Sometimes when I try to meditate or try to go to sleep, I get fidgets and itches. I can feel a bug walking across my scalp. My lip is touching the blanket or the puffed-up pillow. It is too sensitive and each breath gives me a little alerting poke when I don't want one.
The best solution to quieting all this is to suffer: don't move, don't adjust. It's ok to make a few basic obvious corrections. If I am not lying on my side but am actually on top of my arm, I need to move. But beyond that, just suffer. Let the bug walk on my hair. Let the ankle itch. Just take the wave of little difficulties and self-important little problems and needs and let them stew. Let them grind, let them assert themselves, let them send urgent messages of really, really needing to be tended to, responded to, paid attention. After about 2 minutes, the whole yapping bunch tends to nod off.
The excellent "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor asserts that many of our thought and emotion circuits run through their missions in about 90 seconds. I am writing here about physical sensations, not thoughts or emotions but again, 1 ½ to 2 minutes of silent, still patient acceptance is often enough to quiet the internal kids:
When my brain runs loops that feel harshly judgmental, counter-productive, or out of control, I wait 90 seconds for the emotional/physiological response to dissipate and then I speak to my brain as though it is a group of children. I say with sincerity, "I appreciate your ability to think thoughts and feel emotions, but I am really not interested in thinking these thoughts or feeling these emotions anymore. Please stop bringing this stuff up." Essentially, I am consciously asking my brain to stop hooking into specific thought patterns. Different people do it differently of course. Some folks just use the phrase, "Cancel! Cancel!" or they exclaim to their brain, "Busy! I'm too busy!" Or they say "Enough, enough, enough already! Knock it off!"
Taylor, Jill Bolte (2008-05-12). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey (pp. 151-152). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
