Sleep Your Way To The Soul’s Greatest Healing
Consider these two scenarios - You lie down on your bed, close your eyes, have a blissful sleep for 6 to 8 hours, wake up refreshed, ready to take on the day. The other scenario is - you lie down on your bed, toss and turn, and think of all the stressors keeping you awake. Which of these two scenarios gives a good start to a new day, and a peaceful anchor to life?
It is no wonder that a little discipline over how long you sleep, how deeply you sleep, determines your state of mind throughout the day. If you have a habit of doing yoga and meditation in the morning, a good sleep will facilitate a deeply relaxing meditation and effective yoga. Your consciousness will feel fresh and elevated, ready to take on and make the best of the day.
Finding the Natural Rhythm
Let me go back a few steps to the two different scenarios we encountered. How do we give every day that stable start? If we need stability, and a compass to live by for our everyday lives, we need to find the natural rhythm of Earth, of Nature itself, and try to tune ourselves to it. We cannot afford to go against the natural cycles of earth and expect to have a peaceful sleep, or even some semblance of peace. Both science and ancient spiritual wisdom confirm that it is in our best interest to work with the cycles of nature and be in harmony with the Earth. The first step in this is to sleep and wake up according to the rising and setting of the sun, if possible.
When we try to balance our lives, not only do we balance our roles and responsibilities, our time, and relationships, but we also balance the natural elements in our space. Sleep is one of the most important elements, another being nutrition, for physical and emotional well-being.
Heal the Body While You Sleep
A good sleep is essential for the body to work on healing and recovery. The quality and quantity of restorative sleep deeply influences how soon the body repairs injured parts. A study indicates that sleep is more important than nutrition to heal the body. Sleep scientists began researching the role of nutrition in healing, instead they ended up discovering that sleep actually accelerated physical healing. Another study shows that sleep deprivation slows the healing process. Sleep also strengthens the immune system. A lack of sleep damages our genes.
Therefore, for physical wellbeing, we need good sleep to perform well at our jobs, careers, relationships, and generally to function well in society and community. Sleep is ‘Manna’, an elixir, for our wellbeing - nothing less.
Heal Consciousness While You Sleep
Not only does sleep provide physical healing, it also heals our conscious mind and our consciousness. At the physical level, the human system needs a balanced input of nutrients, like proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. Similarly, at the level of consciousness, we need to spend a balanced duration in the four states - wakeful, dream, sleep, and 'turiya' (a transcendental state). Turiya is purely an inner state of the soul or heart, and it can be reached through a deeply relaxed meditation such as Heartfulness meditation. This state is the source of creativity, accidentally or unconsciously triggered in artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs. The yogis of the world do it consciously by training their consciousness through spiritual practices. For those curious about the turiya state, you are welcome to try contemplative practices like Heartfulness meditation. This heals our consciousness from past impressions and emotional burdens. A good sleep is a necessary precursor to reaching this turiya state.
Coming back to the state of consciousness known as sleep - we all know the length of a good sleep, the benefits of maintaining the natural circadian rhythm, avoiding gadgets a few hours before we sleep, having an early light dinner, etc. Additionally, let us consider how to get into a peaceful and calm disposition as bedtime approaches.
A Bedtime Routine to Sleep Well and Heal Well
My spiritual teacher, Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, treated the hour just before sleep with great reverence. He suggested 10 principles for good living, and one of the important principles was to sleep with an attitude of gratitude towards the Source. He suggested that we submit our day’s deeds, both good and bad, our joys and sorrows, our accomplishments and failures, all such dualities with a feeling of utmost humility, laying our soul bare, and further submitting our willingness to attain our highest potential. This process heals us emotionally and refines our heart, connecting us to expanded subconscious and superconscious states during sleep.
Thus, the ultimate healing is our submission, undisguised and candid exposing of ourselves to our higher selves. Then, better sleep becomes a mere byproduct in this magical passage of life, helping us heal our souls for eternity.
