I've been reading this anxiety book that Fabian gave to me and I'm surprisingly finding it to be quite good.
For as long as I've been studying I've been unable to sleep well. My thoughts don't seem to want to turn off and I often find myself getting angry that I'm lying awake in bed when I could be awake and sitting at my desk getting assignments done. I go through all the things I should be doing in my mind, I make lists
of the things I will do once I get out of bed. I worry about the
assignments I have due in, about how close the end of semester is -
which always spells e.x.a.m.s to me.
I'm finding some of the ideas in the book fit in pretty well with the way I think and today, for the first time in a really long time, I was able to have a much needed sleep during the day. It happened while I was reading the book in bed and I realised, as I often do, that I was tired. I simply put the book down thought about what I'd just read and fell asleep.
JUST. LIKE. THAT.
It's got me thinking about why my body doesn't like to sleep during the day and I realised I already knew the answers thanks to my schooling.
It's all about Yin and Yang and the cycles our bodies naturally follow, the cycles that we as a society have decided to shit all over.
See, if I respected Yin time, then I wouldn't be tired during the day and I wouldn't have the dilemma of not being able to sleep in the afternoons in the first place. Get it? Maybe not.
In order to best explain myself I should probably go over what Yin time is. Yin time, my little non-Chinese-medicine-educated darlings, is when it gets dark.
Basically, when it gets dark it's Yin time and we should respect all things Yin and try and be as Yin as possible. By Yin, I mean, as opposed to Yang. Remember Yin/Yang? Yeah, I actually study that at uni.
So, Yin is...everything soft, quiet, still, sleep, dark, feminine, the negative force in nature, moon, night time, cold and well...I can't keep going because everything in the world can be classified as either Yin or Yang and I just don't have time for that.
(As a little educational note: Consider what the opposites of the above listed things are. They are the Yang counter-parts: loud, movement, awake/energised, masculine, the positive force in nature, sun, heat etc. Are you more a Yin person or a Yang person?)
Anyway, when it's night time it's the body's natural time to become more Yin. You're meant to slow down your life, stop using your brain, dim the lights, turn off the TV or laptop (told you I was failing at Yin time) and start easing yourself into sleep. Do things slowly, be kind and gentle with yourself. Music should be low and peaceful and it's time to be meditative and reflective and slow. You should eventually slide into bed already peaceful and half asleep.
I think it's obvious, now that you know about Yin and Yang, that Yang time is the opposite, right? It starts when the sun rises (not at 11am when I rise...oh great, now I'm failing at yang time too) and it's the time for movement and energetic everything. I spend too much time on my arse inside a building during Yang time. I know society demands it but I don't do much to fight it.
So that's my next challenge, I'm going to try and adhere to Yin and Yang time a little more. I recommend everyone try it. Stop sitting on your arse, get up, get moving - use the natural energy of the universe and make it work for you.
You'll feel better for it, or so Traditional Chinese medical theory states.
Now if I can manage to do it myself, I won't feel like a hypocrite telling everyone else to do it...so good Yang time, it's time to switch off the laptop.
Nani x
