On restlessness: an alternative perspective

Picture this: you went to bed at 10 and had been sleeping like a baby when out of nowhere, you’re jolted wide awake at 3 in the morning. Ugh. Thoughts flying a mile a minute, all you can think about is the one thing on your to-do list that you’re yet to sufficiently handle. Unconscious self personified, I envision this scenario with the following dialogue:

Knock, knock.

“Who’s there?”

Your subconscious.

“Go away! I’m sleeping.” 

[Silence.]

“Are we seriously doing this right now?”

[Still silence. Then,] 

Anxiety or action?

[Tossing & turning in bed, you wrestle with taking action or not..]

No “but’s” about it, sleep is extremely important. However, under the presumption that an unplanned wake-up call is an out-of-the-ordinary occasion, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the opportunity it presents. Your subconscious is gifting you(!) with a reminder about what you’re compelled to deal with, but for whatever reason – external or internal resistance – haven’t done so already.

Keeping in mind that creativity can disguise itself as anxiety, take note that expanding your fitness for the unknown can and does include increased capacity to navigate thought just as much as movement. From this perspective, worry is a flashing indicator light, one that helps illuminate immediacy.

As Alexi Pappas, Olympic runner, says on pain, “What I like to do is imagine that I’m greeting the pain like an expected guest at a dinner party: rather than dread the inevitable, I anticipate and fully expect its arrival. In this way, the pain feels like it’s in my control. It is not a surprise.”

What might happen if you began treating restlessness, a cousin of pain, like an expected dinner guest, too?

 

NOTES:

Daily at Home GPP Coaching Video