Ever have trouble going to sleep?

Visualization is a very powerful tool.

For example, when I was a grad student I had trouble sleeping because my thoughts were always running and thinking about projects I had to do, assignments, etc...that I would lose two hours trying to get to sleep. Less sleep means I can't perform as well the next day. The lost hours of sleep were beginning to interfere with my school work.

Later I heard about visualization techniques to help calm you down. What I did is that I choose a particular time in my life when I was a kid that I found myself enjoying outdoors. A time when it was calming and I was enjoying myself. The time I chose was when I was about 8 years old. I was near the base of a mountain (can't remember if it was Mt. Rainier (WA) or Mt. Hood in Oregon) during a family summer tip. I remember walking around amid the tall green grasses and tons of colorful wildflowers that dotted the mountain meadows where splotches of remnants snow higher up were melting away under the summer sun on the base of a hulking mountain giant. It was a vivid scene I still remember today.

I used that image to focus on that very serene scene I experienced when I was a boy who loved being outdoors. It wasn't easy at first. It took practice just to remind myself to focus on that image because my mind would wonder often as would the case for anybody trying to get some sleep. It took me about 3 or 4 weeks to finally get into it. It took practice, diligence and patience. I would use that particular scene in my past to help calm me and quickly go to sleep. I got to the point where I was able to get to sleep in about 15 minutes, sometimes in less time than that, too. My mind was trained to use a specific calming scene as a signal to my brain to begin "shutting" down in preparation for a sleep. It seems automatic at times that I just marvel at the simplicity of it. I'd suddenly find myself go off to la la land just by thinking about it rather than just focusing on it. It has gotten to the point where it became almost automatic. Of course, I don't realize that right before I go to sleep whether it's working but the next morning when I realized how quickly I went to sleep!

Also, I don't use alarms to wake myself up (only in rare instances when I feel the need to use a backup for an important day), either. I have always had this particular ability to "program" myself or remind myself to wake up. I have been doing this for a very long time. There's an internal clock that each of us has. You have that ability to "program" yourself on when you want to wake up. I've gotten to the point that I can wake up several minutes before my alarm would go off.

That's something I wanted to tell you about.

Ask yourself this question. What is the value of sleep to you? Do you find yourself struggling trying to get some sleep?

No pills.

No warm milk.

No strenuous exercise to tire you out.

No big meals before bedtime to satiate you into sleeping.

Just a visualization technique that works. It has worked for me for over 15 years now.

Try it. You'll thank me for it.