Debt in this article means that you have overdrawn on your resources and are now consuming more than you recover, store, or generate.
Sleep Debt
@yi.yi2273 Time to recharge💅 #sleep #unstoppable #baddie #recharge #slaytheday
First, watch that clip – it has the VIBE
As someone who has been practicing the dao of the night consciously for about 5 years now, returning to the basics is something that becomes regular and necessary.
The basics of the basics is nourishing the blood level of your incarnate experience. Blood qi is created from Gu qi (earth qi from food), and Tian qi (heaven or sky qi from breathing), and the integration of Gu qi and Tian qi happens largely at night during sleep.
Improper nutrition & breathing processes disrupt the functions of sleep, resulting in blood that isn’t in alignment, which erodes trust of the organs and their spirits.
Over time, this can result in all 3 of these appetites (nutrition, breathing & resting/sleeping appetites) becoming further de-ranged due to lack of nourishment and lack of trust, which compounds, creating a more & more out of sync situation that feeds into every other micro-process of the body.
Example: Bad breathing leads to bad eating/digesting which leads to bad sleeping which leads to bad breathing etc etc. All nodes in the network alter and degrade every other node.
To begin to remedy this we need to “nail one foot in place” and then build on that regularity and nail more down. You can nail down any number of things, like the time you eat breakfast every day, and the meal you eat everyday (literally the same exact meal at the same exact time, etc).
In addition, one must begin to recognize that the quality of sleep has degraded to the point of accruing an incalculable amount of sleep debt that cannot be “borrowed against”. Only when one is young and has excess yang qi can one “push” this limit, but eventually one “breaks” and a cascade of issues begins.
So, as mostly adults who are middle aged, we should all have experience being tired & exhausted all the time, because the environment we live in is constantly chipping away at us and we are unable to recover.
One major antidote to this is creating a sleeping lifestyle and preventing things/people from disrupting it.
Because we cannot imagine or predict how much sleep debt we owe, this means that we must dedicate/solemnize/determine a new path that supports sleep until we die. This is not a short-term quick-fix thing.
Here are some levers that we can pull to create our new sleep-based lifestyle.
- tape mouth with cloth medical tape during sleep to promote nasal breathing only.
- sleep with earplugs to prevent interrupted sleep from sound sensitivity.
- sleep with air filters, fans, white noise machines.
- sleep with weighted blankets.
- use blackout curtains.
- sleep before 10pm.
- sleep as the sun sets.
- begin the sleep process before you are tired.
- finish eating 3+ hours before bed.
- do not drink caffeine after 12pm.
- do not drink a lot of liquids in the evening to prevent nighttime urination.
- prevent any pets/children from waking you in the night or morning.
- no screens after the sun has set.
- no overhead lights after the sun has set (use floor lamps, candles, amber/red lights)
- bathe properly before bed, perhaps including epsom salt baths, etc. (FLEWD has a magnesium soak packet that includes transdermal lithium that might help.)
- develop a sleep ritual that may include incense, mantra, toning, prayer, meditation, dark movement (movement and self-massage in the dark), breathwork, journaling, visualization, inner smiling, positive self-talk, qi gong, yin yoga, etc.
- take naps during the day – this can be as simple as setting a timer for ten minutes, putting in earplugs and a blindfold, and laying down. One does not have to fully go to sleep for this practice to be beneficial. You can think of it as reclining meditation.
- specific supplementation before bed may help some, such as magnesium, L-theanine, or other non-addictive sleep aids. YMMV, consult with your doctor.
One of the main things to remember is that you are not improving your sleep so that you can MISCONDUCT yourself MORE, which is a common goal and viewpoint of western colonized people.
Movement, Biomechanical, Sensory-Motor Debt
We are often unaware that how we move, our balance, etc. has a large impact on our states, emotions, thoughts, etc. Many of us were never taught how to properly walk, squat, lift objects, speak etc. from biomechanically advantageous positions.
Walking is generally one of the quickest gateways back into healthy movement. To do this you must slow down and walk in a safe area wearing proper shoes (barefoot mimicking) or no shoes at all (best start).
Simple cueing to walk properly engages the Spinal Engine.
Spinal engine head over foot links:
- “Head over foot.” The mass of the head should be balanced over the load-bearing foot such that perfect balance can be achieved. This means that one can balance effortlessly on one foot mid-gait cycle. If one’s toes have become crimped and weak due to years of wearing western shoes, then one may also have to engage in conscious rehabilitation and strength of the toes and feet. Proper engagement of head-over-foot results in rotation in all 3 axes of the spine in the gait cycle. When in doubt, EXAGGERATE the movement.
You will then pair this with backwards walking as I have mentioned in this blog before. Start with 100 paces daily and work upwards, breathing slowly and mindfully as you consciously confuse the predictive process of the brain (see below for more on this).
Other options for retraining Movement are vast, such as Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Weck Method, Tai Ji, Bagua, Original Strength, etc.
Remember that Slow, Smooth and Safe is always more important to train before one increases load, intensity, speed, risk, etc.
When in doubt, slow down.
Quantitatively, remember that Frequent, Higher Volume with Lower intensity retrains & re-maps the system better than irregular, infrequent, high intensity training. Regularity and frequency often produce better long-term results. Make it easy, make it fun, feel the intrinsic rewards.
Qualitatively, Remember the 5S’s in Movement & Breathing training:
- Slow
- Smooth
- Soft
- Silent
- Sustained & Sustainable
An example training program may look like:
Daily walking (at the same time each day) for 30 minutes, with intervals of 2 minutes of faster walking, 1-minute of slower walking, ending with 100 (or more) paces of backwards walking.
Use perceived effort to train perceived effortlessness.
Continued in Part Three: Thinking & Predictive Debt
Donation Links
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[Feature Image by Pexels from Pixabay.]