Handling Setbacks

It is normal to have setbacks. I'm not really good at, like, handling those things 'cause I'm very like, I'm a perfectionist. It's very common for when people slip up, they think all the gains are lost, but that's not the case. Our body is really resilient. One bad night of sleep doesn't mean that your sleep's gonna be bad the next night or the next night. In fact, usually it means that after a bad night of sleep your next night will be better 'cause your body compensates. And that's key. We're very resilient to those bad nights of sleep. In general life, I am probably quick to give up and have setbacks, but I think that if there is something that, let's just say for the past two weeks this worked and now it's not working, I will probably get upset. But in general, you know, when people begin to notice that they're having more difficulty falling asleep than they used to, or they're waking up more frequently, may suggest that you need to, kind of take a closer look at what's going on in your life, what's going on at night, so that you might identify where you could intervene. You've created some tools that you can use in the future that allow you to get your sleep back on track no matter what happens. I think, more recently, too, I've been more compassionate with myself and understanding that it's okay if we mess up. I think as long as we learn from it and acknowledge like, okay, I did mess up here, but let me see what I can do to be better next time. You might want to just add one on or add on all of the tools all at once. But we know from all of the sleep science that these tools are effective to help regulate someone's sleep. (relaxing music) Now, let's dive into an exercise on how to handle setbacks. After we set sail on a helpful new habit or tool, it's tempting to put our feet up, so to speak, lean back with our hands behind our head and declare, it will be smooth sailing from here on out. But that's not how the ocean works. There's always another wave or obstacle to navigate. Our goal isn't to figure out how to avoid the waves rather how to work with them. When something disrupts your new habit or tool, it can feel like a setback. Sending your thoughts into a spiral, which can result in uncomfortable emotions, like frustration or disappointment. Those uncomfortable emotions that we experience are really common, but those emotions that come up when we face a setback can outright make us wanna give up. Setbacks might feel uncomfortable at first, but they give us an opportunity to learn about ourselves and how we approach achieving our goals. From there, we can figure out the best ways to keep moving forward. It's helpful to think of a...