If your mind cannot relax sufficiently in the evening, it is difficult to fall asleep. The many thoughts of the day develop into a little whirlwind in your head and leave you no peace. There are wonderfully calming meditation exercises that can help you fall asleep. You can find out more here.
Find natural peace with meditation.
Problems with falling asleep are nerve-wracking. Maybe you know this: while you can’t switch off your thoughts and at the same time you are tormented by worries about not getting enough sleep, it merely is incredibly challenging to relax correctly. Under these circumstances, many people resort to sleeping pills to find their peace.
But you do not have to resort to medication to find harmony: try meditation exercises instead! In this way, you give your body naturally precisely what it needs to slip into sleep. A study by the University of Minnesota confirms the high effectiveness of meditation and mindfulness training. Eight weeks of this is just as helpful for insomnia as eight weeks of swallowing sleeping pills!
So you see: you already have the ability to improve your sleep quality within yourself – you have to activate it.
What monkeys have to do with falling asleep
Yoga aptly compares our mind to a monkey that jumps from tree to tree, screeching loudly. A funny picture – but at some point, we should let our monkey rest a little because otherwise, he will rob us of our last nerve. But while we try to move away from our inner monkey circus, we only give more energy to our thoughts. The solution: distract the monkey!
3 great meditation exercises to fall asleep
So the essential thing in these meditation exercises is to shift your concentration to something other than falling asleep. In the following meditation exercises, we will show you exactly how to do this best:
Exercise 1: Finding a meditation object
Instead of having to deal with hundreds of thoughts while falling asleep, try to find a meditation object that you can fully engage with:
Feel, for example, your breathing, the airflow at the nostrils, or the lifting and lowering of your abdominal wall. Count your breaths to 10 and then start again from the beginning.
This would be a first, helpful meditation exercise.
It may sound simple at first, but it requires a high degree of concentration – and in precisely the right place to take the energy out of sleep-robbing thoughts – and thus tame your inner monkey.
Exercise 2: Watch an inner movie
Another method would be this – take at least 10 minutes of your time:
- Sit upright but comfortably in your bed.
- Review the events of the day from back to front. Starting from this moment, continuing to your way to bed, and so on.
- You don’t have to be rich in detail; remember the moments that come to you by themselves. Experience them once again.
- It is essential to look at your day from the outside: see your day before you as if someone else had experienced it and as if you were just an uninvolved spectator. So if you have been offended by something on that day, then distance yourself from it now. It is indeed your figure that you see there in the past, but it no longer exists now. You are here right now, apart from all this.
- Now you can sit still and experience who you are – apart from the experiences of this day – just yourself.
- You can fall asleep calmly.
At first, this meditation technique can be difficult, but it can serve as a powerful calming technique after a while. Thinking backward releases the tension in your head, and being unaffected by daily events shows you who you are. So there is no reason against the necessary sleep relaxation.
Exercise 3: A Mantra for Mindfulness
Many people find it easier to relax with a Mantra. Keep the word “calm” in mind when you inhale and “relaxation” when you exhale. Repeat this for at least 10 minutes in comfortable silence.
Even if your monkey interferes from time to time and throws other thoughts in between, don’t be angry with him – take note of the study, greet him friendly, and say goodbye to him again. Then you can focus your attention also on your Mantra: calm, relaxation, peace.
If other terms appeal to you more, you can, of course, use different words in the same way. You must relax completely!
Meditation to fall asleep: A final tip
The balance of the body elements is also a central component of European Ayurveda. Diseases and disorders, such as sleeping problems, are always symptoms of an imbalance in us. By giving balance to body, mind, and soul, we can find new regeneration, energy, and joy. Bring a little Ayurveda as an excellent sleep cure into your life!
Conclusion
Meditation exercises can help you to relax your mind naturally. Whether you place a meditation object in front of your thoughts, mentally relive your day backwards from the outside, or learn a calming mantra is entirely up to you. Get away from problems and worries with meditation: we wish you a restful sleep!
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