Okay, you may not be ready for a nap right NOW but do feel like getting a little more sleep would be helpful?
Studies have shown that practising gratitude helps with the quality of your sleep by slowing down your pre-sleep cognitions, which just means it helps us to STOP worrying so much.
We all do it. We're REALLY GOOD THINKERS.
We think that more thinking will solve everything.
But, OVER-THINKING can turn into a hamster wheel that takes us nowhere, and it keeps us awake.
Using a guided relaxation meditation can help to build a really good pre-sleep routine and cut out the habit of thinking at bedtime.
One of my most popular audio relaxation tracks, called the Deep Deep Relaxation Meditation, can be found here in The Calm Shop.
In my PREVIOUS BLOG-Build Happiness Pathways in Your Brain, we focussed on gratitude to activate happiness and now HERE I'd like you to keep it up so you can potentially benefit from a better night's sleep.
Daily "Thank-you's"
Gratitude journaling or lists
Showing gratitude
Make it a habit, and it gets easier and easier.
You're rewiring your brain ALL THE TIME,
SCIENCEY STUFF*
"Hypothalamic regulation, triggered by gratitude, helps us get deeper and healthier sleep naturally everyday. A brain filled with gratitude and kindness is more likely to sleep better and wake up feeling refreshed and energetic every morning (Zahn et al., 2009)."
so let's CHOOSE to rewire it in ways that help us to thrive.
“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions.
The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.” -Zig Ziglar
Until next week...keep thriving!
Take care.
Michele
*Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions