Do You Wake Up and Have Trouble Going Back to Sleep? This Pose Could Be The Fix

Reclining Buddha Is Trying to Help You Rest

by Jennifer Rose & Better Existence | September 29, 2014

Beautiful. Yes. Exotic. If you are a 24-year-old American girl, yes. The first time I traveled to Thailand and visited Wat Po, that is what I saw: a beautiful, exotic, enormous statue. That was half a lifetime ago. 

Today I see compassionate instruction. Perhaps we are not meant just to ogle this pose; we are meant to assume it, to see what the effects are. Perhaps its enormous size, more than 141 feet long, nearly half a football field, is an exclamation point on its meaning. This is a powerful pose. 

This pose healed my lifelong insomnia and terrible night anxiety. There must be someone else out there that it can help. I hope you will give it a try. 

How to Do the Pose

Notice these most important points about the position of the Reclining Buddha:

• He is lying on his right side.
• His platform is elevated under his right armpit.
• He is supporting his head.

Here is a photograph of the position I learned in yoga class with Nishit Patel, Vishnu Asana. This is the position I rest in when I wake up in the middle of the night and want to go back to sleep. 

• My left knee is bent, creating stability in the pose.
• My left elbow is bent, also for stability. 
• I am using a pillow to apply gentle pressure under my right armpit.

This pose changed my life. It gave me control over restlessness and nighttime anxiousness. If you are interested in understanding why it works, I can tell you, but try it first, and tell me what you experience. 

Use this pose to drift off to sleep, perhaps reading something calming to end the day, or use it to attain a calm state of mind if you wake up in the middle of the night. If you wake up anxious at 4am you are just like me. Lying in this pose might make as much of a difference in your life as it has in mine. 

If your right arm starts falling asleep, it is fine to move it.

If you do not find peace lying on your right side after twelve minutes or so, try lying on your left side in the same pose. I know 1 person who is more soothed on the left side than on the right side. 

I hope this helps you find relief. 

2-Minute Practice Cards: 2-Minute Bedtime Practices -- Wake Up Happy

Let's Talk About Discipline

Why Didn't Eknath Eat the Nut?

by Jennifer Rose & Better Existence | September 8, 2014

Does the word "discipline" leave you cold? Does it bring to mind a sadistic drill sergeant? Does it reek of the exact opposite of what you want to cultivate in your life?  

Have you ever asked yourself, "Why is discipline being touted as a virtue, when it is the epitome of icky, repellent, mindless, slavish following?" 

Has this question nagged you, as you have read the likes of St. Teresa of Avila almost weeping off the page with entreaty to apply oneself in a disciplined way to, in her case, prayer?

Maybe you tell yourself, "Well, it's fine for saints, but a mere mortal, I . . ." 

The Ancient Toltec wisdom in don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom includes the equally impassioned entreaty, "Always do your best." 

What is the connection between discipline and personal freedom? 

The connection is simple but profound. 

There is a memorable scene in Eknath Easwaran's Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily LIfe in which he describes being at someone's home and sitting near a bowl of cashews. He made up his mind to skip the cashews. However, he observed his hand, seeming almost independent, wandering toward the nut bowl again, and again, and again. Each time, he pulled his hand back. Because he had made up his mind, he brought that hand back empty again and again.

"Just eat the damn nut!" readers like me rail, "It's not like it's an entire pie." (There was this woman. She was in the hospital. In the night, she walked to the nurses' break room, went into the refrigerator, and ate the lemon meringue pie they had purchased for a party the next day. The whole pie. It wasn't like that.)  

Why didn't Eknath eat the nut?

Discpline can be doing something, such as prayer, a way of doing something, "your best," or not doing something, like eat the nut. 

Now ask yourself, if you make up your mind to ____________ (eat fewer calories, get up earlier, exercise regularly, save a few dollars each month, smile at the kids every day, stop using heroin) and at the critical moment you "do whatever you want to," you EAT THE NUT so to speak, are you free?

Have you ever felt like a slave to a habit?

Join the teleconference Conversations With Walking Yogi Nishit Patel before October 1st, when the topic will be Discipline. 

Nishit Patel, (who is great to friend on Facebook, because he is giving away the store every day with wise posts straight from the heart) tells a story about a Yogi Saint, Swami Ramtirth, who had a devotee who brought an apple each day at the same time. Until one day that devotee did not bring the apple! This Yogi Saint noticed that the absence of the expected apple created a mental disturbance. . . . He never ate another apple. 

This story demonstrates a premium placed on freedom from habits. It demonstrates the awesome power that habits have to disturb our minds, and the urgency to invest in conscious thought and action. 

Swami Sivananda of Gangotri to Bhole from 'At the Eleventh Hour' by Rajmani Tigunait (page 95): 

. . . discipline becomes torture if you do not understand its value and if you are not motivated to help yourself. It is self-motivation that prepares the ground for self-commitment. Only then do you enjoy the disciplines you undertake. Such discipline is called austerity. If you don't enjoy it, it is torture. 

 Join us in meaningful conversation on this topic and many more: Conversations With Walking Yogi Nishit Patel  the first Wednesday of every month.