Blog Dis
Getting the much needed zzzzz's...
2024-11-05
The mind is an ideal place for chitter-chatter, that annoying cloying noise of mindless thought which sometimes feels like it can't be shut off, especially if we're trying to fall asleep, for the love of God! With regularity, I battle insomnia one or twice a month, one to two days in a row, before my exhausted body and mind will fall into a deep sleep. This makes perfect sense as our brains can only go so long without a good night's sleep and like I'm fond of saying, nothing promotes better sleep than outright exhaustion.
Or does it? Exhaustion from jet-lag is a different animal because our circadian rhythms have been thrown off if we go to one time zone for any length of time, only to return to our own. Sometimes you're just not meant to sleep peacefully. But all is not lost, while you toss and turn, trying to find comfortable spots on your mattress. Your mind has a tendency to work on creative projects whether you want it to or not. So, last night as I tossed and turned, before eventually falling to sleep, my creative mind thought it would be a wonderful time to conjure up a marketing blurb or what a publicist might refer to as a hook, something to grab the attention of media outlets, who are all about using a clever pitch to capture more online readers to keep them reading or to keep them coming back.
The same can be said of back cover blurbs for new novels. There are professionals in publishing houses whose sole role is to write up a witty back cover blurb, keeping the tally to 400 words or less. Try it yourself. Read a book and attempt to write up a blurb using only 400 words or less. I worked on mine for POM for weeks until I felt satisfied that it adequately explained the novel while hopefully providing some enticement for future readers. Wit is ideal, though wit is surely a skill that not all possess. Some argue that true wit is representative of an individual's intelligence, to which I agree. Some find themselves to be quite funny, when it fact they are as boring as a brick wall. Intrigue works too. Here's where I believe that our brains are intrigued by its own thoughts which is why our brains are quick to take us back to the past, to recall memories from decades past, to either re-hash the memories or to throw them in our faces, so to speak, so that we can review our decision-making process, and chide ourselves for our stupid behaviour.
It has been written absolutely nowhere, that I am aware of, that the brain is our friend and will serve us truthfully, faithfully and unwaveringly. This is far from the case. Our brains operate quite fine without our conscious mind providing any input. Because I enjoy reading scientific journals, when I was younger, I had operated on the mistaken belief that we have only two minds: the conscious and the unconscious. When in reality, we have three minds: conscious, unconscious, and the super subconscious, which apparently is a level of awareness that perceives both material reality and the energy and consciousness behind it. Hmmm... this belief contends that the super subconscious mind is the mind where creativity, ideas for art, music and scientific discoveries come from, and to this I say hell yes! If this is what my mind is doing when it's up late at night running metaphorical errands, and conjuring, I'll take it! There is a silver-lining to insomnia after all in not being able to fall asleep, or to stay asleep.
I've known some persons in my life who have never known a sleepless night. One might think that they are lying because it's impossible to imagine not ever having to deal with sleeplessness. Maybe they have the clearest conscience of them all and throughout their life, they have never acted angrily toward a loved one, or disappointed a friend, or lied, cheated, stole, or backpedaled on a promise. It is possible, though I am highly suspicious that such a person exists.
I count backwards from 500 now, when I can't fall asleep right away. I count slowly, in my mind, rather than to rush or to count aloud. The act of counting slowly forces me to slow down, and rarely have I ever made it to 300. I might make it to 400 and then I'm off to slumberland. We all have our hacks, and perhaps one of the biggest is to avoid the blue screen at least one hour before hitting the sack, which I observe. I also practice total deprivation: sleep mask, ear plugs, white noise machine, a fan blowing throughout the night, a dark and cool room and an orgasm before sleep. Now that we're into November, our clocks rolled back one hour this past Saturday and it's dark at 5 pm where I live, and this portends the onslaught of winter to come. Admittedly I sleep better in winter, when its cold and dark and my bed comforters are beckoning me to slide right inside.
Do you even remember the last time you had slept for 8 hours straight?
There was a time in human history, the pre-industrial era, when humans went to sleep for only four hours, and then would wake up and stay up for at least four hours, to read or handle housework, before returning to bed to sleep for another four hours. But in this day and age of modernity, sleep aids, and a host of tricks, it all comes down to the tried and true methods that work for you.
Happy sleeping, sleepy head.
Or does it? Exhaustion from jet-lag is a different animal because our circadian rhythms have been thrown off if we go to one time zone for any length of time, only to return to our own. Sometimes you're just not meant to sleep peacefully. But all is not lost, while you toss and turn, trying to find comfortable spots on your mattress. Your mind has a tendency to work on creative projects whether you want it to or not. So, last night as I tossed and turned, before eventually falling to sleep, my creative mind thought it would be a wonderful time to conjure up a marketing blurb or what a publicist might refer to as a hook, something to grab the attention of media outlets, who are all about using a clever pitch to capture more online readers to keep them reading or to keep them coming back.
The same can be said of back cover blurbs for new novels. There are professionals in publishing houses whose sole role is to write up a witty back cover blurb, keeping the tally to 400 words or less. Try it yourself. Read a book and attempt to write up a blurb using only 400 words or less. I worked on mine for POM for weeks until I felt satisfied that it adequately explained the novel while hopefully providing some enticement for future readers. Wit is ideal, though wit is surely a skill that not all possess. Some argue that true wit is representative of an individual's intelligence, to which I agree. Some find themselves to be quite funny, when it fact they are as boring as a brick wall. Intrigue works too. Here's where I believe that our brains are intrigued by its own thoughts which is why our brains are quick to take us back to the past, to recall memories from decades past, to either re-hash the memories or to throw them in our faces, so to speak, so that we can review our decision-making process, and chide ourselves for our stupid behaviour.
It has been written absolutely nowhere, that I am aware of, that the brain is our friend and will serve us truthfully, faithfully and unwaveringly. This is far from the case. Our brains operate quite fine without our conscious mind providing any input. Because I enjoy reading scientific journals, when I was younger, I had operated on the mistaken belief that we have only two minds: the conscious and the unconscious. When in reality, we have three minds: conscious, unconscious, and the super subconscious, which apparently is a level of awareness that perceives both material reality and the energy and consciousness behind it. Hmmm... this belief contends that the super subconscious mind is the mind where creativity, ideas for art, music and scientific discoveries come from, and to this I say hell yes! If this is what my mind is doing when it's up late at night running metaphorical errands, and conjuring, I'll take it! There is a silver-lining to insomnia after all in not being able to fall asleep, or to stay asleep.
I've known some persons in my life who have never known a sleepless night. One might think that they are lying because it's impossible to imagine not ever having to deal with sleeplessness. Maybe they have the clearest conscience of them all and throughout their life, they have never acted angrily toward a loved one, or disappointed a friend, or lied, cheated, stole, or backpedaled on a promise. It is possible, though I am highly suspicious that such a person exists.
I count backwards from 500 now, when I can't fall asleep right away. I count slowly, in my mind, rather than to rush or to count aloud. The act of counting slowly forces me to slow down, and rarely have I ever made it to 300. I might make it to 400 and then I'm off to slumberland. We all have our hacks, and perhaps one of the biggest is to avoid the blue screen at least one hour before hitting the sack, which I observe. I also practice total deprivation: sleep mask, ear plugs, white noise machine, a fan blowing throughout the night, a dark and cool room and an orgasm before sleep. Now that we're into November, our clocks rolled back one hour this past Saturday and it's dark at 5 pm where I live, and this portends the onslaught of winter to come. Admittedly I sleep better in winter, when its cold and dark and my bed comforters are beckoning me to slide right inside.
Do you even remember the last time you had slept for 8 hours straight?
There was a time in human history, the pre-industrial era, when humans went to sleep for only four hours, and then would wake up and stay up for at least four hours, to read or handle housework, before returning to bed to sleep for another four hours. But in this day and age of modernity, sleep aids, and a host of tricks, it all comes down to the tried and true methods that work for you.
Happy sleeping, sleepy head.
