Drowsiness upon Awaking
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Jul 24, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
For those of us who do this regularly, early morning meditation begins from a drowsy condition usually, as the brain of the physical body scrambles to get itself in order and to reorient itself to the material world.
Some mornings there is this feeling of reluctance. A person might reach for the shutdown button on a buzzing alarm clock, to shut down the disturbing nuisance. Then one might feel justified in sleeping a little longer as one is under the influence of the drowsy energy. The plan from the day before, the high sounding words about meditating in oneness or in enlightenment are all forgotten at the moment and the only thing considered is the satisfying need for more sleep.
Sleep is one of the chittavritti functional necessities which Patanjali advised should be shut down for access to advanced yoga practice (samyama).
How is sleep produced?
How can it be banished?
Does the yogi know of a scientific away of doing this?
Is this something the yogi can imagine or visualize his way out of?
One practice which works to immediately get rid of drowsiness upon awaking is neck exercises.
Why?
Because sleep of the brain involves the lack of transit of energy through the neck. Kundalini remains at muladhara base chakra during sleep. From there it does body repair work. In transiting from wakefulness to sleep, kundalini first deprives the brain of its services by retracting its energy to the base chakra. This causes a dulling force to saturate the brain. Our minds interpret this energy as drowsiness and sleep.
If upon awaking one can bring oneself to do some neck exercises to cause energy to flow up through the spinal column which passes through the neck, one would abolish drowsiness rapidly after awaking.
Alfredo 3 years ago
Thank you...that describes me to a T. No "parantapa" here. Will institute neck exercises right away.
unlimitedsun 3 years ago
Yoga techniques are the greatest, and this one definitely would be healthier and easier than making tea or coffee!
Marcia Beloved 3 years ago
One morning last week, I did some exercises, then had a cup of coffee, then meditated.
And, I was more alert during meditation. I thought, "I'll have to do this more often."
Drowsiness and reluctance to rise is something I have always struggled with.
Partly it is due to deficient absorption of oxygen by the lungs.
Neck exercises have always helped tremendously. I usually do neck movements before meditating.
I have not done these upon awaking, however, and will definitely try it!
Jettins 3 years ago
You all are having early morning meditations, interesting. I like to have early morning out-of-body experiences. To prolong wakefulness long enough to relax my body for a conscious out-of-body experience I sometimes do the old splash of water in the face. A few jumps will do it too. I do neck and back muscles stretching every day but during the middle of the day.
rishi 3 years ago
A crude method that has usually worked for me is to directly rush into the bathroom upon waking and run a cold bath. I am not sure if this is advisable. It was just an experiment i tried.
MiBeloved 3 years ago
Rishi,
The cold bath process was used in some ashrams, insisted on by some gurus. For instance when I lived in the Hare Krishna ashram in West Virginia, the Swami in charge use to insist on cold baths, even in the winter time when it was freezing and the water was ice-cold.
There was a special ashram there for single men, the brahmachari ashram, one Radhanath who is now a guru of repute in India, was one of the leading brahmacharis at the ashram. At the time he was not a Swami (teacher renunciant). There was a spring where water used to trickle out of the hill and some brahmacaris used to bath in that.
Once at another part of the ashram, in the place where the householder men stayed, I was in a private conversation with the leading Swami of the place, a person who was trained by the Founder of the Society, who was Bhaktivedanta Swami. So there was an argument like this:
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Leading Swami:
All of you should take baths. What is the complaint about no hot water?
Senior householder replied:
We use cold water to finish off our baths but we have to have hot water especially in the winter months.
Leading Swami:
What is this about hot water? There is no need for it. Rise early as Srila Prabhupada said. Take cold bath. Chant your rounds. Go to Mangala Artik. That is Krishna consciousness.
Senior householder replied:
Our bodies cannot become clean for deity worship with cold water in the winter time. We must have hot water to properly wash the body with soap.
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After that the conversation ended. It was only the three of us, the leading Swami, a senior householder named Garga Rishi and myself.
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My remarks above concern a study of the operation of the kundalini and how it affects moods and what we do, as well as how we perform.
