Your “off switch”
A few years ago my health-nut Mom dragged me to an alternative heeling workshop. One of the alternative practioners there demonstrated something called “jin sin jitsu”. He said it could help w/ all sorts of ailments (I forget the specifics). Well I decided I’d give it a try before I went to bed each night and see what happens. Now keep in mind that it would take me about 30 min to fall asleep and an hour once or twice a week.
Everyone I’ve told this process to, and has gotten back to me has had similar results.
After a couple of days I had to force myself to stay awake through the whole process. I did this by sitting up and finding ways to stretch my super tight hamstrings, glutes and hips at the same time. When I did make it through the whole 21 min sequence I found myself waking up an hour before my alarm was to go off fully rested! I also made this meditative and I could think more clearly, had more energy, and got less stressed out the next day.
The process:
Put one hand on top of your head and leave it there (I switch hands in-between each position)
W/ the other hand, place your three middle fingers in the following places for 1-3 min each:
1 in between eyebrows
2 on tip of nose
3 in between your collar bones
4 in the middle of your sternum
5 a couple of inches below your belly button
6 on your pelvic bone
7 on the tip of your tail bone
I also made it meditative by trying to think of nothing, but all sorts of stuff would come in and the longest time I got of no thoughts is 3 or 4 seconds. So I used visualization, trying to think of nothing but fresh, light blue air coming in, and cruddy red air out, and all the junk in my system w/ it. Doing it this way, six years later, I think I’ve gotten through 5 poses w/o intruding thoughts.
If I had something very important the next day like a poorly prepared for test or getting up after 2.5 hours of sleep to catch a plane (VERRY hard for me) I visualized it going very well. Helped heeps. I got B’s on the tests I would have been lucky to pass and I made the bus for the airport.
If I was feeling a bit drowsy I do each of these for 1 min each (if in public you may want to the last two very descretely, under my desk works for me) and seven minutes later I felt sharp and awake.
I did this every night for two years and now a couple of times a month.
Edit: to keep track of the time I used the count-down timer on my watch.