A night in the head of Gabz: gabz.micro.blog

@Gaby nights like that when nothing is stopping you from sleep but your own mind are the worst 😓 hope you’re able to get more rest soon

@Gaby Ugh! I suffer from racing brain often if I wake in the night. Some things I’ve learned: don’t just keep those plans / preparations in your head but write them down. Then firmly tell yourself you’ve ‘completed’ that task. Then occupy your brain with something calming rather than doomscrolling. For example, read an enjoyable but non-stimulating fiction book (eg not a book with gore and high action). Or tell yourself a story — create a universe and imagine the people in it and what they do. Again not too exciting so it wakes your brain up. Or think up a story you could theoretically tell your kids — maybe one of them as the hero.

@nitinkhanna i definitely need to fixit !

@Gaby well then,

dude. Meditate. Seriously. Daily. Whenever you’re spiraling or opening social apps, open Headspace or Spotify or YouTube or Netflix’s Headspace show or rainymood.com and just sit down and meditate. Let the thoughts wash over you. Accept that you’re thinking about the morrow and then let it go. Accept that you’re worried about how to say things and then let that worry go. Watch a tutorial on YouTube about how to do practical meditation for beginners.

Or, put up a positive thinking poster. Literally any such poster, and whenever you’re spiraling, read the words out loud. In one year of daily speaking the words out loud when I was tying my laces every morning, I went from being a normal kid in class to a positive one, according to my class teacher. She actually noted it in my final report to my parents. I asked her why she did that and she asked me if I disagree with that assessment. I could not.

All this may seem silly, but it works. The power of words and thoughts, compounded over time and repetition, is immense. You’ll not feel better instantly. You’ll have highs and lows, but stick to this. Don’t let go. Pick a good habit and pound it onto your soul and your thoughts daily. Murder the worrier part of you.

Delete the bad apps if you want to. Don’t delete them if you don’t (and ask me for another hack which works well). But add your local library’s app, or the Kindle app or the Books app to the first page of your home screen and give it prominence. Read something silly or long and deep. Don’t worry about retention. Who cares? I read War and Peace over the course of almost two years. I don’t remember most of it. But I shout it from the rooftops that I finished one of the longest and wellknown books everyone knows about. That’s powerful and it gave me something to do every free second of the day. I literally stopped using Insta and twitter and ADN during that time. If I was standing in a line, or trying to fall asleep, or going down an elevator, I was reading the darn book because it seemed so unsurmountable that I just had to read it all the friggin time!

@Gaby btw, I love your profile pic. I love seaweed onigiri and I have a t-shirt from Japan which just has an onigiri image and the word in Japanese on it. Love it!

@nitinkhanna Fantastic advice. Well said.