Chapter 7- Improving Your Sleep With Meditation
If you are one of the many people in the world who suffers from a poor night’s sleep then you will benefit from meditation as an addition to your everyday life. You probably lead a very busy lifestyle, working long hours or shift patterns, have children to care for as well as a spouse and then there’s yourself; you obviously have needs that must be met too, otherwise you wouldn’t be human.
Life will always be challenging, but when you find that you are struggling to maintain a decent sleep routine then you’ll need to act swiftly to remedy this situation before it damages you. Most people are happy to visit the GP or their doctor for medication or some sort of drug to get the job done, but then you risk becoming dependant or addicted to the medication and this can prove equally as harmful to your overall health and wellness.
To function properly in life you need to be well rested, especially if you lead a hectic lifestyle, or perhaps your career involves much physical activity, sports or some form of training. Athletes and all sports persons know the risks of poor sleep routine, energy is recuperated during the resting phase, also, growth takes place with sufficient hours, so it is fair to say that those who have little to no sleep are missing out on vital development, both on a mental and a physical level.
Meditation is the key to relaxation, a jumpy mind will ruin any chance of sleep as this type of mindset is hard to quieten down, often driving many people into high states of anxiety and insomnia. When the mind is relaxed the body relaxes also, the reverse is not true. The body takes its cue from the thoughts that are created via images that we develop in our imagination.
Control is needed to keep any old thought from racing around in the mind, thoughts produce actions and if those thoughts are not controlled then the same lack of control will precede all actions, hence when a person is “out of control” the world responds in a hostile way – all of this due to a lack of sleep is a huge price to pay indeed. But it does not stop there, illness on a mental scale can be the result of long periods of little or no sleep, like insomnia was mentioned earlier where sleep becomes seemingly impossible to achieve, but the ability to live in a coordinated way becomes lost, coping with the most basic of tasks becomes a struggle, libido can become a thing of the past and relationships take the brunt of it all as you find less time for those who matter to you because you just don’t have the energy to keep up with yourself let alone with others.
Meditating is a way of life that needs to be practiced daily in order to benefit from it. The mind is capable of a great many accomplishments when it is sharp and on-point. The mind is the processing centre and so it must be kept in good working order for maximum benefit to yourself. One benefit of meditation is that it will relax those parts of the mind that are tensed and uneasy, bustling with too many thoughts, meditating each night before bed and each morning upon waking (if you managed to sleep at all) will strip away at the invisible layers that living life has accumulated with each day that passes.
The third eye becomes covered in these layers and we need our heavenly eye to perceive life better. Once these layers are removed our intuition is at once improved, concentration is afforded and thinking patterns of old disappear leaving you with your new and super-infused mindset.
A mind that is calm, clear, happy and relaxed enough will allow for a decent sleeping routine. With this, you will feel as though you are a new person, you’ll be armed with a tool that will always be around, as meditation will never change its ways like how people do, it will never disappoint you or let you down in any way, meditation is as it always has been; a way of life that can improve even the most wayward of minds, its power – unrivalled and unparalled. Heal yourself with meditation and earn a new life from sustained practice and diligence.
Record the slightest of changes to you lifestyle after making the addition of meditation each day and night, compare the differences in your mindset, note the changes in your thoughts, ask yourself how you feel before you hit the sack for a night’s sleep and keep referring to your observations, as this will give you a detailed account of even the most minute of changes, and with the information gathered you can then make any necessary adjustments along the way.
Your relationships will improve beyond you wildest imagination, people will enjoy your company because you are less irritated and more calm and relaxed instead, able to hold a conversation instead of appearing disinterested because of frequent yawning owed to a night of counting sheep and staring at the ceiling, the four walls and out the window, wondering to yourself if you’ll ever get some shut eye.
Your outlook on life will be refreshed and new ideas will enter into your thinking space, inspiring growth and development, success and fullfilment. Thoughts will feel as though they actually belong to you – because they do, your prescence will be requested by new and interesting people, all of whom you can afford to make time for due to your newly improved time management skills. Life can seem like the enemy whenever you’re tired and out of energy, but it is we who make enemies of our own selves by starving the mind and the body of its necessities, a mistake that is to be avoided at all costs if you are to make the most of your life.