6 Ways To Free Your Mind Before Going To Bed

Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you feel like your mind is busy when you go to bed? Don’t you stop turning things over in your head when you get into bed? Sometimes we are unable to disconnect and free the mind, and that ends up affecting us more than we think.

Rest is essential for our body and for our mind. However, no matter how tired we are, sleeping well is not always possible. If stressful thoughts linger in your head, if your mind is still busy with unfinished business, it’s hard to get a good night’s sleep.

To sleep well and rest you have to free your mind of all those thoughts that keep it busy. Here are some ways to put aside those thoughts that interfere with your rest.

1. Visualize the release of your thoughts

If the thoughts assail you as soon as you lie down, try to visualize them leaving your head. Imagine that there is a large basket next to your bed in which you are putting all the ideas that haunt your mind. Those thoughts are not going to go away, they are just going to lie there resting until the next day.

2. To free the mind, meditate

Regular meditation has many benefits, including better sleep and a calmer mind. Meditating daily will help you reduce the thoughts that assail you at night.

Meditate by concentrating on your breath to relax your spirit and body.  By focusing attention on the breath, those thoughts that invade us will no longer have so much weight. Learning to distance ourselves from these thoughts will help us to relate in a healthy way with them and we will get them to let us sleep at night. This will help free the mind and leave us ready to fall into the arms of Morpheus.

3. Make a promise to keep thinking about another time

The thoughts that assail us at night are like little children wanting to attract attention. Like them, thoughts are persistent. It is as if they are afraid of being forgotten or ignored. But no matter how many laps you give them, there are things that can be solved, such as problems, concerns, doubts, etc.

If you have a recurring thought, promise that you will attend to it the next day, that you will not forget about it and that you will give it all the necessary attention. What we will see in the next point will also help you a lot to make it clear that you will keep your promise.

4. Write down your thoughts

When we don’t give our thoughts space to come out, to develop, they stay there, in the mind, spinning. You have to let those thoughts flow to get them out of your head. One way to achieve this is by writing down everything that springs from your mind.

Sometimes they are things as simple as something you have to do the next day that you can forget about. Other times it may be something related to work, an idea for a project you want to start, or a change you want to make. It can also be an emotion that you need to express, a pain that you feel for something that is happening to you.

Writing may not solve your problems, but spending a little time on your mind’s demand – thinking – will help calm your mind and release stress.

5. Habits before bed

Some habits help us sleep, such as reading. Reading helps us to refine our thoughts, to forget what is on our minds. If done frequently, the act of reading in bed will send a signal to the brain that bedtime is approaching, helping you fall asleep.

However, the use of mobile phones and backlit screens, both for reading and for other actions, makes sleep difficult. Research published in the journal Philosophical Transactions , warns that exposure to artificial light can cause alterations in our circadian rhythms.

According to this research, specialized cells in the retina are responsible for circadian activity. The activity of these cells produces, according to the study, “a reaction that calibrates the clocks in every cell and tissue in a body. These cells are especially sensitive to blue wavelengths, like those in a daytime sky. “

The important issue at this point is that the screens of mobile phones and tablets, of computers, LCD screens and LED lights, emit the same spectrum of light. Therefore, due to this, the fact of exposing ourselves to this type of light can make our body believe that it is day in the middle of the night.

Therefore, avoid using your mobile at night.

6. Mantras

Mantra is a word of Sanskrit origin that means mind and liberation. A mantra can be a syllable, a word, a phrase or a long text that, when recited and repeated, leads the person to a state of deep concentration.  One of the most famous Buddhist mantras is the compassion mantra: om mani padme hum . Repeating it with mindfulness helps us disconnect the mind from ruminant thoughts.

When spoken consciously and with the directed attention of the mind, blankets are very effective. But it is not enough to repeat them, it is necessary to concentrate on their meaning, only then will it be possible to free the mind effectively.