I know! Isn’t this exciting!

No one else has the power to flick your switches on or off, unless you let them. The other great bit is no one else is to blame for the decisions you make and your response to things.

Sure, I know, your neighbour playing their best of all drum ‘n’ bass from all eras all night long, is totally to blame for your lack of sleep and for feeling really grumpy …

But, hang on…are they actually responsible for how you feel?

Did they intentionally set out to keep you awake all night long? Good question. It might feel like it. But probably not – probably because they didn’t even think about you. So, even if the by-product of someone elses actions affects you directly, who has the problem – you or the neighbour?

In this particular made-up-yet-quite-possible-scenario the neighbour is doing just fine (well, maybe sleep deprived too) but they are quite happy with the choice they made if all they are thinking about is just them. You, on the other hand, are sleep deprived, angry and frustrated by having a terrible night’s sleep, and ready to blame the neighbour for how you feel.

This is all valid. The neighbour’s choices suck. It’s really hard when other people’s actions directly affect your quality of life. But they are not responsible for how you feel or for how you respond. These are your choices to make.

And this is where it gets fun. You get to make choices. You have a whole lot of choices.

By this, I just mean, despite any external pressures, expectations, responsibilities, or frustrations you are the one making the decisions.

When work calls and asks you to do a last minute big ask (instead of you having a couple of hours free to just do you), do you feel like you have a choice? Or do you feel like you have to say yes to work? Does no even feel like an option? Because, guess what, it is an option.

No, I won’t do X-thing today because I am putting time aside for me, is a very valid decision. Even when you might have time for X-thing, and X-thing might seem like a non-negotiable because it’s a Very. Important. Thing.

You still have a choice. You always have choices. Of course, choices have consequences. And sometimes knowing the consequences might feel like that particular choice is not an option.

Weighing choice against consequence – the thing I want to do vs. the result of this action – two things that are part of the beautiful balance of life.

The Sleep Lab gives you permission to dive into some of this stuff. And a lot of these intentions live within The Sleep Lab name.

We decided to call this sleep coaching venture The Sleep Lab because it conjures up several images:

1. a place where research and new information can be gathered
2. somewhere that gives permission to try things out and test what you know/don’t know
3. the container to start designing your own change experiments
4. a gathering point for personal scientists (that’s you!) to run experiments, observe the data, and collect evidence about your own needs, quirks, best practice

The Sleep Lab is an opportunity to realise your own agency – particularly in relation to your sleep, and the choices you make that affect the quality of your sleep.

By entering your “personal scientist” persona, it can create a new perspective to examine your own choices (cos let’s be honest, self-examination is not everyone’s jam, and it can feel a wee bit uncomfortable if you haven’t been brought up in that kinda space).

Back to that choice/consequence balance of life.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a whole lot more intrigued by running my own little Liesel Lab (with yours truly as Head Personal Scientist of the Liesel Lab) with daily decisions treated as experiments rather than measuring myself by how failed or successful today’s decision-making went. It’s all just learning.

What are your thoughts?