in today's world, people often complain about poor sleep
In today's world, people often complain about poor sleep, about a swarm of thoughts before falling asleep, and they keep thinking those thoughts, thinking, thinking, thinking... Instead of making their falling asleep a practice.
Conscious falling asleep is one of those exercises that, conditionally speaking, doesn't require specially allocated time to perform. Its essence lies in controlling the process of falling asleep.
After all, you lie down to sleep anyway, right? You've done it your whole life and will keep doing it. So why not train yourself to fall asleep consciously? Every night, starting from this day, lie down in bed as usual, but before you drift off, you'll now need to relax your entire body completely, thereby clearing your head of thoughts, and then your sleep will be deeper, and your head in the morning will be clear and rested.
I start relaxing from the bottom up, that is, from the feet to the crown of the head; some people start from the crown, others from the fingers. I think it's not crucial here. The main thing is to hold your attention on the chosen area for some time until you feel as if blood has rushed there, that area has become somehow heavier — hold your attention there a little longer and move on. You shouldn't overdo it. If you're unsure whether you managed to relax it or not, still move on; you can just do a second round later. Yes, that works too.
We remember that the essence of field exercises lies in answering the question HOW? And here we are precisely answering it, offering an alternative to the method of falling asleep you've practiced up until now.
If you have no problems falling asleep, and you fall asleep almost instantly the moment your head hits the pillow, that doesn't mean this exercise is unnecessary. Conscious falling asleep is, in a certain sense, a ritual, and it's not only physiological rest but mostly a reset of your entire psycho-emotional system (for the body to rest, it only needs 2 hours of quality sleep).
Therefore, if you collapse into bed and your next moment is "hello, good morning," then that's not conscious falling asleep, but something else, because the essence of conscious falling asleep lies in preparing for sleep as a transition from one qualitative state to another. Sleep is like a portal, and you need to enter it clean; then you'll have a transformational space instead of a harbor for digesting accumulated junk. By relaxing before sleep, you prepare yourself so that the restorative effect of sleep is as effective as possible. And your preparation for it is a declaration of your intention — in this lies your responsibility for your body and your mind.
If you understand all this but for some reason still don't do it, there are at least two reasons. First — a low level of conviction that this is really effective enough to bother with so seriously; second — a low level of energy. After all, conscious falling asleep is tied to one of the core, established habits, and any change requires free energy (essentially, the dough for change as such). If it's not there, autopilot kicks in, and in that case, you are a collection of habits manifested through self-reflection, while the soul dozes.
To be alive, truly alive, you need energy. At first, you literally have to fight for it, for every drop. Only later does a surplus form, which, like a snowball, begins to attract more and more energy. At the initial stage of restructuring, this is often absent, but you still need to get it from somewhere.
So it turns out — to obtain energy, you need energy that you don't have. A paradox. In reality, this is solved very simply — make a deal with yourself to play this game for a month or two, just play around, without making any promises to yourself about a final and irrevocable change. Do, for example, conscious falling asleep, physical exercises, something with your breathing, and most importantly, don't eat any junk, and look at the result in a month. And then decide — whether to slide back or try to introduce some other useful habits into your life.
Does anyone practice conscious falling asleep? How's it going?
#ArthurOHarra #ProperFallingAsleep #HealthySleep #RemedyForInsomnia #SleepAsPractice