Stories for getting ready for bed and for falling asleep.

Come unwind for the evening with some stories about my golden retriever, Simple, as he lives his days in the Roosevelt National Forest. I also share stories about living in the forest and traveling the world.

The Box of Robbers

Father Time

The Magic Bon Bons

How I Know Simple Is an Angel

Christine Mangum

Mental Health Counselor (M.S., L.P.C.C.)

AFGHANISTAN

ALAND ISLANDS

ALBANIA

ALGERIA

AMERICAN SAMOA

ANDORRA

ANGOLA

ANGUILLA

ANTARCTICA

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

ARGENTINA

ARMENIA

ARUBA

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA

AZERBAIJAN

BAHAMAS

BAHRAIN

BANGLADESH

BARBADOS

BELARUS

BELGIUM

BELIZE

BENIN

BERMUDA

BHUTAN

BOLIVIA

BONAIRE, SINT EUSTATIUS AND SABA

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

BOTSWANA

BOUVET ISLAND

BRAZIL

BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

BULGARIA

BURKINA FASO

BURUNDI

CAMBODIA

CAMEROON

CANADA

CAPE VERDE

CAYMAN ISLANDS

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

CHAD

CHILE

CHINA

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS

COLOMBIA

COMOROS

CONGO

CONGO, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE

COOK ISLANDS

COSTA RICA

COTE D'IVOIRE

CROATIA

CUBA

CURACAO

CYPRUS

CZECHIA

DENMARK

DJIBOUTI

DOMINICA

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

ECUADOR

EGYPT

EL SALVADOR

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

ERITREA

ESTONIA

ETHIOPIA

FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS)

FAROE ISLANDS

FIJI

FINLAND

FRANCE

FRENCH GUIANA

FRENCH POLYNESIA

FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES

GABON

GAMBIA

GEORGIA

GERMANY

GHANA

GIBRALTAR

GREECE

GREENLAND

GRENADA

GUADELOUPE

GUAM

GUATEMALA

GUERNSEY

GUINEA

GUINEA-BISSAU

GUYANA

HAITI

HEARD ISLAND AND MCDONALD ISLANDS

HOLY SEE (VATICAN CITY STATE)

HONDURAS

HONG KONG

The thoughts we think often, even when out of emotion, are our habits of thinking. This influences our beliefs (about ourselves and others), emotions, and behaviors. When we practice changing the thought, we can form new thought habits which shift how we feel, what we believe, and how we behave. 

Changing Thought Habits

Simple has his first experience at a coastal beach with his two humans, Mom, and Best Friend. 

Simple's Beach Adventure

This is a grounding exercise for when you are feeling anxious. Anxiety takes us out of the body and into our thoughts. This exercise puts us back in our bodies and in the present moment. You can practice this anywhere, anytime. 

Reduce Anxiety - Grounding

Explore the consequences of an ambitious Claribel Sudds when she pays a visit to an ancient chemist to make her dreams come true. A story written by Lyman Frank Baum.

A brief description of the body's recognition of a stressor and how it might respond. 

Stress Response & Relaxation Response

Little Martha is very curious about the large and heavy trunk in the attic of her home. While her parents are out for the day, she decides she must see what is in that trunk. A story by Lyman Frank Baum.

A tale about Jim and the time he accidentally lassoed Father Time. A story by Lyman Frank Baum.

Animals are interesting creatures; they might even be angels. 

There are two processes at work when it comes to sleep: the homeostatic process and the circadian rhythm process. Here is a brief overview of both. 

Understanding Sleep

In this practice, we are going to challenge the thoughts you wrote down from the last practice. Take one unhelpful thought and we’ll take some time to look for evidence for and against this thought. This is to help debunk this thinking...take the power away from this thinking.

Challenging Your Thoughts CBT-i

The first step in CBT-i is to track your sleep with a sleep diary. 
The sleep diary helps you to understand your current sleep patterns a bit better and to understand the quality of your sleep and how much time you are spending asleep and awake throughout the night. 
Sleep Diary & instructions here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1_2gK5ke2K_yN917oVsTU2HZhPjtSB3Xb


Sleep Diary

Here we go over where you are now and what to do after completing CBT-i. This includes what to do if you relapse and how to prevent relapse. 

Relapse Prevention

Insomnia is diagnosed by a mental health professional who should be consulted before starting a program such as CBT-i. If you are a person with insomnia, we’ll talk about how you got there using the 3 P model; predisposition, precipitation, and perpetuation. 

Understanding Insomnia

The thoughts we entertain influence our beliefs, our behaviors, and our emotions. When suffering from insomnia, it is common to have thoughts about sleeping that are unhelpful.

Cognitive Restructuring CBT-i

The last two tracks had a ton of information so in this one, we’ll slow it down so you know exactly what you are doing over the next few weeks.
We are working on stimulus control and sleep restriction at the same time. This is the behavioral side of the program. So, take out a piece of paper or open your notes on your phone and get ready to put some things down.


Putting It All Into Practice

The goal with stimulus control is to increase the value of your bed for sleep and decrease the value of your bed for other activities. Another way to think about it is a cue or trigger. Like how a dog is cued for a walk when their human grabs their leash; they associate the leash with walking. When in your bed or bedroom, there are things you are cued to...reading, scrolling under a comfy blanket, turning on the tv. These become associated with your bed.

Stimulus Control

Here we will practice identifying unhelpful thoughts you have around sleep.
Situation, unhelpful thought, emotion & percentage.

Identifying Unhelpful Thinking CBT-i