For the past year I have suffered from bouts of Insomnia and more recently Panic Attacks. I always have attributed this to the voice in my head not shutting the hell up. Yap yap yap all day. My inner voice is always on trying to tell me stuff I should be doing and reflecting on stuff that happened in the past. I recently found a way to mute the voice. This method is 100% free, easy, and takes little time.
My problem was inside my own head
For the last year I have had serious problems with sleeping. It became harder and harder to go to bed at a decent hour. I’d lie down in bed and just sit there tossing and turning. To make things worse, once I actually did get to sleep, I would wake up early without fail.
The reason for this was the same, the voice in my head wouldn’t be quiet. All night I’d keep thinking about things, and it wasn’t allowing me to calm down to fall asleep. That same voice would then jolt me awake in the morning and I’d lie there again thinking about stuff.
Things started to get worse
When you can’t sleep for days on end, an interesting thing starts happening. You get used to it. You are still tired, but you can function alright.
I started to supplement my days with no sleep with caffeine. I’d usually wake up and drink an energy drink. I’d then drink a large coffee or another energy drink around lunch time.
The caffeine boost worked for a while, but it never treated the cause, only addressed the symptoms. What ended up happening after a while was I started to experience Panic Attacks.
They were pretty mild panic attacks, but I definately had shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, and my mind was going crazy.
After a few of these attacks I looked up Panic Attacks on the internet for some kind of relief.
The answer to my problems
As I was searching the web reading about panic attacks, I came across a video that described exactly what I was going through. The curious thing was that it was all captured on video because the gentleman who was describing it was a news anchor named Dan Harris.
After watching this I was in tears because the answer was so simple.
The answer is meditation.
What is Meditation
When envisioning what meditation is, people usually think of gentlemen dressed in robes sitting somewhere for hours on end in the lotus position, chanting, or buddha.
Really, meditation boils down to sitting down, breathing, and concentrating on your breath. It’s that easy.
You don’t have to subscribe to any religious leanings for this to work. Anyone can do this and have incredible results.
My journey with meditation
I took karate all through the 2000s. As a result I started reading all about different japanese philosophies and spiritual practices. This eventually made me look into meditation and the different benefits it provides.
I remember trying meditation out for a while and freaking myself out. It sounds silly but when I was sitting down doing it for a half hour one night I thought I started to see a bright light with my eyes closed.
Even though I stopped meditating after that, it made me see that there was some power to this stuff after all, it wasn’t just a bunch of mumbo jumbo.
About 2 months ago I found a video on the internet that made me re-discover meditation for a bit. This guy gives a great explanation of meditation from the perspective of a normal guy.
After watching this video I tried meditation again and it was really great, but I stopped after a few times out of laziness. It wasn’t until I found the Dan Harris clip recently that I have dedicated 20 minutes a day to it.
How I meditate
How you and I meditate may not be the same, but that’s ok. If you aren’t comfortable with what I do, just make sure to be breathing, sitting up straight, and relaxing.
1) Clear out a time during your day to meditate. I like to do it at night around 10:00 PM. I’m a night owl, and like to work during the late hours of the night, so meditating before a writing session is a nice way to really focus.
2) Sit up straight on my bed with my legs crossed.
3) Set the alarm on my phone to 20 minutes. I find this is a good in between where I get totally in the moment but don’t start questioning how long I’ve been doing this yet.
4) I close my eyes and start to relax all my muscles.
5) Breathe in deeply from the nose using the diaphragm until your whole belly is filled with air. Focus on your belly moving out and filling up.
6) Breath out through the mouth. Focus on all the air moving out of your belly.
7) I like to envision the air that comes into the body as energy and as I release the air it circulates energy around my body creating a relaxing effect on all my muscles.
8) After the 20 minutes are up, I get up and go about my day.
Things to consider
If you haven’t meditated before, once you start giving it a go, you will realize you are thinking about random stuff all the time. Don’t worry about this as it’s completely normal.
Accept the thoughts as just a thought and let it pass. Consider the thought as a leaf resting on a stream. You see the thought and it just passes you by. Just let it go and stop dwelling on it.
If you find yourself getting distracted, just refocus on your breathing.
Benefits of Meditation
Besides quieting the voice in your head, there are a litany of other benefits that meditation provides.
Some of the benefits include:
-Better Focus
-Less Anxiety
-More Creativity
-More Compassion
-Better Memory
-Less Stress
-Growth of Grey Matter
Is the voice in your head deafening?
If your answer to that question is yes, you have to give meditation a try. I can’t describe to you how awesome I feel on a day to day basis after starting this regimen.
My day used to be filled with anxiety and generally freaking out in my own head because I knew I had to do stuff but wasn’t getting it done. I’d also freak out about slights against me in the past or thinking about what I’m going to do in the future.
Meditation has drastically mitigated all of those symptoms.
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Thought provoking. I try to sit down in complete silence free of disturbance for 20 minutes every day. During this time I empty my head of all the crap and then refill it with the important items in my life. Good post. Subscribed.
Thanks Adam. I have found that it really helps me, looks like I’m not the only one.