Nightmares are real and horrible for a lot of people. Especially those dealing with PTSD. When you are afraid to close your eyes and sleep, it is a hard way to live. I have some ideas to help you in this article.
Each week I take a question off my Facebook page to answer here on this column. This week I saw this post from Helene E.
Hi Marveena, My husband served in the Army for 20 years and did several active tours. He was in combat and saw a lot of terrible things. Now he can’t sleep hardly at all. He can go days without sleeping, when he does finally crash he wakes up from horrible nightmares. The fear of these faces and the demons is overwhelming to him. My husband suffers from PTSD and has several things going on. I would like to explore alternative healing techniques for PTSD but he is skeptical. Thank you for any ideas or help, Helene
Helene, There are alternative self-help resources to help you move through PTSD. Some may feel off the wall or wacky but when you are hurting and needing help it is good to keep your mind, heart and options open. Always keep in mind that PTSD is not about what is wrong with you, it is about what happened to you.
Here are a few alternative self-help techniques for Nightmares and PTSD that are worth exploring:
- Meditation~I have several blog posts about meditation and some You-Tube Videos too. They are all free resources, and there are many more on line too.
- Tapping -Emotional Freedom Technique known as EFT, go online for a complete book that is free to down load on this super wonderful and easy tool. Excellent for Nightmares and PTSD!!!
- Reiki~Can’t say enough good things about this hands on healing modality. I have been teaching it for over 20 years. It is worth investigating if you are in serious pain.
- Visualization~ Use some of your natural gifts that The Holy Spirit gave you to heal your demons !!!
- Hypnosis~More below on this powerful healing modality.
- Prayer~Let your heart talk to spirit, and then make time for your ego to listen to spirit. That is so important to getting an answer. Listen,
- Toning~Amazingly simple and powerful, you can search online and some of my back blogs for this technique. In a nutshell you think about a area in your body that might be holding pain and let that part of your body make a sound. A moan, groan, what ever. I do this one when no one is home 😉
- Strategic exercise~ Salt is a great cure, no matter how you do it, through exercise, crying or go to the sea! I do my best to get enough exercise everyday that I break a sweat. If I do that, I usually don’t have problems going to sleep or have nightmares.
- Proper Nutrition~ get some good organic food in you to properly mineralize the organs in your body. They hold on to sacred keys and codes that will wake up and be useful if you do your due diligence. As in meditation.
- Soul Clearing ~ Click the link for more ideas on this subject, it was a life changing discovery for me.
Nightmares are not in your Book of Life!
Here are 7 Steps to help tweak your dream mindset, so you can more easily move out of your Nightmares and start living in your souls sweet dream!
All designed so you can pick your self up from a bad chapter in your life, dust off and move on.
I know from personal experience how tough it can be to turn the page and that is exactly what we have to do, instead of re-reading it over and over again!
1. Take the time to sit in silence everyday. Allow yourself to hear what your heart has to say! One way to do this is through meditation. When we can silence the mind, we can hear our soul. Through silence you can access some of the karmic pieces that are still unresolved. These karmic pieces might be contributing to your nightmares. If you feel that some of the things you did while serving in the military was against God’s will, ask those effected to forgive you. By Divine Law, your intention to right any wrongs will be put straight through to any souls effected wrongfully. They will hear your request, when sent with sincerity, they will forgive you. Then you need to Forgive Yourself.
2. Nightmares are immensely powerful, but you are too. You have the power to connect with the very essence of your being... to adjust your path when you stray off course… to soar above your challenges… and to plant your feet in as much prosperity, joy, love and well being as you want… You just have to CLAIM your power! Set intentions before you lay down at night to rest peacefully. Know that a big part of souls journey is to understand our self as a creator and determiner.
This is the time for you to create a safe room in your mind, and bedroom so you can rest at night. I have had to do this myself through a rough patch in my life where I was afraid to go to sleep. What I did was call the Archangels Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel. I pretended they were standing around my bed and facing away from me. Keeping a lookout for Ugly spirits. “BTW, never name a ugly spirit. This gives them more substance”. Then I say a prayer known as the LBRP Lessor Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, Ask that these Archangels protect you and your room while you sleep. I have had to do this complete ceremony many nights to feel safe enough to rest, and have never had any problems with it. The Archangels helped bring these prayers, invocations and blessing rituals into our lives to help us live better lives here.
3. Do daily affirmations that you Love yourself, Accept yourself Forgive yourself, and Be good to Yourself!
4. Self hypnosis can be a huge help with calming Nightmares and PTSD! I learned this as a child in school in my PE class of all places. Our basketball coach taught us a simple self hypnosis routine to help us wind down from a vigorous game of ball. She did this so we could go back to reg school with a calm mind, that was teachable 🙂
It is a basic set of relaxation exercises. Close your eyes and tell your body to relax, You begin at your toes laying flat on your back. Flex your toes a minute or so and then let them go limp like a wet noodle, then take your minds attention to your feet. Flex your toes and feet and hold them tight a minute and then let them go limp like a wet noodle. Then keep adding a body part to the others you are flexing. Go to your calves, legs, hips, stomach, arms, chest shoulders, and head. Always adding on a body part to tense and then always relaxing the whole body.
This is one way that I coped with traveling and the stress that goes with it when I was in my rodeo days. There are many books that can help you learn some basic self hypnosis sessions.
Below is a link to one of my favorite books on Self Hypnosis:
5. Just make up your mind to face your nightmares and PTSD challenges head on, you will be amazed at the help you get. The angels will back you up and help inspire you to little things you can do and even when!
6. When you choose to replace negative thinking with positive thinking the energy shift is HUGE ...You can turn your… Stress into STRENGTH … Anxiety into PEACE … Worry into FAITH … Depression into INSPIRATION … Sadness into JOY…Nightmares into Sweet Dreams!
7. Learn to live in the moment with mindfulness! We can learn from the past but don’t dwell there! Take what worked for you and let go of what didn’t. That goes for relationships too. If you stay fixated on a persons or situation you lock your self down and can’t make forward movement with that kind of mind set. It keeps you from attracting into your world people that could help you live your souls dream life!
I hope these ideas can help you make some positive changes in your dream state and day to day life. Usually things don’t change overnight, but if you make a consistent effort and visualize your goal, things will get better and better. I would like to hear from you on this page when that happens !!!
MarVeena
(c) July 2016