Addressing uncomfortable nighttime thoughts

"Every human being on the face of the Earth has a steel plate in his head, but if you lie down now and then and get as still as you can, it will slide open like elevator doors, letting in all the secret thoughts that have been standing around so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the top. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long. But that's just my opinion."


~ The Secret Life of Bees


I just finished reading The Secret Life of Bees for the second time (it's one of my favorite books on planet universe) and I dog-eared the page with this excerpt on it because it is sooo relevant.

We can easily distract ourselves throughout the day as we go about our daily routines. But at night, when we lie down to go to sleep, we're not safe from those thoughts in the back of our minds. When we don't have anything distracting us, those thoughts bob up to the surface like a rubber ducky in a bathtub.

I think the thoughts and feelings that bob up at the end of the day are the thoughts and feelings we need to address the most. Because until we do, they will continue to bob up every single night.

I fall into my most vulnerable state during nighttime hours. You can sometimes find me lying awake and staring at the ceiling or writing in my journal at two o'clock in the morning. That's because everything that I easily stuff down during the day comes right back up at night. And then I have to sit with all of it. And it's uncomfortable.

But all of those thoughts and feelings are trying to tell us something.

Turn those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings into useful realizations instead. I turn my uncomfortable thoughts into realizations all the time. I just have to be willing to break those thoughts open and look inside.

<3 Madison

p.s. I hope this made sense...I sort of rambled.