One of the greatest challenges in the modern world is getting enough sleep, not only in terms of hours but also in regard to quality. Of course, when we’re stressed, it’s hard to sleep—and when we don’t sleep well, we become more stressed.
In this chapter you’ll be taught a simple exercise to help you count sheep—well, more like brain waves, actually. Brain waves regulate all states of wakefulness and sleep. Only when they are soothed can we fall—and remain—asleep.
Throughout the exercise you’ll be focused on your heart chakra, which is the center of the subtle energy anatomy. Creating serenity through the heart chakra calms the entirety of the subtle energetic system and harmonizes the body, mind, and soul. It also activates the full power of the heart organ, which emanates the strongest electromagnetic activity amongst all organs, including the brain. Only when our heart field is congruent and tranquil will our brain waves become regulated; then we’ll find ourselves where we’re supposed to be: asleep.
Before introducing you to the chakra-based sleep exercise, I will first provide some information about how sleep works. After the exercise is a tip that will have you “smelling pretty,” indulging in the tranquillizing, lulling balm of lavender.
Background on Brain Waves
What the Chakra Sleep Exercise
Seeks to Accomplish
This chapter’s sleep exercise involves mindfully focusing on the heart center to transform stress-related brain waves into sleep-inducing brain waves. Stressed-out brain waves are the reason we don’t sleep. Conversely, soothed brain waves enable sleep.
A brain wave is an electrical impulse in the brain. Brain waves are measured in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz), which depict the average measurement of frequencies produced by the neurons in the brain. The truth is that the various brain wave rhythms change constantly, based on what we’re feeling or doing. In turn, our brain waves affect how we feel, think, and act.
Brain waves are described in ranges. Each grouping represents a different way of thinking and behaving. Following are the categories, displayed from fastest and highest frequencies to slowest and lowest, as well as a code word I’ve assigned to these categories. These code words will be used in your sleep exercise.
- • Gamma (38–42 Hz): Spirituality. Can only be accessed with a quiet mind, which can then attain states of universal altruism and virtuousness.
- • Beta (12–38 Hz): Alertness. Indicates an alert, cognitive, and wide-awake state.
- • Alpha (8-12 Hz): Awareness. Holds us in a calm but aware state. Invites mind-body learning.
- • Theta (3-8 Hz): Contentment. Drops us into a more meditative state and initiates healing. This level carries our fears and psychological troubles but also enables us to shift them. Here we can enter a light sleep.
- • Delta (.5-3 Hz): Deep Sleep. Generated during deep meditative or contemplative states, allowing bodily regeneration. Linked to the restorative sleep that lacks dreams.
- • Infra-Low (under .5 Hz): Modulator/Stabilizer. Very slow, probably showing our cortical rhythms, which are the core control networks of the nervous system. These waves can modulate the other waves and stabilize the central nervous system. Lately they’ve been the focus of work centering on hyper-arousal, sleep patterns, and post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD (Brainworks, “What Are Brainwaves?”).
Sleeping problems such as insomnia or restlessness can strike for many reasons. Basically, however, if there is a disturbance in any brain wave, our sleep will be affected. As well, we must downshift from beta to alpha before descending into theta and, finally, delta. If we don’t go through the entire process, also soothing our other brain waves (gamma and infra-low), we’ll never get to sleep—or, if we do, we’ll keep waking up (Mental Health Daily, “5 Types”).
In the sleep exercise you won’t be trying to figure out what’s wrong with every brain wave. Instead, you’ll first access your heart chakra and through it start slipping through the various brain waves until you doze off. Sleep experts state that we progress from beta to alpha to theta, then finally into delta (Mastin, “Types and Stages of Sleep”). In my exercise, though, I suggest you move in this order: beta, alpha, gamma, theta, infra-low, and delta. I find that touching into gamma before falling into theta activates your elevated consciousness and connects you with angelic protection.
Through my work with clients, I’ve found that one of the main reasons people can’t sleep is that they feel unsafe. For children and adults, nighttime activates our psychic senses and increases our ability to sense otherworldly ghosts and dangers. In other words, we start to feel those “monsters under the bed.” Aligning with cosmic protection takes care of this issue.
I also insert infra-low before the delta stage. Many of my clients complain that they wake up right before falling into a deep sleep, or reaching delta. They then lie awake obsessing about their worries or problems. My determination is that many of these concerns are “stored” in infra-low. By smoothing out these waves, we can soothe our mind, eradicate the mental chatter, and finally breathe deeply and surrender to sleep. Of course, the hope is that you aren’t still awake by the time you reach delta, the deep sleep state. The exercise is merely pointing you in that direction.
Heart-Based Chakra Sleep
You can conduct the following exercise when settled into bed or when you want to nap. I suggest that you review the exercise when you are awake and memorize the code words and related information. That way, when you are actually ready to relax, you can simply concentrate on the code words and let the Divine do the rest. (See tip 8 for how to use lavender to bolster the effects of this exercise.)
step one: Accept Your Current State. Before you can shift your brain waves and fully relax, you must accept everything you are experiencing at every level. Our issues are present for a reason and will only clear if accepted first.
Lying down, take a few deep breaths and simply “be.” Without judgment, deliberately sense bodily areas of tension, pain, exhaustion, or fatigue. Follow mental strain or chatter and let yourself ruminate about problems. Acknowledge all subtle-energy congestion and allow the emotions to run wild. Do the same in a search for serene, calm, and peaceful bodily areas and states of being.
step two: Center in Your Heart. When you’ve run through the scenarios you’re experiencing, settle in your heart chakra. Ask the Divine to join you here, bringing serenity and love into this space. Give permission for the Divine to now take over your descent into sleep.
step three: Flow Through the Brain Waves. The Divine will now begin to move you through every brain wave, regulating them perfectly so that you can move into sleep. In fact, you’ve only to briefly touch upon the code word of each brain wave to receive the blessings it holds for your slumber. You’ll drift asleep whenever you are ready, the remainder of the steps accomplished unconsciously.
One at a time, the Divine moves you through these brain waves:
Alertness (Beta): If there is any last thought that must lovingly appear in your heart, it now does so. Your stressors disappear as though a cloud is carrying them away.
Awareness (Alpha): You become aware of the goodness of the day behind you and the sweetness of the restfulness that lies ahead. The Divine replaces all stressors with the awareness of ease and grace.
Spirituality (Gamma): Your spirit now further opens you to the flow of universal love and calm. Angels come forth to chaperon your dreams and guard your sleep.
Contentment (Theta): You feel only deep satisfaction and contentment in your rest, knowing that your needs are being tended by the Divine. Bask in this tranquility and simply remain in this state, assured that you will be carried into the next sleep stage when ready.
Modulator/Stabilizer (Infra-low): Your spirit accesses the stabilizing effects of this brain wave, soothing your deepest issues and harmonizing every level of your being. You are being nestled and cradled in the arms of the Divine.
Deep Sleep (Delta): All is well. You are completely tended by your essential spirit, the Divine, and the angels.
step four: Awakening. Upon awakening from a nap or in the morning or even in the middle of the night, thank all the helpers that tended to you when sleeping. If you want to return to sleep, repeat the code words for the brain waves.
Aromatic Soothing
Lavender is a universal essential oil, able to soothe and balance every chakra and all aspects of your being. There are many ways to use lavender to promote peaceful slumbers.
For example, if you are stressed from the day, add up to seven drops in your bath and let your worries float away. You can also dab a drop on your pillow or your skin before climbing into bed.
Another option is to add three to six drops to boiling water. Cover your head with a towel while breathing the scent through your nose. Add a few drops in a spray bottle and spritz your bedroom or use an aromatherapy diffuser. Some people slip a small bag of lavender potpourri in their pillowcase.
Another option is to imagine yourself in a lavender field and ask nature to help you dream your dreams.