Sleeplessness

The word means lack of sleep or deprived off sleep.




My staff told me that she has not got a proper sleep for the past three days and she is mentally alert but physically tired.  How can it be ? The body and mind is connected and if the body is tired, the mind is also tired or vice versa.  She told me that so many thoughts went through her head and she cannot close her eyes.  She also told me that for the past 365 days , she has been dreaming non stop and she hope that it will go off by itself if she takes a long break from work.




I told her it is not true because she is still carrying the same brain on her trip wherever she goes and it is important to train the mind and keep it in order. The holiday trip could take away the stress if the stress is the problem but if the reason for lack of sleep is her untrained mind and wherever she goes , the untrained mind follows her and could make her more tired.




Our untrained mind is like a bunch  of monkeys having a party at certain time of the day or all the time of the day.  The eye monkey, ear monkey , the nose monkey, etc which represent the different senses in our body. All these monkeys are partying around and caused so many thoughts to move in and out of our mind and making use tired and yet cannot sleep.




How do we tame our mind and make us sleep ?  Let it be natural , treat our body and mind with all the kindness and be a good friend to it. We have to adopt some methods to calm down the mind and bring its activity level to its resting level.


Meditation is to calm the mind and making it relax .One way of meditation is to focus on the breath and following its "in" and :"out" motion and slowing it down from a four count hold , to an eight count hold and finally , a 16 count hold . The hold is between the  in breath and the out breath.  This is as simple as that.  If we focus and concentrate on the breath , our mind is free from all the thoughts and thinking. Just relax and slow down our breath and in turn, our body.  It is difficult at the start but start with the easy routine and gradually intensify the slowness while be kind to your body and make it rest as natural as possible.


There are many ways.  Another way is listening to meditative music and the breath link to the tune or beat of the music and enjoy the tempo .  Any concentration of our mind , will draw our energy to it and it will impact the body condition. Just relax and enjoy the flow.
Break from our mindset that we can sleep only by lying down. Sleep can be in any pose include sitting and the most important is not the position but the state of the mind when we sleep.  Remember, it is not a necessity to sleep lying down, you can sleep while standing . The state of the mind is more important.


Okay now.  Find a place to sit in the most comfortable pose and corner and enjoy the trip . Just don't be complicated to yourself or use force on your will,.  Expect nothing and the form will come into your pose naturally.




Namaste.