4 ms·

I'm not sure it is enough to be exhausted. I recently spent the whole day doing some physical labour. I was exhausted by about 10pm. But I also received some ne

I'm not sure it is enough to be exhausted. I recently spent the whole day doing some physical labour. I was exhausted by about 10pm. But I also received some news that day which had agitated me. I had a shower, I ate well and I was exhausted. But my mind wouldn't shutdown and I couldn't sleep. It was only around 3:30am that I was able to get into some sort of delirious sleep and I woke up 3-4 hours later with my mind still screaming. Maybe it needs practice to calm the mind. I'm not sure how soldiers in the battlefield who are exhausted can sleep when the possibility of death is always prevalent?

lazide 5y ago
In general, the overactive mind is one that is unable to accept or process what has happened or is happening. It’s spinning it’s wheels trying to understand and control something that it fundamentally cannot at the time - and considers important/a threat to understand. I’ve got a lot of combat veterans in my family. The ones who survived, say the way to survive and function is to accept that shit can and will happen, they have very little control over it (but they can control their little part of what they do), and they might not live through it. One said ‘I accepted that I was going to die. If I didn’t today that was going to be a nice bonus. It got the worry out of my head and let me focus on doing things the best way, and the way I knew I wanted it to be done, and how I wanted to be remembered if I’m gone.’). He lost a lung in Vietnam, among other things, but is still kicking and enjoying life in his 80’s now. He has had, and still does have, many issues from the war, so don’t take this as a ‘and everything was fine’. If you are at peace with, and have accepted the possible outcomes (including the horrific), and understand and accept how little control you actually have - the mind doesn’t spin. It truly knows the situation and can react appropriately, instead of a intellectual ‘knowing’ that it is struggling to integrate and process. It frees you up to act, be present, and actually steer things in a better direction rather than spin/have the overactive mind. And sleep is necessary and helpful to actually doing better. And so they just do what they need to do. Which includes passing out and sleeping.
- newwebsite 5y ago
  This makes a lot of sense, thank you for that insight. The news I received was about a business associate who is screwing me over. I knew (and I know) that there is very little I could do to stop him. And I could not accept it. The injustice of what he is trying to do kept me awake. My wife suggested I find peace by thinking that by blindly trusting someone, I hadn't done everything I could to protect my interests. According to her, accepting that I could have done better will make it easier to accept the injustice. I'm trying, but it's hard to accept being cheated by someone you trusted.
  - lazide 5y ago
    There are techniques to help process what is happening in situations like this - CBT and/or mindfulness have both helped me in the past. It is necessary to take risks to succeed - including trusting sometimes unknown parties. It is necessary to not trust more than you can afford to lose. It is also necessary to put trust and faith only in those that have earned it. It’s a complex set of sometimes contradictory requirements. It is impossible to always have it perfectly under control. Sometimes that means learning painful lessons, sometimes that means getting into a fight to protect yourself as best as possible, sometimes it means writing it off - as the flip side of the good bets that pay off. To know what is appropriate for you will require integrating the experiences and information you have, and calming evaluating for yourself your own values and your own plan, and what you want to do. Easier said than done. I wish you luck!

lazide 5y ago

In general, the overactive mind is one that is unable to accept or process what has happened or is happening. It’s spinning it’s wheels trying to understand and control something that it fundamentally cannot at the time - and considers important/a threat to understand. I’ve got a lot of combat veterans in my family. The ones who survived, say the way to survive and function is to accept that shit can and will happen, they have very little control over it (but they can control their little part of what they do), and they might not live through it. One said ‘I accepted that I was going to die. If I didn’t today that was going to be a nice bonus. It got the worry out of my head and let me focus on doing things the best way, and the way I knew I wanted it to be done, and how I wanted to be remembered if I’m gone.’). He lost a lung in Vietnam, among other things, but is still kicking and enjoying life in his 80’s now. He has had, and still does have, many issues from the war, so don’t take this as a ‘and everything was fine’. If you are at peace with, and have accepted the possible outcomes (including the horrific), and understand and accept how little control you actually have - the mind doesn’t spin. It truly knows the situation and can react appropriately, instead of a intellectual ‘knowing’ that it is struggling to integrate and process. It frees you up to act, be present, and actually steer things in a better direction rather than spin/have the overactive mind. And sleep is necessary and helpful to actually doing better. And so they just do what they need to do. Which includes passing out and sleeping.

newwebsite 5y ago
This makes a lot of sense, thank you for that insight. The news I received was about a business associate who is screwing me over. I knew (and I know) that there is very little I could do to stop him. And I could not accept it. The injustice of what he is trying to do kept me awake. My wife suggested I find peace by thinking that by blindly trusting someone, I hadn't done everything I could to protect my interests. According to her, accepting that I could have done better will make it easier to accept the injustice. I'm trying, but it's hard to accept being cheated by someone you trusted.
- lazide 5y ago
  There are techniques to help process what is happening in situations like this - CBT and/or mindfulness have both helped me in the past. It is necessary to take risks to succeed - including trusting sometimes unknown parties. It is necessary to not trust more than you can afford to lose. It is also necessary to put trust and faith only in those that have earned it. It’s a complex set of sometimes contradictory requirements. It is impossible to always have it perfectly under control. Sometimes that means learning painful lessons, sometimes that means getting into a fight to protect yourself as best as possible, sometimes it means writing it off - as the flip side of the good bets that pay off. To know what is appropriate for you will require integrating the experiences and information you have, and calming evaluating for yourself your own values and your own plan, and what you want to do. Easier said than done. I wish you luck!