Sleep Mindset Relaxation

Welcome to the Healthy Mindset App Podcast where host Mike Hartman, a performance coach and former professional athlete, brings his passion to help athletes and workplace athletes achieve their dreams and goals while being mindful of everything else in life. Mike also uses this platform to share his targeted assessment applications Healthy Mindset Course Meditation and goal setting technique for the athlete and workplace Athlete we're glad you're here. Now let's dive headfirst into this episode of the Healthy Mindset App Podcast Podcast. Here's your host, Mike Hartman.

To begin this meditation. Please bring kind awareness to why you chose this topic. How your belly, chest and head each feel when you reflect on this topic the emotions that you can associate with these visceral feelings the positive or negative impact of any stories you believe in regarding this topic the fact that many others are feeling similarly about this topic as you how you might feel with increased awareness around this topic when you can apply increased mindfulness to this topic in your day to day life Sleep Mental Relaxation Perhaps sometimes you may wish that there was an off button for your mind. An overly busy mind can halt us in many ways throughout our lives and one of the main things a busy minds interrupts for millions of people around the world is a good night's sleep every single night. Why is this so? To answer this, let's relax your mind just a little bit. Right now. Imagine that your mind is represented by a river with waters that sometimes flow by slowly when there is a lack of rain or sometimes very quickly depending on the weather and the time of year. Your mind is the river, your thoughts are the water. How quickly is your river of the mind flowing right now? How fast are the thoughts represented by water flowing in the river? Just watch this flow as if you are sitting on the riverbank enjoying it. Good. Now just allow for the seasons to pass and the weather to change and watch your river change along with it. The seasons represent your overall happiness in your life. Are you achieving quarterly goals you set for yourself? Seasons change, but each one of them can be viewed as beautiful. Seasons can be tough or they can be mild and enjoyable. The waters of the river represent your thoughts. When you focus your thoughts on your goals and desires, your river slows and becomes crystal clear. The birds and the wildlife are able to see fish that they will catch to feed themselves and their offspring. The fish can find sources of foods because the waters have slowed enough to allow for bits of plants to settle on the water and soften. Live bugs can land on the water for them. Catch. Now for a moment. Imagine a storm of Thoughts is coming for your river. See the waters rise and the animals scurry. The fish hide in safer areas and there are no bugs flying around. It is only rushing by a little faster now. Yet the storm is building. The more thoughts you let into your mind, the more the waters rush by. It becomes a threatening river so quickly that you cannot sit on the bank watching your river any longer and observing the beauty. You must seek shelter from the storm. This storm of thought has taken the ability to observe away from you. It takes a while for a storm of thoughts to pass and even longer for the after effects of the storm to calm. The waters continue to rush at high speeds for several days or so. This is what happens when you allow a storm of thinking to enter your mind. It disrupts you for some time until the waters can naturally settle. We want to always remain on the bank of our river observing abundant nature and clear calm waters. We all know sleep is necessary and rejuvenating. So why do so many people suffer to achieve restful sleep? Because they do not take charge of their busy mind, moving it from worry to relaxation. Like I mentioned before, allowing a busy mind to go free is like never training a great horse. The mind needs to you be in control and needs you to train it how to work for you. A calmer state of mind allows for you to not only sleep better, but eliminates anxiety, increases focus, treats depression, stops circular thinking, improves your memory, betters your relationships, satisfies the body and increases emotional intelligence. The key to attaining all these things is actually very simple and natural for all of us. The key is to bring into our mind the awareness of all physical sensations and bring into your mind your emotions and bringing into your mind your thoughts. This is meditative and simply doesn't allow for bothersome thoughts to have any power over you. Your ability to emotionalize and feel things is much more powerful than a busy mind. Your ability to create and ponder new ideas and a new self image created supersedes a noisy mind. All a noisy mind is good at is distracting you. It doesn't achieve anything. It doesn't build on any new ideas. It doesn't emotionally connect with others around you. In fact, an overloaded and out of control mind acts to disconnect you from others and from yourself. A bustling mind is tiring, yet it doesn't allow for you to rest. Giving up control of your mind is like feeding your child nothing but breads and sugar and candy. They are going to lose control because of the unhealthy information they are taking into their system. Let's put our mind now in the being mode right now by implementing positive affirmations. Say to yourself, now thoughts are only thoughts. I live in the present, not in the past or in the future. I draw from my past when I need to plan for my future, but I always live in the present moment. I take notice of my body often throughout the day, easing and relaxing my body by doing so. I take notice of my surroundings to ease my mind. When thoughts begin to swirl in my mind, I have compassion for them and acknowledge them, knowing they are simply thoughts. My thoughts come and go. Everyone's thoughts also come and go. I am no different. When I watch my thoughts like the waters of a river, I never get caught in a thought. I am just a witness. Stopping my thoughts is impossible. Instead, I observe them arriving and leaving. Instead of jumping into thoughts emotionally, I observe which thoughts I want to cultivate more of. I know that which thoughts I put my energy to is what I create for myself. By taking the time to practicing these methods, I really feel a difference. I have the patience to retrain my mind. I retrain my mind so that I can get rest when I need it. I have patience when I'm training my mind, just as I would have patience training the most magnificent horse. I am kind to myself with this new way of being. I am kind to others and I never allow overthinking in the form of judgment to cloud my relationships. I am persistent because I know the rewards are well worth the effort. I see benefits right from the very start of my practice. Good. Now remember that each day you practice mindfulness techniques, the more restful and deep sleep that you receive each night. Just relax down even more now, letting your body make any last adjustments it needs so that you get the most restful sleep every night of your life. Good night.

We're so glad you joined us for this episode of the Healthy Mindset App Podcast with your host, Mike Hartman. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. That helps others find the show and we greatly appreciate it. To dive deeper and learn more about the Healthy Mindset program or to get in touch with Mike, please Visit our website, healthymindsetapp.com thanks again for listening and we hope you'll join us again in the next episode of the Healthy Mindset App Podcast. Until then, be well.