Hi friend,
There's a technique for the mind that won't quiet down. It comes from a Canadian researcher named Dr. Luc Beaudoin, and it's called cognitive shuffling.
Here's how it works.
Instead of trying to stop your thoughts (which never works — the harder you try, the louder they get), you deliberately give your brain a series of neutral, unrelated words to hop between.
Pick a random word. Any word. Let's say lemon.
Now, one by one, picture things that start with L.
Lion. Ladder. Library. Lantern. Lasagna. Lock.
Hold each image for a moment. Then move on. Don't force it. Don't judge it. Just hop.
When you run out of L words, pick another letter. E maybe. Elephant. Eagle. Envelope. Eiffel Tower.
What's happening in your brain: you're occupying the same neural circuits that anxiety uses to generate worry loops — but with meaningless material. Anxiety needs narrative to grow. Cognitive shuffling gives your brain non-narrative content that starves the anxiety.
Within 10-15 minutes, most people report they can't remember the last image they held before sleep arrived.
A 2016 study out of Baylor University compared cognitive shuffling to standard CBT-I (the gold standard for insomnia therapy). Cognitive shuffling produced faster sleep onset in 68% of participants — without the multi-week training CBT requires.
Dr Collins
