Welcome back!

I have insomnia too.
I find it is less if I

Have exercised in the day or before eating.

Finish eating my main evening meal three hours before going to bed.

Have clean sheets.

Have a shower half an hour before bed.

Avoid the computer or cell phone an hour before bed.

keep coming back, it works if you work it

It's been a long time since I've been here, but it is time I come back.

Since I've been gone I've been working on increasing positivity in my life.  I also spent a period of time going to a therapist and working through some issues, and I've also taken up meditation. 

Overall, I feel like I am moving forward in my life, but still find myself falling.  While seeing the therapist a part of the focus was on not beating myself up over things and focused on less on success and failure in this area (although still working on it). 

Now it's time to tackle this for once and for all (one day at a time of course).  Bez"H I plan on jumping back into posting.  I also think I am going to check out the conference calls for Chizuk.

I hope everyone is doing well with their battles, and with everything else.

Welcome back,

NiceI to hear from you again.

Wishin' you all the best.

Welcome back

I just read your first post

guardyoureyes.com/forum/19-Introduce-Yourself/240430?limit=400

A very clearly written share, and I share some of the struggle about mast' at night - it's a daily commitment for me to be clean regardless of track (broken) records

KOKOT

Keep On Keeping On Trucking!!!!!!

Welcome back! Keep coming back! Thanks Markz for the one-pager. It sounds really tough when your worst enemy is yourself, but so blatantly. Have you found sleep issue solutions?

Thanks Cordnoy, Markz and Singularity.

Singularity, I have not solved the sleep issue, but I have made progress in that area (although like everything in life there are ups and downs.)  I also feel like I am slowly coming to understand other areas of myself and some of the pain of my life and how that has lead to where I am today, both positive and negative.

Meditation and therapy have helped me begin to notice how I feel without fighting it or automatically acting on those feelings. I have been working on just being present with the experience, not fighting it, not worrying about it (such as worrying about how tired I will be in the morning since I was up much of the night). It is all a work in progress and posting about it here definitely helps remind me of the ideas (and remind me I need to go meditate since I have not done so today).

Another crucial thing for me (which I have not done well over the winter) is making sure to do things I enjoy, get fresh air and socialize.  I think loneliness (existential and/or practical) are probably a theme for many people here; they definitely are for me, and making sure to spend time with others and do enjoyable things definitely helps me.

Welcome back!  It sounds like you have made a lot of progress.  It's nice to have you back.

gibbor120 wrote on 20 Mar 2017 13:34:

Thanks Gibbor120!!  Of course it doesn't feel like progress in a moment of struggle, but that's part of what makes it a struggle.  

I hope you are well!

B"H, doing well.

Wanted to make sure I keep engaged and posting.  B"H a focus on meditation and exercise has been very helpful recently.  For me  making sure to live in a healthy fashion and do things to make sure I am enjoying myself and in a positive place emotionally are some of the most important elements.  Bez"H trying to continue to work on that.

Hatzlacha to everyone in your efforts!

Hey everyone,

Slipped and looked at something I shouldn't have, which reminds me I need to make sure I am working the program.

I did come across something really interesting in the book "Chasing the Scream" which chronicles the War on Drugs.  There is a classic study on rats that showed that when rats are alone and given the option between drug-laced water and pure water, 9 out of 10 will drink the drug laced water until they die.  But when put in an area with other rats and with other things to do, the rats may have drank a minimal amount of the drug-laced water, but not enough to do any damage to themselves.  The message is that addiction is not something that stems from weakness; is not about one person being stronger than another.  But when life is exceedingly painful; when we don't have a place where we can go where there is no pain and where we feel safe, we can end up finding that place in a alcohol, gambling, drugs or pornography/masturbation.  Addiction is often the response to what happened to us.  And one of the tools for standing strong against addiction is finding people who we value their company and they value ours; finding positive activities we enjoy etc.  

For me, I know that I've had to deal with some difficult things in my life, and the idea from this book definitely resonated with my experience and reminded me that any community who has struggled with any sort of addiction is often a community that has dealt with an incredible amount of pain.  And to me, when people are able to stand tall despite that pain, to use that pain to understand the pain of others and support each other; that's a remarkable thing.

Yup

Kindly click on the spoiler below to enter the park

Hatzileini Na wrote on 16 Mar 2017 02:23:

cordnoy wrote on 28 Apr 2017 12:46: