Insomnia is a sleeping disorder which prevents one from sleeping for extended periods of time or it can even prevent a person from being able to fall asleep altogether. Insomnia can be caused by diet, stress, drugs or alcohol and even certain feelings such as fear or dread. Sometimes, people suffer from insomnia because they simply have an overactive mind or sometimes people cannot sleep because of other physical reasons, such as excruciating pain. Whatever it is, to cure this sleeping disorder problem, it is important to understand exactly what is causing it.

Is It Something You Been Doing?

The first thing you should do if you find yourself lying in bed, unable to fall sleep is to determine whether there is something you are doing throughout the day that may be causing insomnia. For example, if you drink coffee up until nine o’clock at night, you may need to look no further as to what’s causing your sleeping disorder. Caffeine, especially at night, is a huge culprit behind this sleep preventing disorder. There are also certain foods that can keep you wide awake. If you’re not sure about your diet that may be causing your disorder, do your research or talk to a dietitian. Having that last cup of coffee could be costing you hours and hours of necessary rest and relaxation that you deserve.

If you are on some kind of medication, ask your doctor if the drug you’re taking is causing your insomnia. Some illegal drugs also cause insomnia, especially amphetamines or uppers. Alcohol, can also cause this sleeping disorder. It all comes down to monitoring exactly what is going into your body system. Very often, it’s what you’re consuming that is causing your insomnia.

Of course, if you have some challenging deadline and you’re under a lot of stress or you are dealing with some sort of extreme guilt or even if you’re really afraid of something, these, too, can cause insomnia.

However, if you are stress free (envy), besides the fact that you’re stressing that you can’t sleep, try an experiment. Try eating different foods or try eliminating certain things from your daily diet. If you suddenly find yourself sleeping like a baby, then you’ve found your culprit. The key is to listen to your body. Your body needs sleep to recharge and you need sleep so that you’re not such a bear to your co-workers in the morning. Do yourself a favor and find out what’s causing your insomnia today.

Fact: Thousands wallow in depression because of insecurity.

When you ignore the positive feelings tied with accomplishment, it’s easy to slide back into negative self-talk and sabotage your success. In this insecured state, you may find it tough to focus on or permit yourself to enjoy feelings of accomplishment as feelings of self-judgment then emerge. Talking to yourself in a dark way reinforces habitual, unhealthy behavior. A sentiment such as, “Why forge ahead if I never get anywhere?” reflects a lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem. The self-chastisement involved in focusing on past failures, rather than past triumphs, keeps you in the shadows of uncertainty where there’s no opportunity for flying high.

When your self-confidence and sense of security are deficient, you may impose a retreat on yourself to escape taking challenges or risks. When a highly successful event does happen, you may conceive that it’s sheer luck. Self-talk and beliefs such as “My effort has no effect on the outcome,” may stem from previously programmed ideas that you received from deprecating others.
Feelings of insecurity and a lack of self-confidence can persuade you to try to control external events, including others. When you’re busy attempting to control external events, you may not be in command of yourself. For example, trying to control the way someone feels toward you tan be very overwhelming. You can’t command the feelings of others, but you can be in command of the way you respond and behave toward them.

Endeavoring to impact everything or everyone around you, rather than managing your own feelings and behaviors, undermines your self-growth and awareness. It fosters more insecurity. The point is not to focus on halting others on their road to triumph, but to focus on your own personal growth and accomplishment. Work at understanding and appreciating your competencies (e.g. integrity, perseverance, sound judgment, forthrightness) that are always on tap within you. Focus on developing your strengths to become enthusiastic and enervated. When you empower your mind and body to develop your personal strengths and resources, you enliven and consolidate your commitment to fly high.

Insecurity is self-destruction. Why stab yourself, or anyone else? Criticizing yourself unjustly undermines your growth and accomplishment Blaming and judging yourself because you’re not able to lead other people’s thoughts and feelings is self-sabotaging. Undermining the success of others erects barriers to warm relations, making it more difficult to appreciate situations that offer positive growth and opportunity. The feelings of triumph generated between two or more people far outweigh the sentiments created by insecurity and judging yourself.

Stop undermining yourself or others. Focus on your own road to success. Devote your time and energy to developing healthy thoughts and emotions. Take responsibility for your actions and move confidently toward your new opportunities. Fling insecurity out the window!

Anti-insecurity Tip 1: Be grateful for what you have.

Anti-insecurity Tip 2: Word everything in the positive. If I said “Don’t be negative, I’m weakening myself”

Anti-insecurity Tip 3: With every rising, ask yourself “What great things can I do today. Do the same every hour on the hour!

God speed!

Do you have enough energy to create the life you want? Energy is the critical, invisible force that creates your vitality and aliveness.

Without it, you drag through life, tired, stressed, and drained. With it, you feel good, enjoy yourself, and have the fuel to create what you want in life.

When it comes to energy, more is definitely better and you can create more energy with a few simple steps.

Your Energy Account

Think of your energy like a bank account. Your thoughts, activities, actions, and interactions all have the potential to increase or decrease the balance in your account.

Withdrawing energy lowers the balance; depositing energy raises the balance. To keep your energy account high (which is what you want) minimize your withdrawals and maximize your deposits.

It sounds so simple but how can you actually do this?

How Do You Keep the Balance High?

Here are two keys to increasing the balance in your energy account.

1) Drop the drains.

We use energy all day long. That’s what energy is for. However, some things drain too much of our life energy.

You might be drained by your job, certain family members, technology, time pressures, negative self-talk, negativity in others, or world problems.

What drains you is unique to you. A job, a person, or a task you find draining might not be draining for someone else.

Do less of what drains you. This may seem obvious yet it has been a breakthrough idea for some of my clients. Somehow they hadn’t thought of stopping or doing less of what drained them. When they did – surprise! – they had a lot more energy.

2) Do what lights you up.

What lights you up is what energizes and enlivens you, what you love, what you’re passionate about. By their very nature, your “lights” are deposits to your energy account. The more you do what lights you up, the more energy you’ll have.

Like energy drains, lights are specific to each individual. What lights you up could actually drain someone else and vice versa.

People are lit up about many things: a walk on the beach, visiting an art museum, playing with a pet, listening to music, talking with friends. This list could go on forever.

The key is to identity what lights YOU up and what drains YOU. Then do more of the former and less of the latter.

An Example

I’ve been working on a project the last month or so, a project that was taking more time than I thought it would or “should.”

I began to pressure myself to get the darn thing done. I started working more and playing less. This drained much energy out of my account without replenishing it so the balance kept getting lower and I kept feeling worse.

By the time I realized what was happening, my energy was very low. This “low balance alert” told me I needed to stop the energy drains and do more of what lights me up before I hit NSF (non-sufficient funds) in my energy account!

For me that meant allowing myself to slow down, working less on the project, and taking at least two hours every day to do something that lit me up.

The first day on my new plan, I worked only a couple of hours on my project. I then took a top-down drive in my convertible on a summery day, went to lunch at an elegant restaurant with a book I was interested in, and spent time visiting with friends. Throughout the day, I kept reminding myself it was okay to slow down and take it easy.

By the evening I was on an energy high, feeling happy, calm, and more myself. Just one day of less drain and more lights made a huge difference! I’ll continue to make this a priority until my energy account is filled up.

In Your Life

If you’d like to increase the balance in your energy account, here are a few suggestions.

1) Assess your energy account. What’s your balance?

If you’re overflowing with positive energy, congratulations! Keep doing what you’re doing as it’s working for you.

If your balance is not as high as you’d like, try the steps below.

If your energy is depleted or draining rapidly as mine was, make restoring your energy your number one priority. Use the steps below to boost your energy as quickly as possible.

2) Notice what drains you.

Ask yourself “What is draining me?” and get curious about the answer.

Give yourself permission to and be creative about how to decrease your energy drains.

3) Give yourself permission to and do more of what lights you up.

If you don’t yet know what lights you up — or would like to know more — ask yourself on a regular basis, “What lights me up?” or “Does this light me up?”

Create a list of what makes you feel alive, sparkly, passionate, energized, soothed, and nurtured. Spend some time every day doing something from that list.

The more you do what lights you up and the less you do what drains you, the higher your energy balance.

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, “What is a woman without energy? Nothing – nothing at all.” Raise your energy balance and make you and your life something – something wonderful.

Enjoy!