“Kind of true”? I’m getting tensed up just reading your posts. I can almost guarantee you that your aching shoulders are where you’re holding your tension. Learning to relax is a skill like any other - it can be taught and learned. Conscious relaxation might be good for you - tensing muscles then releasing the tension. Meditation is also very good for this - back when I was meditating regularly, I would always fall asleep while meditating (I know, you’re not supposed to, but it was such a good sleep!)
Even when you’re feeling sick, you can still exercise - lightly and slowly. Fresh air is also very important - you sleep better when you’ve been out in the fresh air during the day. Most people unless they are very sick can take a walk around the block every day.
How does one really mediate? My friends gave me some idea - one say to imagine the a circle around the pain and that the pain is shrinking. I tried staring at a spot at the ceiling to 'self-hypnotize" but I got restless easily.
I did what is called mindful meditation - simply sitting somewhere quiet and restful, and concentrating on your breath for anywhere from five to 20 minutes. The great thing about that kind of meditation is you can do it anywhere, in any situation - you always have your breath with you, and it always, ALWAYS takes my tension down a few notches. I haven’t meditated regularly in a while, but my body retains the knowledge of how to relax now. If I’m tossing and turning in bed, I focus on my breathing for a little bit, and I rarely make it to the third breath before I’m out.
By the way, getting restless easily indicates to me that you really need this.
One trick I use is to lie in a comfortable position in the bed and imagine a blue light (pick your favorite color) starting at the tips of my toes. As the light flows up from my toes and spreads throughout my body, I relax the muscle I imagine the light to be going through. By the time I have worked my way up to my head, I’m usually asleep.
I have similar problems - stress, anxiety, pain in the shoulders, and for a stretch of a few months this year I was waking up feeling like I’d been beaten with a tire iron in my sleep. This may sound lame, but I subscribed to a meditation podcast (Meditation Oasis, I think) and listen to it on my iPod in bed and it has helped a lot.
Sometimes it takes a few podcasts (~20 minutes), but I manage to nod off eventually. I usually come to at some point to take out the headphones and then I’m able to roll right over and go back to bed. I find meditating without it is really difficult and bordering on impossible - it’s like I need someone commanding me to relax! Fortunately it seems to work for me. Maybe something similar would help you too, CrazyChop. In any case, good luck, and I hope you feel better soon.
I have suffered from insomnia all my life. I got in the habit of making up stories as I try to fall asleep. Instead of thinking of all the problems in my life, I figure “Everybody’s life has problems all the time. I can’t do anything about them right now,” I think up great imaginary tales. I rewrite the ending to Gone With The Wind (Rhett dies, and Scarlett meets his bastard son at the funeral and marries him). I come up my own episodes of my favorite TV shows. I once came up with a great idea for a sitcom that would really, really work if I could get it sold.
Yes, you cannot sleep, but don’t let it control you. You control your waking time, evern in the middle of the night.
I can almost guarantee you that your aching shoulders are where you’re holding your tension. Learning to relax is a skill like any other - it can be taught and learned. Conscious relaxation might be good for you - tensing muscles then releasing the tension. Meditation is also very good for this - back when I was meditating regularly, I would always fall asleep while meditating (I know, you’re not supposed to, but it was such a good sleep!)