Many nights I lay awake, unable to fall asleep. My thoughts running wild and my mind over analyzes things I have said or done. This ruminating over “what has been and what is to come” serves me no purpose.

Actually, I believe this overanalyzing and worrying doesn’t do any good. At all. For anyone, anytime.

On these occasions when my anxiety runs high and I’m lost in the past or the future, I pull myself back to the present and practice a mindful imagery exercise. I invented this exercise awhile back to help me fall asleep.

The next time you find yourself in a similar situation, try this:

*Block out everything and really see what you are creating in your mind. Close your eyes if you can. It helps.

*Imagine it’s summer (or your ideal temperature and weather) and that you are walking through a field.

*Now imagine your favorite flower or vegetation (for me it’s daisies). In front of you in a whole field of daisies. As far as your eye can see. And you are walking through it. I imagine I am wearing a sun dress that blows in the breeze and lets the sun hit my shoulders.

*Look down at your feet and concentrate on your steps. You are walking through the flowers. Seeing them bend around your steps.

*You feel the warmth of the sun. Feel the warm breeze and see the sun shining (or the rain and the thunder if that’s your calming scene).

*Now just keep concentrating. Keep walking. Build the field in your mind and really see it.

*Maybe you hear birds chirp or see trees on the border.

*If the anxiety is particularly bad I find sometimes I need to sit in my filed and imagine a daisy close up.

*As I breathe in slowly the flower bends to me, I hold my breath and the petals relax and as I breathe out the petals ruffle and the flower bends away.

Find what works for you

For me, this works. I continue the imagery exercise until I feel calm or fall asleep. I’m free from the sense of despair I previously felt. It may be different for you.

Your calm may not be the same as mine.

But whatever it is imagine it. Be it on a boat in the ocean, looking over a snow-capped mountain or sitting on the beach. Any scene you can imagine and can lose yourself in the details and the rhythmicity will work.

We are all unique individuals but so many of use share this tendency to overanalyze and ruminate on things out of our control. No one deserves to suffer from the anxiety this causes. We all deserve to find our coping strategies.So don’t give up until you find yours.