Welcome back to our Sunday bonus episode, where I share an article with you from a different

podcast in our network to keep your life nice and optimized. Today's episode is coming from our

very first podcast, all about personal development, optimal living daily. You can find that show

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And with that, here's Justin with the post and commentary as we optimize your life.

The Joy of Open Space by Rose Lounsbury of rose lounsbury.com.

I've been an on and off insomniac for much of my adult life.

It started my first year of teaching when I spent nights anxiously rewriting lesson plans in

my head trying to create the most whiz-bang learning experience of my students' lives.

Little did I know at that time that most seventh graders do not consider English class

the most whiz-bang experience of their lives.

In fact, use of the word whiz-bang automatically discredits it from any consideration in their

top-ten life experiences.

Once I finally settled down as a teacher, a more vicious stress hit,

infertility. I spent entire nights in paralytic worry. Will I ever have children? Will Josh and I

grow old in a quiet home, just the two of us? We were blessed in 2009 when that problem resolved

with the birth of our triplets,

and of course, as all parents know, there's nothing more relaxing than a newborn, right?

My worries had only begun.

Despite the exhausting work of caring for three babies, I often found myself unable to sleep when my head hit the pillow.

I tried all sorts of higory-jiggery to induce sleep, counting backwards from 500,

drinking warm milk, limiting screen time. One mental exercise, though, sticks out in my mind,

...