When this new reality began to dawn on me, it was easy to fall into old habits, to allow the pain, the torment, the suffering, the why-me cries to the universe to become my new experience. From what I have read of most moments of life-crises, this can be a common response. It isnt empowering. Dont do it.
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Khalil Gibran
The best course of action is not inaction, but taking action, even if its small steps. When a problem is misunderstood, it can feel very overwhelming and the Monkey Mind can send us in all sorts of directions. For me the first thing to do has been to start creating a plan, anchoring myself into a solid foundation of a plan. Once we have a plan, it not only allows the horizon to look so much brighter, but it keeps the mind occupied and this itself is helping the Habituation process.
Above is my first step of my plan – mind mapping this problem. To my mind the key to managing oneself with this T and H, is stress levels and state of mind. Stress in its many forms doesnt help with the coping of T and H, this is very clear. And one of the most important factors to our ability to cope and how well we can respond to lifes ups and downs emotionally, is how much sleep we are getting. I know for myself, pre-tinnitus and hyperacusis, if I lose too much sleep over a few days, I find it harder to maintain my mental acuity and emotional stability. Habituation pivots on the limbic system management and control, which plays a key role in the emotional stability part of the coping strategy, so to me the number one goal is SLEEP.
Above I have a rough mindmap on some important factors that play into sleep. Its not complete, as I realize as I write I do not have sleep aids mentioned; I will come back to that because I intend to look deeper into those anyway. That said, there are three key branches that need to be worked with:
Mind
If Habituation is the best course of action for “success”, then this is to me all about psychology and mindset. Its about staying positive, its about finding meaning (will come to this in later posts), and its about turning this into something that allows me to grow and contribute.
For the Mind, theres keeping it relaxed, especially for sleep, so doing exercises like meditation, relaxation techniques, learning to let go, gratitude (not in the MM). These are all good techniques to release the mind from unproductive states. Theres a lot in this section, and I will be working progressively through all of them to see which ones work best under which conditions.
Nutrition
It goes without saying, nutrition is absolutely key. Good nutrition helps the brain think, can help avoid mental fatigue and can definitely help mood. Good nutrition not only helps coping throughout the waking hours, but essential eating habits in the evening with the correct foodstuffs can also aid sleep. Very simply, ensuring L-Tryptophan is included as part of the final meal is one simple step we can take to help the sleeping process. But theres a lot more I can say about nutrition too.
One of the biggest disappointments is that not one medical doctor I have spoken to has offered ANY advice from a nutritional perspective. I believe that is a travesty.
I will have a lot more to share on nutrition; this is one of my passions.
Exercise
This post is about sleep, being able to sleep and stay asleep. A key ingredient to good quality sleep is not just the mind and nutrition, but how much the body needs to sleep to recuperate. For those that can, exercise should be a core part of our daily/weekly routines, because its benefits feed into all other aspects of our lives, and our minds. The right type of exercise can improve our health, help us sleep better, help us grow and feel healthier, and we also get endorphin’s released which is an added bonus.
Another benefit to exercise is that it can aid in developing some mental toughness, which I also believe is a key component to accelerated habituation. Running an extra 15 seconds, when your chest is burning, pushing through another rep when all you want to do is stop; these last pushes re what exercise is about if you want to GROW. And Mental Toughness is a growth problem. And it is extremely beneficial as a feedback loop – when you know you pushed yourself, you begin to develop better and bigger beliefs about what you are capable of and what you can endure. I’ll take some of that.
I will be working with exercise a lot – I intend to do some experiments to find out which ones help with sleeping. Some think that we just need to tire ourselves out, and that might be true, but lifting heavy weights even for a short while can be enough to put the body into enough of a shock for it to want to sleep to repair. So I will be reporting on my findings over time. Something to monitor is lactid acid and cortisol. Cortisol in the bloodstream can inhibit sleep or make it poor quality, so some experimentation and creating a diary will be necessary.
Concern should drive us into action and not into depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.
Pythagoras
Tinnitus 