Wayne Dyer's exercise for Peaceful Sleep

Insomnia relief

As I was reading Excuses Begone by Wayne Dyer it reminded me of a a number of techniques that I use with my clients.  What I call “negative self talk” or “negative stories”  he  calls excuses.   I’d recommend this book, especially the second part which has many ideas on getting rid of excuses (habits, stories and problems) .

The “stories” we tell ourselves has a great effect on the stress we feel in life. The reason I call them stories is that we don’t really know they are true.  For instance saying, “I can’t do this right enough to please my boss” may be true, but there is a possibility that this time your work will please your boss.  So the idea is to change the story to a positive one that might possibly be true as well.

Wayne Dyer has an exercise that uses this type of process of changing your self talk. He talks about how many of us will think of all the worries right before falling asleep. The mind has all night to “speculate” on these negative thoughts.  The exercise he gives to change this habit takes only 5 minutes and can lead to peaceful restful sleep.

What most of us typically do before falling a sleep is to think about our “to do list” or about the problems facing us.    Then our brain has all night to process and think about all of the negatives.  It’s no wonder our sleep isn’t peaceful and refreshing.

What he suggests is that in the 5 minutes before falling asleep we reverse our thinking.  To do this he suggests that you go to a place in your imagination where you want to be.

By making this simple change the unconscious mind has all night to work on moving you towards positive feelings.

Practice this every night for the next week.  Every single night go to a place (in your imagination ) you want to be.  Then when you fall to sleep you unconscious mind will continue with thoughts of in peace, joy and fulfillment.

If you find that you need more help to find restful sleep there is a very powerful breathing exercise you can start with. Its an easy to learn skill for reducing stress.

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