Do you suffer from insomnia or have difficulty sleeping?

Do you have difficulty falling asleep? Do you wake up during the night restless and have trouble falling back to sleep?

If you suffer from poor sleep (or barely any sleep at all) this article is dedicated to providing new and specific information that can help you discover the root cause of WHY you are having difficulty sleeping. The information I am introducing is not looking for a generalized cause, rather a specific source for your insomnia. In addition to being a Stress Specialist I am also a Meta Medicine Health Coach. Meta Medicine is an International Association based on over 30 years of research and 40,000 + case studies, scientifically linking how stress creates specific disease or symptoms in the body.

Meta Medicine is not a generalized approach to understanding the body’s response to stress – it looks at what organ or system has symptoms and correlates these symptoms to specific forms of stress in a person’s life. From this method you are not shooting in the dark – you are looking for the Achilles Heel issue and applying effective healing methodologies to dissolve the corresponding stress.

Your body is a perfect map of what is going on in your life and reflects specific stress that you are processing and coping with. In the case of poor sleep or insomnia your body is blocked from switching into its nightly parasympathetic rhythm, which means you are still in a sympathetic state trying to fight some challenge or solve a problem. Meta Medicine focuses primarily on the Thalamus for insomnia or poor sleeping. (The Thalamus is located above the brain stem and is situated between the cerebral cortex.) When the Thalamus is under a specific form of stress various hormonal and blood-chemical parameters change causing intense restlessness and insomnia. In the video below I discuss what some of these stresses might be.

In using Meta Medicine to make an accurate assessment of the cause affecting the Thalamus, we would start by looking for the stress associated with statements of self-renouncement, such as when someone might say to themselves: I give up, I am useless, I am worthless, what’s the point, it’s too much, I am shattered, I feel decimated, etc. The Thalamus can also be affected by more extreme feelings of self-renouncement and self-abandonment such as – my life is not worth living, if only I were dead it would be better for everyone and myself, or I wish I was dead.

Now this might seem scary, but for some people the thought of a calm and soothing next life might seem more appealing than dealing with all the immediate crud of the physical world. Recently, I worked with a client who was getting on average 3 hours or less sleep a night. She would have difficulty falling asleep (even though she would feel exhausted) and when she fell asleep, she would sleep for only 10-15 minutes waking up fully alert and then have trouble falling back to sleep for several more hours. My client is an incredible woman, whom many respect and appreciate her council, but underneath all her stress she carried a belief that things would be easier if she were dead – that life was hard and not living could be a solution where she could finally rest. Part of her felt not being in her physical body as a comforting solution, but her whole being did not agree! Her Thalamus went into overdrive to help her cope with the stress and try and solve the root problem of why she felt this way. Fortunately, she was able to address the stress associated with this feeling of self-renouncement and within 3 sessions was able to fall asleep and average 5-7 hours each night. This is why Meta Medicine is so powerful – when you know what you are looking for you can attain effective, timely and profound results. (Profound meaning you get to the source of the problem and liberate yourself from a heavy dark stress and transform that pain into a sense of lightness and purpose.)

Other tips to help you sleep

Exercise releases excess stress and built-up tension. If possible exercise at minimum 3x per week for 20-30 mins engaging in some cardio activity to get your breath moving and blood circulating. (Do not exercise right before bed as this excites your system.)
Yoga – stretch out your stress and get into your breath. 🙂 Yoga can be an invaluable holistic healing practice to decrease stress and increase levels of strength, self-love and appreciation. (As well as feel supported by a community)
Write out your TO-DO list (an hour or more before bed if possible) to get clear on what you need to do the next day or during the week to clear any thoughts and tasks that might otherwise cause you anxiety and keep you up.
Take 10-20 + deep even breaths in and out – this creates a natural balance and harmony within your body and helps you to shift to a relaxed parasympathetic rhythm. (If your inhalations are longer your mind and thoughts lean toward a more manic and sympathetic state, so to calm your mind lengthen your exhalation and then balance your in breath and out breath.) Also focus on the sound and feeling of your breath, keeping your focus solely on breathing and not allowing your mind to wander.
Lavender is a well known aroma for helping to relax the nervous system. You can try putting several drops of a Lavender Essential Oil on each of your feet and rubbing them in, as well as rubbing a few drops on your hands and cupping your nose and mouth as your breathe in. (Go to a natural food store to find clean pure essential oils. A bottle of Lavender can cost around $10.00 +/-)
Seek consistency with your eating and sleeping rhythms. Try and go to sleep and wake up at similar times, and eat your meals at consistent times to regulate you blood sugar and digestion cycles.
Do not watch the news right before bed!
Take a bath instead (with drops of Lavender 🙂 ) or read a light uplifting novel.
Think about things you are grateful for in your life. Focus your attention on what is working in your life, people you are grateful for, what you excel at in your life, what brings you joy, etc.
Write positive affirmations that you say to yourself as you fall asleep that support self love, confidence, self appreciation for all that you do and the good things that will happen in your life.