A person can convert their entire sleep into a healing wholesome sleep which is as good as meditation throughout the night by simply doing the following practice before going to sleep and again immediately upon waking in the morning. Also repeat the same very slowly and very gently in case they wake up in the middle of the night. It will take a few days to learn and practice with ease, please be patient and do it consistently for a few weeks to experience the full effect. It is explained and demonstrated in the following article please go through all the linked articles therein also.
Selvan Srinivasan · 2y
How long does it take for Melatonin to work on an adult with anxiety or stress-related insomnia?
Melatonin is a natural hormone secreted by the body when your eyes are no longer exposed to light. Any kind of light, especially that which is emitted by digital devices such as TVs, Phones, laptops, tablets, etc inhibit the secretion of this hormone. It takes about one hour for the body to secrete enough of this hormone to be able to fall asleep. I do not recommend using Melatonin tablets or any other sleep medication. You may consult your doctor or psychiatrist if you need them. You can still work on the following practices if you are using sleep medication as these will help you get off the medicines in the long term. However melatonin only helps the body to relax and get into sleep mode. Anxiety and stress are related to the mind primarily and if you continue to allow you mind to keep running the restless, scattered, repetitive thoughts about the day, you will not be able to sleep even if the body is feeling tired and sleepy. For experiencing wholesome sleep, you need to work both on your body as well as your mind. The most effective night time practice to take care of both these aspects are to switch off the lights and do the following: 1. Deep Crossing. 2. 8 + 8 Energy Movements. 3. 15 minutes Look Breathe Tap meditation. You will need to practice the above activities for a few days with the following Youtube videos and SoundCloud guided meditation audio so that you can do it at night without having to use the smartphone or tablet to watch or listen to these at night. First set of 8 Em Training version: https://youtu.be/x0-4WK_bMSE Second set of 8 Em Training version: https://youtu.be/gXUuiIfLv4Y Selvans Deep crossing: https://youtu.be/qq6iKZquuVI First set of 8 Em Practice version: https://youtu.be/7uzeVhj-So8 Second set of 8 Em Practice version: https://youtu.be/FOkDgY92PNw Selvans Short Meditation – Witnessing the Four Simultaneous Activities: Selvans Short Meditation – Witnessing The 4 Simultaneous Activities To learn more about sleep cycles and help cultivate wholesome habits for a healthy regular sleep, I suggest you read the following blog articles:
During the day, the following practice is recommended.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
How can I meditate 24*7?
Yes it is possible to hold a background state of Awareness or be present in the here and now or be connected with your grounding or meditate 24×7 as you call it and yet be completely focussed on something else in the conscious part of your mind or logical / analytical mind (you call this without being aware). Before I tell you how to achieve it, I would like to explain what is happening here. Let me take the example of a juggler in a circus show. This person is able to juggle several things simultaneously but if he or she looks at one particular thing they will drop all the other things. So their conscious attention may be focussed on the audience and they may be making some funny face or saying some joke to entertain the audience but simultaneously they are probably juggling ten different balls of different sizes. Their conscious mind is mindful about the audience and talking with them and their unaware mind (as you call it) which is actually their background state of awareness is taking care of the hand movements to keep all the balls in the air in continuous motion. In other words, this juggler is being present and grounded or being mindful with all the balls he/she is juggling and and not aware of it because they are simultaneously entertaining the audience with their jokes and facial expressions. What happens normally when we work and are not being mindful is that we end up having very bad body posture which ruins our health and it turn reduces our efficiency and productivity at work. But if we stop working and start spending equal amount of time in meditation and exercise, we are not able to concentrate and complete our work on time. We would like to do both and this seems to be the aim of your question. The answer is to slowly cultivate a habit of returning back to your presence or grounding often during the day consistently. I suggest you begin with the following two practices for a few days and then see how you fare with your maths. 1) Selvans Deep crossing: https://youtu.be/qq6iKZquuVI 2) Selvans Short Meditation – Witnessing the Four Simultaneous Activities The first one takes three minutes and the second one takes five minutes so together it would be a ten minute practice. I suggest that you do this practice upon waking up in the morning and once again just before going to sleep at night. In addition please also repeat this ten minute practice once every two hours throughout your day. If you can do this consistently and cultivate a habit out of it you will be able to achieve what you aim for in a few months. I have answered a similar question before and you might be interested to read that answer here For more information and plenty of free resources to aid with the practice of meditation and deep healing, please visit my website.
I would also suggest a look at the long term goals one would expect to aim for with the practice of meditation. The following article would help to do so.
Selvan Srinivasan · 2y
What is the goal of meditation?
For each session of meditation itself there cannot be any goal. Meditation is a practice of non-doing being when you hold a stance of a disengaged witness to all that is arising or happening in the here and now. Things are constantly happening within us and around us. Things happening within us include thoughts arising in our mind, emotions arising in our emotional mind-body and physical sensations arising in our body. Things happening around us is constantly perceived by our senses of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. All of these together is called arising phenomena in the moment. It is happening momentarily and changing every moment. We do not just perceive these but constantly react, respond or engage with it. Our engagement is in the form of mental activity which may or may not be followed by physical activity. When we choose to simply sit and witness the arising phenomena without engagement, it is called meditation. To hold a goal for this would necessitate mental activity and therefore it is not possible to meditate while holding a goal. A stance of active acceptance and allowing towards all arising phenomena is necessary to remain in the state of meditation for at least a few minutes. Therefore there is no goal of meditation. However, you can have a set of goals as an outcome of the regular habit of meditation practice. Use these goals to motivate you to continue with the practice regularly and cultivate a habit out of it. When you spare some time for a regular meditation practice you can except a lot of practical benefits arising out of this in your life. These include better sleep, improved memory, lesser stress, lesser anxiety, more confidence, more decisive, clarity of mind, peace of mind, joy, better and deeper relationships, mastery over emotions, physical fitness, higher immunity, relief from chronic disease conditions, etc. If you would like to read more about an effective meditation practice that could throw up the above benefits please read the answers linked below and the articles linked therein.
When you are talking about a long session of sitting meditation practice, it would be easy to get carried away into thoughts or some form of mental activity that may seem to be meditation but not. The following article would help to find out.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
What are some signs that your meditation is working spiritually?
Let us first look at the question: What are signs that meditation is working.