Benefiting from Insomnia

Insomnia is something that almost everyone gets the joy to experience at some point in there lives. I've often thought in athletes it comes from a lack of exercise. If you are resting or tapering your training for a meet, your body isn't worn down from the regular hard day of exertion. Sometimes I feel that athletes confuse this extra energy at night, with the nervousness associated with what one could call pre-competition jidders. And they very well could be right. I know I've spent countless nights staring at foreign ceilings anxious to see what the next days event had in store. Looking back now I always thought it was the unrelenting race of thoughts and ruckus of my mind that kept me awake. But maybe it was just a mere lack of exercise that allowed my brain to run wild. Whatever the case, with this injury i can only do so much training. I can only ride the bike so many days in a row before i want to pull my own hair out in handfuls. Those of you reading who have been condemned to the stationary bike know exactly what I mean. Some days you just can't force yourself onto that saddle. I sneak in my running days here and there, and even a quick vault session from time to time but its nothing close to what I used to be able to do. Therefore, lack of exercise, lack of sleep. I'm wired from years of hard training, to be tired at night from conditioning, without that conditioning, the sleep doesn't come so easy. Granted, I am up for other reasons at times. The pain in my back does keep me up some nights still, not my back so much anymore, but that dam sciatic nerve. Nights like tonight, a nice little fire in my upper glute. So i hang out in my cold living room alone stretching, strengthening, and attacking trigger points in my back and legs. Then I break out the ice pack, lay flat on the ground, prop my legs up on the old chair and meditate until the nerves settle down. Its a common routine, but it works, and sometimes I'm grateful for the pain, because without it, I wouldn't take the time to meditate. My mind drifts off to amazing places, some from the past and some for the future. As complicated as life gets, its in those moments I see how simple it really is. Just do what makes you happy. Pretty basic, very cliché, but ultimately true. If your not happy, your not alive, your just another robot. A machine programmed by society to go through the motions and standard procedures with a plastic smile. Don't let them tell you when to smile, go find it for yourself.