Evening practice can keep me up

[Wyrdone]

So before I begin , did run a few searches, I know it has been at least mentioned in passing:

 

Sometimes evening practice of taiji or basic meditation can leave me feeling very good and calm but hinders going to sleep early.

 

If I can wake up without setting an alarm it leads to a refreshing nights rest. Also can lead to some insights as it seems to be due to to a strong awareness of the body.

 

But, having to wake up at 4am to be at whatever site I am working at this week before the hotel offers breakfast, it is not exactly an optimal situation.

 

Any advice?(besides quit) I have tried doing "rag-doll", and progressive relaxation. Sometimes it just keeps me up longer.

Is there any qigong to do right before bed?

[Dynasty]

A simple visualization may be helpful.

 

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. 

 

Hold your attention on a red object. How about a red apple for 30 seconds or so. Let it fade away and then visualize an orange for 30 seconds. Then onto a lemon, a green apple, blueberries, and if you haven't fallen asleep by now an eggplant. 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Dynasty

[joeblast]

do your active stuff early and only stillness before bed...meditative breathwork fine tuning anapanasati should not charge one up

Edited May 23, 2019 by joeblast

[Starjumper]

My teacher advised to take a tablespoon of whiskey and pour it on a washcloth by your pillow.

[Aetherous]

Practice in the morning, and don't do things that interfere with sleep.

[silent thunder]

Many people react this way, I'll echo the others here and shift your practice to morning for those aspects of practice that energize you and mess with sleep.

 

Wish I'd have been more attentive to sleep in my 20's and 30's. 

I now sincerely understand its importance to all other aspects of life.

[Wyrdone]

Thank you all for the responses, very helpful and I learned a new term, anapanasati.

I don't usually buy booze when traveling for work. I will definitely try the rainbow fruit meditation and consider timing and affects of practice. It is not typically an issue but it crops up often enough. Thanks again.

[joeblast]

my first like 3 years of practice, I didnt have much to go by - but I figured out the link between the olfactory nerve and neural/mental quiescence - if you're sniffing at the air, you're necessarily bringing more air across the olfactory nerve and causing higher amplitude signal from it.  lean back in a bath sometime with the water against your eardrums and figure out how to breathe silently, then translate that to seated meditation.  that neural activity translates to resistance as applied to ohm's law.

[Wyrdone]

6 hours ago, joeblast said:

my first like 3 years of practice, I didnt have much to go by - but I figured out the link between the olfactory nerve and neural/mental quiescence - if you're sniffing at the air, you're necessarily bringing more air across the olfactory nerve and causing higher amplitude signal from it.  lean back in a bath sometime with the water against your eardrums and figure out how to breathe silently, then translate that to seated meditation.  that neural activity translates to resistance as applied to ohm's law.

So in this case the "resistance"/internal is impeding "current"/chi flow and the olfactory nerve stimulation is providing a "gate" signal to lower total resistance? (Rt=r1r2/[r1+r2]) 

I know, I know, electrical metaphors only go so far, and bioelectic circuits are only correlated to chi. The dao that can be spoken...

[joeblast]

On 5/24/2019 at 6:13 PM, Wyrdone said:

So in this case the "resistance"/internal is impeding "current"/chi flow and the olfactory nerve stimulation is providing a "gate" signal to lower total resistance? (Rt=r1r2/[r1+r2]) 

I know, I know, electrical metaphors only go so far, and bioelectic circuits are only correlated to chi. The dao that can be spoken...

its more like, when the nerves are in an activated, sensate rich state, they consume energy.  a lot more than one would think.  so the ohm's law correlation really kinda has to take amplitude as efficiency in a way

 

so attenuation is performed, except 0 is dead, so what happens is the nerves sort of transform their resonant mode from sensate rich Yang to efficient passive Yin.

 

one can do all the dantien breathing he wants, but without good stillness, the overall amplitude is necessarily limited

 

the dao cant be spoken, but from a good vantage point, a whole lot of fingers can be pointed

Edited May 25, 2019 by joeblast

[thelerner]

 

Other people have this problem?  Evening practice keeping them up?

[silent thunder]

Quite a few folks I've met on retreat describe disrupted sleep if they practice in the evening.

 

 

 

 

[RiverSnake]

An old cultivator buddy of mine told me that when he was going through his Kundalini process, the energetic surges wouldn't allow him to go to sleep.

 

Asking his teacher they said....don't try go to sleep, just lay down and go into a light state of relaxation and stay there....if you fall asleep great....if not then you will have still allowed your system to recover even though you didn't knock out fully. This allow you to wake up relatively refreshed.