Do you find yourself staring blankly at the ceiling most nights, unable to quiet your mind to sleep? There are many reasons for those frustrating, sleepless nights including your mind carrying stress from work, your travel schedule,
eating habits, looking too much into your phone before sleep...etc. Any of these can cause you to sleep less and less until you develop a chronic habit of bad sleeping known as insomnia.
Luckily, all hope is not lost if you find yourself tossing and turning every night. There is a solution to your sleeping problems, and it involves learning how to move your energy away from being too heavily concentrated in your brain.
What does that even mean? The main factor that controls our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep is the state of the brain. No matter what external lifestyle choice has gotten you to have insomnia, the root cause of it all from an energetic perspective is the fact that there’s hyperactivity in your brain. This might not seem like such a bad thing, but if there’s too much energy collected in your head instead of circulating evenly throughout your body, it causes an imbalance that prevents other parts of your body from resting properly. In other words, imagine if all of the blood that’s supposed to circulate throughout your body gathers mostly in your head and fuels your brain to keep going and going and going, thinking about a million thoughts per second. It’s no wonder you can’t fall asleep—yikes!
Tap your toes to sleep better?
So the question is, what does it take to quiet
mental hyperactivity? You’d be surprised to know that it doesn’t involve doing any crazy meditations or taking magical herbs. We’ve discovered an easy, 4-step exercise called Toe Tapping Exercise, that is easier and more effective than counting sheep to fall asleep. All it takes is about 10 minutes of easy movement to lull your mind into a deep slumber.
Try this exercise by following the steps below.
Step 1:
Lie down comfortably on your back on the floor. You can also lie down on a bed, but it’s recommended to lie down on the floor on a yoga mat or carpet to keep your back aligned straight.
Step 2:
Rest your arms by your side in a comfortable posture with your palms facing upward. Take a few natural breaths in and out to bring awareness into the body.
Step 3:
Bring your legs together so that your big toes are touching each other. If you can’t get them to touch, bring your legs together as much as you can. Now move your feet apart as if your pinky toes are trying to touch the floor on either side. Repeat this movement, and it should look as if you are tapping your big toes together side by side. When you do this, make sure your entire leg moves in and out so you can feel the movement all the way up to your hip joint, which will cause any existing tension in your legs to relax. Tap 100 times.
Step 4:
After tapping 100 times, stop all movement and feel your body. Notice any tingling sensations and where they are in your body. Take a slow, deep breath into your nose. Exhale a slow, deep breath out your mouth. Repeat the breathing three times and imagine releasing your muscles slowly with each breath. This completes one set. Tap your toes 100 times again and repeat this set until you feel yourself falling asleep.
You can watch this video tutorial on how to do this exercise properly.
How does this work?
Tapping your toes brings awareness down to your lower body. As it does this, it moves down hyperactive energy in your brain to the rest of your body bringing back balance. Spreading your body’s energy from being too heavily focused and used by the brain gives a chance for other organs to recover and relax and your brain to take a break and slow down. Curious to know more about this exercise?
Check out this article by Body & Brain Yoga.