music, books, love and kindness: nerves and nightmares

Thursday, March 19, 2015

nerves and nightmares

Salvador Dali

I have been having the most horrific nightmares the past few nights so I'm drinking coffee and planning on staying up late tonight because I can't bear to fall asleep anymore, even though sleep is exactly what I want most in life right now.

I think it's all a vicious cycle, emphasis on the "vicious." Not sleeping and being nervous leads to nightmares and bad nerves, which then leads to more not sleeping which leads to more bad nerves which leads back to the...well, you get it.

I am ashamed to admit that I have been having a glass of wine, sometimes more than one, a night to help me sleep. I guess because I don't have much experience with alcohol I didn't realize it can actually cause nightmares, though I've had nightmares since I was a little girl and am not sure alcohol is the sole cause.

No matter, the cause, though...I'm through with the wine. I don't like how it makes me feel.

Anyway...today I have extremely frayed nerves so I'm trying to go to my Happy Place even more than usual and also using this article to help:

http://www.wikihow.com/Not-Get-Nervous (with emphasis on the second step):

Go to your "happy place" or visualize success. Happy Gilmore wasn't full of it when he used a visualization technique to quell his anger before making a golf shot. You can use a "happy place" visualization to remove yourself from a place of nervousness and visit a stress-free place of happiness, whether it be a shopping mall or a deserted beach.

Visualize yourself succeeding in the thing that is making you nervous. Positive visualizations can turn into actual successes if you truly believe that you can succeed.
Remember to think happy thoughts and utilize your imagination to imagine positive rather than negative situations.