8 Powerful Affirmations For Overthinking or Struggle with Sleeping
Updated: Oct 7, 2022
You had a long day. Every bone is your body is tired. You want to fall asleep immediately, yet the minute you get into bed, you’re wide awake. You lay there for a few minutes, hoping you’ll be able to, but you’re still wide awake. You toss and turn for a while, unsure why you’re having trouble falling asleep. Does this sound familiar? If so, then you know how frustrating it can be. This is why I talk about sleep hygiene in the Warrior Academy often. Sleep fuels your brain, and it massively impacts your mental and physical health. If you ever catch yourself having trouble falling asleep during the night, here are the power affirmations that you can tell yourself: 1. My mind and body relaxes as I focus on my breathing.
If you ever find yourself not being able to sleep, rather than worrying about tomorrow, rather than fueling ourselves with anxious thoughts, tell yourself this kind affirmation, “My mind and body relaxes as I focus on my breathing.”
Rather than thinking about all those things you could be doing, what you should have done and what you may have to do, focus on your breathing—the one thing 24/7 that you do have control over. Just by focusing on your breathe, natural or big deep breathes, your mind and body will naturally relax. So, whenever anxious thoughts keep in, remind yourself about bringing your focus back to your breathing.
2. I am safe as I am, where I am.
Last week, we talked about anxiety and feeling safe as one of our basic human needs. Feeling safe is not just about being safe in your environment but also in who you are. This feeling is built within us and it follows through all the way to being an adult. So, always remind yourself that it’s okay if you’re feeling anxious. We also need to be careful with affirming ourselves.
Instead of false affirming and telling yourself “I sleep well”, “I’m a great sleeper”, “Sleep is my best friend” when in reality it’s like ten foot above from where you are, the best thing to do is to bridge that gap.
Honestly assess the situation, and assess how far you are from that gap, start where you are and find ways on how to take yourself further up and keep going from there. Start by telling yourself that it’s fine and that you’re safe, start with your basic human needs such as safety rather than jumping straight up to “I sleep well”, “I’m a great sleeper”, “Sleep is my best friend”affirmations.
That is what I personally believe affirmation should be, I’ve listened to probably thousands of affirmation recordings and trainings over the years, and the very best thing to do is to start where you are and find ways on how to take yourself further up and just keep going from there, because your mind will be responding to the feelings that you have as well as the thoughts. So, if you’re thinking something really drastic that just doesn’t align with who you are and makes you feel more anxious, begin by easing yourself into them. 3. I have done my best today, tomorrow is a new day.
If you find yourself feeling very dread in going to bed and never sleep, or doubt yourself if you’ve done enough, remind yourself “I have done my best today, tomorrow is a new day” and take a deep breath. 4. It’s okay for me to rest and relax.
I got brought up in an environment of doers. My parents were proper doers, just always doing something, and that naturally imprinted me. I am very much a doer and I find it quite it hard to just sit down and fully relax. It’s something I practice and I’m quite good at now but it’s taking time and a half after I remind myself, “It’s okay for me to rest and relax”. So, when I’m in bed, even now sometimes I can find myself thinking if I should send that email very quick or just do it, I remind myself, “It’s okay for me to rest and relax”. Remind yourself of this if you got a very busy mind.
5. I feel calm and safe in my bedroom. I would definitely recommend using a nice scent to spray in your room, simply because we are sensory beings. If you can begin to spritz your pillow with lavender before going into bed, your mind will begin to associate that smell, with being relaxed, with being in that safe space, with sleep. My twins are now six months old and every night from birth when they started sleeping upstairs, next to my cribs, I would always spritz the bedroom with lavender spray. They now know that as soon as I spritz lavender, it’s already nap time and they then sleep. So, I highly recommend that. 6. No one needs me in this moment, now it is time for me to be caring towards myself.
If you are someone who loves to please people, if you are someone likes to put other people first, remind yourself that no one needs you in that moment whether it’s ten o’clock , eleven, three in the morning, and that the world is not going to stop if you are resting.
7. There is nothing I need to do to fall asleep, it will just happen when it’s time.
It’s just something along these lines of not doing anything to fall asleep, along these lines of you don’t have to count sheep, you don’t have to force yourself to fall asleep, you don’t have to keep checking the time. Just trust that when your mind and body are ready it’s gonna happen, that surrender is really powerful in everything. So, when it comes to sleep, when it comes to your mind and your body relaxing, this affirmation is a really good one.
8. Everything that I have to do will be handled better in the morning after a goodnight sleep.
If you’re thinking and worrying about tomorrow, worrying about the future, worrying about what’s gonna happen, bear in mind that there is nothing you can do whilst you’re laid in bed. When you begin to remind yourself of that, the body and mind relaxes. If you put yourself in a state of anxiety by thinking and wondering the “I should have’s”, the “what happens if”, the “I could do’s”, you’re not going to be falling into sleep. Instead, your blood’s gonna rush to your hands and your feet and you’re gonna be fueled with adrenaline—the last thing you need when you’re trying to drift off.
Personally, since having the boys, I often got woke up at random times during the night. When I do, I very rarely check the time because if I know it’s half two or three in the morning and I’ve been up and I’ve been doing bits and bobs, my mind is going to go into that thing of “God, you’re gonna be so tired tomorrow.” or “You’re gonna only have two hours until you gonna get up yet.” So, just rest and relax. Don’t focus too much on the time, don’t overthink. The last thing you want to be doing is stressing about things.
The final thing from a person point of view, something that a lot of clients found really positive to do is listen to some guided meditation just before bed, or listen to some nice relaxing music, just having something on the background for some people can really help.
The key thing to remember is about being kind to yourself. If we would just see this as not just sleep but whatever you are saying to yourself if you’re trying to ease any anxiety, if you’re trying to release worry, if you’re trying to stop this fear base thoughts no matter what area of your life, when it comes to affirmations, don’t worry about jumping to “ I am my most confident self” or “I’m a great sleeper” or “I can manifest a hundred thousand pounds”, we want to begin to practice affirming to yourself the basics and building your way up to the top of the next stage up.
Feel within if the affirmations feel right to you, if they trigger something and it makes you feel a bit uneasy, start with the little things. We’ve got to start by just thinking about what we’re saying about ourselves and how that’s making us feel, because it’s how you feel that gives off your energy and we know that whenever energy you’re giving off, you’re just gonna get it back tenfold.
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