Stop doing this during your insomnia recovery, it's holding you back

You can't pressure yourself to heal, and you can't push your way into more capacity. This is about seeing that pattern of forcefulness and control, and letting it go a little. I offer 1-on-1 coaching at 👉 hopefulmind.com and a free newsletter to help you step out of the struggle. My approach is rooted in compassion, nervous system safety, and a belief in the body's innate ability to heal. In this video I talk about why you can't push or force your way into more capacity during insomnia recovery and chronic anxiety recovery. Many people also put pressure on themselves to recover, thinking that if they try harder, get it right, or push through, they will get there faster. It tends to be the exact opposite. Capacity simply means your ability to be with the experience: tough emotions, symptoms, certain thoughts, and the challenges that come up in the night or in the day. We can't force our own capacity to grow. When we white knuckle through, or intentionally create more intensity in an experience, we are not building capacity. We are more likely flooding the system, overwhelming the system, and reinforcing more danger and more fear. Very often we carry the exact same pattern we were in while we were fighting insomnia and anxiety straight into the recovery process, and it doesn't work. Seeing those patterns of forcefulness and control, and starting to let them go, is what allows us to be with what's here right now and to let capacity grow at its own pace, which tends to happen more slowly. On a longer time scale, that is how we get where we want to go more quickly. You can't pressure yourself to heal, and pressure tends to slow things down rather than speed them up. Capacity is your ability to be with the experience, not your ability to push or endure it. We can't force capacity to grow. It grows at its own pace, which tends to be more slowly. Pushing, white knuckling, and seeking out more intensity can flood and overwhelm the system, reinforcing more danger and more fear. We often carry the same pattern that created the struggle into the recovery process. You cannot recover while you are fighting against yourself. Letting go of forcefulness and control is what allows things to move at their own pace. #insomniarecovery #chronicanxiety #nervoussystemsafety