Can’t Turn Your Mind Off At Night? Close Your Eyes & Listen to This

**Jay Shetty** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. We talk a lot about intentional decision making, and that extends to the practical stuff too, like making sure your coverage actually works for your life. State Farm is there to meet you where you are, and they know how sweet it is to feel good about your decisions. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods, where your back-to-school eats are sorted. First off, they have amazing quality standards with 300 food ingredients banned store-wide. No hydrogenated fats, nothing in store, has high fructose, corn syrup, and there's a great selection of allergen-friendly options too. Pick up your easy breakfast of frozen waffles, pack the lunchboxes with organic seedless grapes and baby carrots. Then plate up thin-crust pizzas and a family-style salad for dinner after a long day of learning. Shop back to school must-haves at Whole Foods Market, in-store or online.
If you're listening to this, I'm guessing it's late. The room's dark, the lights are off. Maybe you've already rolled over a few times. Adjusting your pillow, turning from one side to the other, searching for that perfect position where sleep finally arrives. Maybe you've checked the time more than once and started doing the math in your head. If I fall asleep now, I'll still get 6 hours. Now 5, now 4 Or maybe sleep isn't even the problem. Maybe your body is exhausted. Your eyes are heavy. You know you're tired. But the moment your head touched a pillow, your mind decided it was time to get back to work. It started replaying conversations from today. It reminded you of everything you didn't finish. It began rehearsing tomorrow before tomorrow has even had a chance to begin. Strange, isn't it? All day long, life is noisy. There are emails to answer, people to respond to, places to be, notifications to clear, and a hundred different things competing for your attention. Then the moment the world finally becomes quiet, your mind suddenly gets louder. Maybe you're spiraling about the day. Maybe you're worrying about tomorrow. Maybe you just can't seem to get out of your own mind. Whatever brought you here tonight, I just want you to know something before we go any further. Nothing is wrong with how you're feeling at this moment. What you're experiencing is one of the most human things in the world. The problem is that your brain doesn't always know the difference between a thought and a threat. It doesn't know that tomorrow's presentation hasn't started yet. It doesn't know that the mistake you made this afternoon is already over. It simply senses uncertainty and says, stay awake a little longer. Keep thinking. Maybe there's something we're missing. But have you ever noticed that your clearest thoughts rarely arrive while you're forcing them? They don't usually appear while you're staring at the ceiling trying to solve your life. They show up in the shower, half way through a walk, while you're washing the dishes, driving with the radio on, or sometimes they simply greet you the next morning after you finally stop chasing them. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think clarity needs space to breathe and to grow. And I think one of the great misconceptions we've been taught is that if we just think hard enough, long enough, we'll eventually think our way into peace. But peace doesn't actually come from thinking more. It comes from carrying less. Your brain has already worked incredibly hard today, whether you noticed it or not. It has made thousands of decisions today. It is tired. And yet because it loves you and because its job is to keep you safe, it believes the most responsible thing it can do is stay awake just a little longer. So tonight, I'd like to offer you a different possibility. What if you didn't have to solve your life before you fell asleep? What if nothing important had to be figured out in the next 10 minutes? Because here's what I've learned. Tomorrow isn't asking you to have all the answers. Tomorrow is simply asking you to arrive. And I think that's a much gentler place for us to begin. So now, take one slow breath. Breathe in and out.
Of course, breathing doesn't magically fix everything. But it is one of the few ways you can remind your body that in this moment, you are safe. Your heart has been beating all day without you asking it to. Your lungs have been filling and emptying with every breath. Your body has quietly carried you through another day and maybe tonight, before you ask anything more of it, you simply thank it. As you breathe out, imagine setting today down. Not pretending it didn't happen, just setting it beside the bed for a little while.