Let me ask you some simple questions
How do you wake up each morning ? Do you wake up with a smile, excited, motivated? or Do you slowly wake up ? Do you have a good enough reason to wake up ? Do you jump out of bed fully present or crawl out of bed wishing to sleep more. Is waking up something you have to do?
What’s the first thing you think about when you wake up ?
Is it the stress that you have to go to your work or is it the excitement that you want to make this world a better place ?
if we examine our so called wakeful state we will find that we are not truly awake. We are predominantly half asleep with dulled senses, distracted by thoughts of past and future.
Two of the most important times during our life are the times of our birth and time of our death. All the ancient civilizations of the world understood this.
I repeat “ The moment we wake up”. If a thought is consciously planted with simple repetitions in your mind just before you wake up it becomes part of your subconscious mind. This meditation is a ritual to combine the subliminal affirmations with ancient mantras to consciously bring you into a wakeful state.
This Discussion is our ritual to invite the new day with intention and how we wake up predominantly decides how our day is going to follow.
Let’s define what being awake really means for our discussion.
In this world of duality we form concepts only by knowing the opposites. The mind only understands by comparisons and experiences reality as a relative concept. In this existence everything is defined by its opposite. If something has no opposite, mind can’t comprehend its existence. The mind knows a tree only because it sees objects that are not trees. It knows the emotions of happiness only when it knows the emotions of not being happy. It cannot understand ‘what is’ without knowing ‘what isn’t’. Other examples Hot-Cold, Rich-Poor and you get the idea.
Even knowledge cannot exist without not-knowing, first you have to not know before you can gain knowledge. Truth cannot exist without the things that aren’t true. Similarly, being fully awake can’t exist without understanding the nature of sleep.
Let’s understand the nature of sleep. To bring our mind and body in the state of restful sleep the brain activity or number of thoughts per minute needs to be brought down. Scientifically our brain activity is measured in terms of different Brain Waves state.
The brain wave state changes according to what we’re doing and feeling. The different brain waves states for our discussion are:
Beta Brain Waves
Alpha Brain Waves
Theta Brain Waves
Delta Brain Waves
Beta brain waves dominate our normal waking state of consciousness when attention is directed towards cognitive tasks in the outside world such as problem solving, driving, decision making, or any focused mental activity. If we try to go to sleep while your brain is still operating at Beta state it would be of no use. The shifting of brain state is a gradual process and should not be forced.
The next lower brainwave stage is Alpha and is characterized as resting state aiding in overall mental coordination, calmness. This is an ideal state to be in as we prepare for sleeping. Once you drift into sleep we enter Theta state, Theta is our gateway to learning, subconscious memory, and intuition. In theta, our senses are withdrawn from the external world and focused on the dream world; vivid imagery, intuition and information beyond our normal conscious awareness. This is where we are everyday resolving any unexpressed or repressed emotion from the whole day.
Yet another deeper brainwave state is called Delta. As our consciousness transitions from waking state into dream state and eventually accessing dreamless state, it taps into the territory of no-mind. This is where we experience unconditional love, bliss and healing.
First 20 minutes leading up to the moment we wake up is essential and should be invested wisely as it’s going to determine the quality of the rest of your day. This process of slowly waking up conditions our mind and body to follow a healthy and intentional structure for the waking state. The structure in our next article will support us into being fully present and at peace and is going to set the tone for our whole day. Please find more tools and resources for our Spiritual Well-Being on this channel https://youtu.be/RYGH-xY-NcM