A guest at Ananda in consultation with Shikha Sud, clinical hypnotherapist and energy healer
In our first conversation discussing my sleep problem, Shikha said something that made me take a sudden and a long pause to think. “The question to ask here is not why aren’t you sleeping, the real question is ‘Do you want to sleep’?” These words led to an awakening, I started to laugh and replied ‘Oh god, yes you are right, the answer is no! I don’t want to sleep, it’s not that I can’t, I just don’t want to!’ With the truth floating to the surface as easily, I again realised the strength of a spiritual hypnotherapist, who accepts an answer only if the words are spoken without the critical and analytical interference of the conscious mind. “The subconscious speaks in metaphors, making it not just tough but impossible to lie, there is no mechanism present in the subconscious to manipulate the truth” says Shikha.
‘Bedtime procrastination’ is the fastest growing reason for developing a sleep disorder. The digital world has extended our work and waking hours, making us available to every call of action outside our own bodies. It is a psychological phenomenon that starts in the mind or the subtle body. What affects the subtle reappears on the physical as fatigue, sleep deprivation, shallow breath, slow thinking & bad decisions. In time this grows into insomnia, heart conditions, hormonal imbalances, obesity or diabetes.
Nobody develops insomnia overnight. Breaking the big problem down, Shikha recognises insomnia as an outcome of one’s inability to rest, or even worse, the unwillingness to rest. “Your mental habit pattern is now a physical anatomical truth, you aren’t addicted to anything ‘outside’. You are addicted to stimulation, or a sympathetic nervous system overdrive, which in turn has switched off your faculty responsible for rest responses. Now you are tired and yet so awake!”
Shikha goes on to add that, “In my experience, sleep is very closely linked to the emotional baggage we choose to carry in our subconscious mind. Sleep is a way for our subconscious mind to make us aware of what we need to process or vent or act upon. Night rituals for Insomnia one can find online can range from with calming essential oils, chamomile tea, gentle face and foot massage, switching off devices an hour before sleep, soothing music on apps - the list goes on. But what we need to understand is that a mind that has restlessly activated itself with tasks to process and complete at a subconscious level will only activate more if we get caught up in these rituals, which for some could become another to-do list. So, stop fighting and start Listening to what is going on within”.