I haven’t documented it here, but I have been looking to wake up early in the morning, consistently. Consistently is key, because I do wake up early on many days and do my yoga practices in the wee hours. But I have simply not managed to sustain it.
I worked towards it rigorously with varied methods and plans. Some of them worked for a few days but then they all come to naught. I have tried sleeping well on time the previous night, having a regulated dinner, cutting down on sugars, meditating before and after sleeping. No screen/entertainment a few hours before sleeping.
I tried all kinds of alarms including some bhajans which always elicit a response from me but it all failed.
It simply didn’t happen.
After being at it for many months, I felt I had done everything that was possible within my mental make-up to sort this out. It hadn’t worked.
To a lot of people it may seem weird or that my efforts may have been in-genuine but relax. Don’t be too judgemental. Because when it comes to sleep, I have some fairly deep rooted situation going on.
Motivation to wake up early
It is very clear to me why waking up early would increase the quality of my life immensely. I would get adequate time to do my daily yoga practices, exercise routines plus other meditations. This would in turn improve the quality of my life. Moreover, I would be able to set a system of doing other activities in life, also in a balanced way. Usually, when this kind of clarity happens within me, then waking up should happen naturally. But it hasn’t happened.
I don’t usually need to create a ‘motivation’ to do stuff that anyway makes sense to me. But in this situation….
In general, sleep is considered a major pitfall for the sadhaka. And it is one which has sunk its teeth in me well and good.
Have been waking up irregularly as usual now. And it’s been over a year since I bothered to try anything new towards this. Irregular waking up means that on some days I am up before the crack of dawn while on other days I am snoozing until late morning hours.
A few days back, I had this idea of blogging early in the morning, IF I woke up. I could even make it a challenge – 6AM blog posts for a week or something like this. Let’s see.
The funda being – if there is a clear motivation to wake up and do something specific, then a discipline can be built around it. Yoga practices, meditation, guru pooja are all reasons. They haven’t worked. Going out and watching the morning is also an attraction but it too has failed to deliver consistent results. So then, writing seems to be a very core activity for me. Maybe this will work.
🙂
One Remedy: Equanimity
In this whole struggle, there is one remedy that I have applied,
Equanimity (निश्चल तत्वं)
Once I wake up – especially if I wake up late, I accept it. In fact, more than accept it. I take a deep breath, smile and feel happy that I have had such a deep, long sleep. And that I am privileged to have a lifestyle that allows this sleeping. And I start the day from here.
Typically, I would get bugged about the late start or feel guilty about it. But I realise that these feelings won’t help. It actually makes the matter worse possibly. Society induces in us these feelings of guilt or shame thinking it could be a motivator to do better. But, it hasn’t worked.
In this way, I have been working to cultivate a pleasant and relaxed state of mind once I wake up – whatever be the time. I think this is a remedy for any problem to some extent.
Another Remedy: Acid Reflux pillow
As I looked deeper at my entire system and also the sleep – I realised one culprit could be acidity. I have GERD (acid reflux) situation. And in the night when one is horizontal the acid reflux takes its toll. So I bought a wedge pillow for it from amazon. It’s pretty good, a little uncomfortable in general, but Ok. It did improve how I felt when I woke up. I think the acidity levels were a little lower.
And after this pillow, at least for a while it felt that the sleep situation had improved.
But again old patterns have re-asserted themselves. Moreover, as I travel I can’t carry the pillow with me. Sometimes I just forget to use it and sleep normally. So, such external aids can only go so far.
This is my sleep situation so far.
It is quite a perplexing matter really. Because on some days I can wake up in wee hours. I remember my Ujjain Kumbh mela visit. I woke up at 3 AM. I went out in pitch dark and had a cold water bath in those makeshift stands. And then went to take a dip in the river. By 3.30AM – the brahma muhurat – I had my dip in the Kshipra. Then headed back to the tent to start my day. Compare this to the days by the Pushkar lake when I was snoozing till 10 AM and then it got too hot to go out. So I literally got a few hours every evening to explore the place.
I don’t know what gives. Let’s see if this 6AM post idea works. Will update 🙂
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