It's exquisite sounds summon your consciousness out of your meditative state with a series of subtle gongs.
Trying to not think about falling asleep only creates stress for troubled sleepers. And the more stress, the less chance of falling into slumber. An ancient Kundalini yoga relaxation technique can give your mind something else to focus on and, in turn, help you relax.
Nancy Elkes, an instructor at Practice Yoga in Manhattan, recommends using the Meditation on the White Swan (also called Hunsani meditation) to quiet the mind in order to fall asleep. The more you use it before bed, the more accustomed your body becomes to this process of physically settling down. Once it’s part of your routine, it can soothe your entire body to fall asleep faster.
Meditation on the White Swan
1. Sit in a comfortable seat with a straight spine. Fold your fingers into your palms with the thumbs extended. Press your thumb tips together until they turn white (no need to press hard, just firmly). The tips are facing down in a V-shape to keep the joint relaxed.
2. Place your hands 6 to 8 inches in front of the brow point, with the backs of the hands facing you. Fix your eyes on the white of your thumb tips and get a clear mental image of your thumbs.
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3. Then close your eyes and clearly “see” the thumb tips through the eyelids mentally.
4. Let the mind meditate on the sound “Sat” (Sanskrit for “truth”) as you inhale, and think “Nam” (meaning “the expression of your truth”) as you exhale. Let the mental sound vibrate in your body and continue for 5-11 minutes.
5. Give yourself over to the sleep gods as you let go. “You will reach a state of complete relaxation when you surrender all the mind’s busy thoughts and all of the body’s tensions over to someone or something else,” Elkes says. “Even if you have to envision your thoughts and aches or tension being swallowed up in the waves, let them flow away from you.”
6. To finish, touch the tongue to the roof of the mouth, gently swallow, softly float your eyes open and lay down for a deep sleep.
You can also try this lying down. You might find that soon after envisioning your thumbs, your alarm is waking you up.
Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure. Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong. Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later. The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper. This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.
What makes this gentle awakening experience so exquisite is the sound of the natural acoustic chime, which has been tuned to produce the same tones as the tuning forks used by musical therapists. According to the product’s inventor, Steve McIntosh, “once you experience this way of being gradually awakened with beautiful acoustic tones, no other alarm clock will ever do.”
adapted from Women’s Health Magazine, by BY KRISTEN DOLLARD
It serves as the perfect meditation timer.
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1638 Pearl Street
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