Many people are afraid of being alone with their thoughts. I understand and relate to that as my mind still gets the best of me at times. However, the more time I’ve spent by myself with no external distractions, the more comfortable I’ve gotten with it and the more I’ve learned that I don’t have to be afraid of what goes on in my head. In the absence of outside stimulation, things often come to my mind that I don’t normally think about, either because I’m usually distracted by something else or because I’m actively trying to avoid thinking about certain things. It become much harder to ignore those nagging thoughts when I have nothing else to focus on and, in that situation, resisting those thoughts does me more harm than good. Whatever thoughts come up, it’s better for me to relax and surrender to them than try to fight them.
Floating has helped me a lot with this. I feel incredibly safe and comfortable in the pod, so that’s a great place to practice watching my thoughts without getting stuck in them. Additionally, since I prefer to float in silence and darkness, I find it easy to address things that pop into my head. Depending on what experience I have in any given float, I might feel drawn to explore my thoughts deeply or just acknowledge them as they come up. I do my best to wait until my float has begun before deciding on which course of action to take; this makes my float better and gives me some guidance on what to do while I’m in there, guidance which I can easily miss if I go in expecting a certain experience.
I’ve found that addressing my thoughts during the day prevents them from keeping me awake at night. Except for a fan to keep me cool and provide me with some steady background noise, my room is dark and quiet. That’s the perfect environment for me to start thinking about anything and everything, which used to make it hard for me to fall asleep and stay asleep. However, since I started working through my thoughts during the day and doing some calming meditation and breath work at night, it’s been much easier for me to fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly through the night. Now, instead of dreading going to bed and wondering what thoughts will wander around in my head, I can look forward to settling in and drifting off to sleep without issue.
If my experience with all of this has taught me anything, it’s that my thoughts only have as much power over me as I’m willing to give them, and that the way to reclaim power for myself is to fully explore them. The more I do this, the better I feel and the less I’m controlled by my thoughts, fears, emotions, etc. If you already do this, then you know what I mean. But if you’ve never done it or you’ve only done it a bit, try it out regularly and see how it improves your life. You’ll be glad you did.