Sleep

Good Sleep

Given that we spend approximately 1/3 of our life in sleep, it is crucial to address this.

There could be times that you sleep during meditation - that is okay you probably need it - but if you are not aware of what happened in a meditation session then you were likely sleeping. Make sure to fix sleep patterns properly before you fool yourself that you are meditating!

Sleep is the time for Kāli to disconnect your head, and rip through the whole system in her cleaning up frenzy. This sounds dramatic, but it is truly what happens at the psychic level.

Winding Down

Avoid electronics an hour before bed - read, do art work, music, meditate, etc.

Recount the day

1. • offer gratitude for the “good” things - give credit to the "Universe" for having manifested desires.

   • for “bad” events chalk it up as lessons learned - take full responsibility for whatever happened.

Notice and contemplate on the reversal of attitude for good events vs bad events. 

The former avoids build up of Ahamkār, the latter keeps the Ahamkār in check. Ahamkār will expand its presence always, as its very nature, but this has to be done mindfully.

Any emotion that arises, let it, and then watch it as it ebbs, so the day's events do not cloud your dreams.

Nidra Prep

1. • Nidra means sleep in Sanskrit,

   • Shavāsana position (corpse pose) - lie flat & relaxed.

   • Do the following sequence a few times

     • inhale

       • pull the toes back and push the heels out 

         • push each leg one at a time to get the whole side stretch,

         • pushing both legs together doesn't work well at start.

       • stretch the whole back of the body

       • keep the face and hands etc calm - do not squeeze face and clench fists

         • a stress-inducing artifice of which I am not in favor. 

     • exhale

       • relax the whole body 

       • while chanting Om if possible

   • Scan mentally each body area

     • from toes to head (1 min-5 min)

Actual Sleep

1. • First do above prep for Nidra

   • Sleep on the side where the nostril is open

   • the blocked nostril side is up on top, so that eventually it could open

   • change position accordingly if you wake up in the middle of the night

Cannot Sleep

If you cannot sleep, and you toss and turn

1. • Meditate with a straight back, no compromise, no back support

     • the exertion of the physical posture and the mental work will tire you surely

   • Mind racing too much

     • Do Brāhmari prānāyāma (buzzing bee sound - eyes closed, and ears closed just enough to hear resonance)

Going Back to Sleep

If you wake up in the middle of the night

1. • Many researchers say that we are NOT supposed to be sleeping in one 8-hour block, and in fact there could be two or three phases - so don't stress out.

   • Recall your dreams, and don’t go back to sleep right away. 

   • Wash your face, sip some water

   • Sit and meditate for sometime with absolutely straight back, no support

   • Do the Nidra Prep above

   • Return to sleep.

Naps

Naps are an amazing idea if you can break social conditionings! Try it, be a rebel.

If you do a short nap during day - lie flat, don’t sleep on side like you would at night time, otherwise you could end up sleeping too much.

• do nidra prep

• nap on flat back in shavāsana, or

• power nap recline in car seat in parking lot, or 

• head & folded arms on desk

Dreams

Perchance, to Dream

According to many poets, and also Yoga traditions, we could very well be characters in some cosmic Dream dreamed up by some cosmic dreamer.

This perspective engages the Mind in a different way.

In fact, some philosophize that every Thought Form has the potential to become its own Universe, but because most of our Thoughts are vaguely formed they end up as insipid manifestations of what could have been a magnificent creation - like the Universe we currently live in dreamed up by some perfect Cosmic Dreamer.

And within that we are each living in our own version of this Universe, a veritable multi-Verse.

Processing Dreams

When we have dreams, they are messages from the “subconscious” - the parts of our world to which we were not being Mindful of during waking hours.

Dreams are usually like a light mist in the early hours of waking, very vague and fuzzy, but as we catch a thought inside the dream we can usually pull in the rest of the dream into waking consciousness. This remembering of the dream by itself is a very useful technique to sensitizing the mind to fuzzy inputs we encounter during normal waking conditions too.

It is a lot of fun to interpret dreams, and becomes particularly useful when we deeply understand the ancient tales being described here. 

Soaking thoroughly into this site provides a clear symbology by which these dreams are generated. 

Otherwise dreams are generated from some random storyline that may not have been internalized, and thus becomes very hard to interpret.

When dreams wake us in the middle of the night they are a useful trigger to sit up & meditate. 

Eventually of course, as we become fully conscious, our dreams may disappear, and there is no such thing as the sub-conscious any more - until of course we slip and become inattentive to our daily life again :-)

Initially it's useful to document dreams, but later as we learn to process them in realtime, it's best to simply understand the message and forget about the dream. 

No point in rehashing the past. Look forward and be in the present.

Wake Up

1. Process Dreams

2. Do energizing Body Scan (1 min-5min)

3. Do some stretches in bed

4. Be Mindful as you set your feet on the earth

Understand that waking life is "but a dream", that is the mind is constantly cooking up images, or stories, or hallucinations, or simulations from its sensory inputs. Doesn't mean that life is illusory it's just that we can be less buffetted by events.