Hi, Trish. Thank you for the email. I will respond to it hopefully tomorrow. I just returned from the Abilities Expo in Atlanta, so am pretty exhausted. The expo was amazing.
I read your conversation thread tonight, because, you are right, i have not posted for awhile. I've been going through an insomnia relapse and have been trying to work through that again as well as feeling overwhelmed - the two go hand in hand for me.
The reason I'm mentioning this is that I have a couple of wonderful crutches that help me get out of my mind and into observing my thoughts. They are meditation and guided imagery recordings by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bellruth Naperstack. My favorite is Bellruth's series on 'Healing Trauma'. They can both be found on amazon.com.
I periodically reach the point where I have so many thoughts of unfinished business that I find every muscle in my body is tense. I try to notice the tenseness and let it go. What I have discovered, however, is that much of my 'tenseness' is related to my body's continual and conscious process of trying to maintain core stability and balance.
One thing I have started to do is to stop thinking about all that I have to do and replace those thoughts at the end of the day congratulating myself for the things I have completed that day. My reminder lists are about daily accomplishments rather than keeping endless lists of what I need to do that were impossible to finish.
I have also started doing something fun at least two to times a week with friends and ignore list making altogether on those days.
Best wishes and think about trying some guided imagery too just to see if it helps. If nothing else, they both have soothing voices to listen to. ;-)
