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Hey, welcome to owning it real time.

In this audio guide, I'm going to talk through my experience of waking up anxious in the middle of the night to be specific,

in the hopes that it will help you if you find yourself in the same position.

I'm going to assume you're pressing play on this not the next day, but right there and then in the moment. I want to

help you if I can as it's happening for you in real time. Now maybe you are already asleep and you've

woken up with a series of anxious thoughts racing around your head and try as you might you just can't seem to settle again.

Or maybe you never managed to fall asleep in the first place. That's okay.

Anxiety at night can be twofold. On one hand there's whatever is keeping you from being able to settle.

Maybe you've just remembered you forgot someone's birthday, or maybe tomorrow is a really big day

for you and you're a bit apprehensive. On top of whatever is going on, you're also probably

anxious about the fact that you can't seem to settle and you're really trying to get back to sleep.

This might seem counterproductive, but to address this head-on, let's start by having a pen and paper beside your bed.

Sit up, use the light of your phone rather than turning on any overhead lights, and write down the thoughts and worries spiraling in your head.

If there are things you're afraid of forgetting or things you've just remembered that are important,

write them as a to do list for your brain to pick up again in the morning.

Write it all down, just quick

bullet points of the essentials, you don't have to go into any deep journaling mode here,

and then put the pen and paper down and switch your phone light off. If you think of these

anxious thoughts bouncing around like a monkey in your brain crying out for attention,

by trying to pretend that they're not

there, the monkey gets more and more agitated. By doing this exercise of writing everything down,

...