Teach Me To Rest My Mind

“Sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest”

Ashleigh Brilliant

Since as far back as I can remember, my mind has always come alive at night. The moment I get into to bed, it’s as if my mind takes that as a sign to start working in over time. Suddenly I am flush with wild dreams of things I can accomplish, stories I can write, songs I can create and business I can start.

When I was younger I even spent a lot of time at night planning how to get a girl I liked to be  my girlfriend. No matter what it was, night time seemed to be when my mind was working the hardest and sometimes it felt impossible to shut it off and just go to sleep. In high school this meant staying up till like 3am. But in my college years it got even worse. There were periods of my life where my mind was racing so fast that I could only sleep every other night. And that is only because of sheer exhaustion.

There came a time where it became too debilitating. I had to make a change. I knew some of it was connected to how I spent my day and what I accomplished then. This is when I started exercising more, joining a band, and getting a lot done in the day. This way my mind had less to worry about when nighttime came.

But even then it wasn’t enough. Next, I had to start teaching myself to wind down at night and allow my mind to rest. I needed to rest if I was ever to be on top of my game and so for a while this was a forced thing. I would concentrate on the idea of sleep or on something peaceful until I felt myself drifting off and then eventually i would.

After a while it started to work and I found myself sleeping much better. What it taught me though, was how important it is to let our minds rest. I know we have a million things we need to do and a million things to worry about, but at the end of the day, you have to set it all aside. You have to be able to put down and let your mind rest for the night so it can be prepared to tackle tomorrow.

Now I’m not saying it’s a perfect ride. I still have nights where ideas are just flowing and I have to make use of them. But overall I try to stop for the night and let myself rest so I can be my best in the day for me and for others around me.

GIve your mind a break. It will thank you for it and grant you new motivation and inspiration the next day.