You can read this story, which acts as a metaphor to help you overcome your mind’s resistance and reflect that the more you hold on to the past, your emotions, and your thoughts, the more you will suffer, and this may manifest as insomnia—poor sleep. Write down ONE issue or concern that occupies your mind most of the time. It could be related to work, a loss, a person who has hurt you, or the stress you are enduring. Give that problem a shape, a size and weight. Imagine it sits inside a box and is as accurate as you can feel. Now imagine a noose, a loop of rope with a knot on one end. You are holding on to the rope on one end, and on the other end, the box is being held.
The structure is on a lever. As you have seen in a well, on one side is the rope, and on the other side is the bucket; you visualise the rope holding the box on one end and you holding the rope on the other. As you hold on to the rope, you realise that, over time, your arms start hurting more than they did in the past. It began as a lightweight, but you acknowledge that as time goes by, the heaviness of the load increases and causes more stress and pain in your arms. This is the time that you can make a conscious choice. You can either keep holding the rope and continue to suffer the pain in your body. You know that holding on to the rope is not making the load any lighter. It does not help you solve the problem in the box. You realise slowly that you are just suffering unnecessarily with no resolution. You know the box will fall once you leave the rope, and the burden will be removed from your arms. But you are unable to leave the rope.
Think about why you are holding on to the rope. Is it because holding on to those grievances feels “right”? Is it because you feel you deserve it? Is it because you think that you are punishing the person or the event that has caused your pain? Is it because you are fearful of letting go? Is it because it is too familiar a habit now that you can’t help it? Think about the scars, the pain, the bleeding it is causing to your hands and your arms. Now, reflect on what WHO is suffering. It is YOU who is suffering by holding on to the rope. Reflect on whether holding on to the rope solves your problems. No, it doesn’t. It just makes you suffer, and you are kept busy suffering.
Can you let go of the rope now? Visualise letting go of the rope. Cancel the contract of pain. Now feel the relaxation and lightness of your body. Feel the pain that has disappeared. Feel the heaviness that has fallen off. Read this story, a metaphor for how we hold on to our problems, past, people who have hurt us, and losses. If we let go and learn to problem solve, we are lighter and free of suffering. This critical exercise will aid your journey in the treatment of insomnia.
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