is nothing else and there is no
time to go for a walk, whether
it is dancing, whatever – but, 15
to 20 minutes of aerobic exercise
or 45 minutes of brisk walking is
nice. Going to bed and waking
up at regular times – even if you
wake up and feel tired because
you feel you need more sleep,
but eventually over time to have
a regular pattern is better for
your sleep than sleeping that one
day to feel better. In the last one
or two hours, before you go to
sleep, you need to start winding
down – reading a book is great,
but watching television is often stimulating to your brain, so it is not giving the message
that ‘I want to slow down’, rather it is like ‘I still want to engage with the outer world’. So,
computer work and television are not suggested in the last one or two hours. It is also
nice to have a little ritual before you sleep – some do a jaap (prayer), some put cream
before they go to sleep… it is nice to have a ritual. The body is a creature of habits (it is
not like the mind which can be in France while we are sitting here) – the body is dense, it
needs repetition, it needs consistency and reliability. It is like when you are bringing up
children, you need to be consistent, you need to lay down boundaries. Similar is the case
with our bodies – we need to wake up at a certain time, we need to go to bed at a certain
time; signal to ourselves that it is time to go to sleep.
There are also some don’ts – don’t lie around in bed if you can’t sleep; get out of bed, do
something different – because the body has to start associating bed with sleep. Similarly
if you wake up in the middle of the night, and are awake for 45 minutes and can’t go back
to sleep, get up, walk around, because anyway you are going to be up. The myth is ‘If I
wake up, I will find it harder to go back to sleep’. No, actually, if you are up longer than 15
minutes, you need to get out of bed. If some of you wake up feeling tired, that means you
are not getting deep sleep and your para-sympathetic nervous system even in your sleep
is not being able to kick into place because your brain is not giving the signal of feeling
totally relaxed. And some of it is because we store muscle tension and that’s giving the
message to the brain. On YouTube you have several 5-10 minute videos, on progressive
relaxation, that go through each part of your body, and that’s a good way to go to bed.
Of course the best way is that after you do this, if you have a spiritual practice, some
concept of higher self, to bring that into your consciousness, and that takes care of a lot
of stuff, what happens in the unconscious.
12
Water – Drink a lot of water – because, mental and emotional activities generate so
much stuff in our neurotransmitters and hormones, that in order to cleanse it and get