Racing head

Monday 26th October 2020

I have often written about thought processes and how they can dominate feelings and emotions; especially those which are negative and unwanted. Thoughts continually spin around despite our efforts in controlling how they feed rumination especially in conditions such as anxiety and depression. The neurotransmitter neural highway, likened to wires feeding electricity into a powerful substation. Wires which fire off in different directions to ensure that power is effectively and efficiently supplied to keep vital systems going. Where a power station will have a back up system to keep running if a failure occurs, what can be said of our brains?

Do we have neurological back up systems? Perhaps too deep a question for the here and now, but what I am asking is this. What is your back up system when your brain and thoughts take over? What do you do when your thoughts are racing in the middle of the night when all you want to do is sleep? What do you do when your cognitive thinking influences your physiology, such as causing an increase in breathing rate? How do you slow your thinking down? How do you control what feel like leeches draining the life out of you mentally?

Where do you turn and what you do?

Most of us will have an answer to this and the reason for this blog is to share what you do with others.

What prompted me to write this, is this is how I felt last night. I finished up reading a book in bed before shutting off the light. It was then that my head not just went into overdrive, but somehow managed to find that extra gear as it increased speed and fired off into directions and areas which were unknown to me. I lost my way and grounding as my thoughts spun out of control. I was ok, I was safe and there were no concerns in that respect. I now know they are just thoughts and I do not react in ways that I used to.

What had caused this, where had these thoughts come from and what were they of? My usual ‘go to’ at that time of night is writing, but last night this was not going to work. Instead, I used Twitter as a platform, where people replied with strategies of what worked for them. Apps such as Headspace, breathing techniques and You Tube were kindly suggested and what works for one person, may not be suitable for another. I find listening to Olly breathing and doing little snores quite therapeutic, but last night he was not making a sound. I was that wired I wanted to try and outrun my head but I could not do that, so instead I lay there with my hand on Olly’s chest. I eventually matched his breathing rhythm and managed to slow mine down.

We do not all have an Olly, so if you have any tips which could help others let me know. You can either post openly on feed or message me. I can then make a list to chuck out there for others to read.

xx