A few years ago, I started waking up at three o’clock every morning. I’d toss and turn, disappointed that I wasn’t following through on my plan to get seven to eight hours of shut-eye. It was on my schedule, so why wasn’t I asleep? It turns out that sleeping wasn’t completely under my control. I couldn’t help the fact my body chose to wake me up, but I could control my response. At first, I’d lie in bed, thinking about how bad it was that I wasn’t sleeping enough. I’d stir over these thoughts until I could think of nothing else. Ironically, I wasn’t falling back asleep because I was worried about not falling back asleep. Once I realized my rumination was itself a distraction, I began to deal with it in a healthier manner. If I woke up, I’d repeat a simple mantra, “The body gets what the body needs.” That subtle mindset shift took the pressure off by no longer making sleep a requirement. My job was to provide my body with the proper time and place to rest, what happened next was out of my control. I let my mind relax without worry. Once my rumination stopped, so did my sleepless nights. I soon started regularly falling back asleep in minutes. We should stop worrying about outcomes we can’t control and instead focus on the inputs we can. #Indistractable …see more