal, what my process was and also mentioned keeping a small notepad by his bed so that when those thoughts flood his mind, he can write them down. This has helped me in the past.

Journaling, like a diary I began last year, and it also helps me coral my thoughts. I keep my journal on my desk, mere inches from my mouse and computer. During the day when a thought strikes me, I note it in the journal. I try to write daily in the morning. I use bullet points or statements and my random thoughts are documented. Grammar does not matter, spelling does not matter, and no subject is off limits.

My journal is not for display, and no one sees it but me, and occasionally Dr. Erin. I am at the end of my second journal and about to start my third. Adding sketch images from the internet helps me with my thought. I struggle to stare at a blank page.

I write in blue ink and add any quotes, lyrics, or musings in red for easy identification. Like I told my friend, I plan to keep these and look back at them later. I know some people write them and burn them, but I plan to see where I was and how I was feeling on a particular date, when reviewing older entries.

I wish I had done this much earlier in life. During deaths of my father, cousin and mother might have been a little less painful if I could have honestly written about it at the moment. I have an entry (or few) when we lost Kota last March, and reading those brings me to tears, but I was happy I had a way to vent and express myself.

I would be happy to talk to any of you about journaling, my process (there is no right way to journal) and the benefits I have felt by going through the exercise, which is now a habit. I could not recommend it enough to my friend and to anyone else who struggles with thoughts during the day or at night.

Until next time.

Tim