Happiness and better sleep
The path to happiness and better sleep.
Feel like you should be happy, but you’re not? Wondering if happiness and better sleep are connected?
The ancients had a very simple word for this general feeling of unsatisfactoriness. The word they used was Dukkha which basically means bad space, but describes suffering perfectly.
Sukkha on the other hand, means good space and happiness.
Dukkha is also the word they use for ‘bad axle hole’ and Sukkha would be ‘good axle hole’.
Take a look at these images…
The image on the left has the form of a wheel, but it’s not really functional as a wheel. Why is that?
It’s because there’s no space at the centre.
Therefore it can’t be a functional wheel with no space in the centre.
The space in the centre of the wheel enables it to function as a wheel. Without the central space, it can’t work properly as a wheel.
People are like wheels, without some space at the centre they are mostly non-functional.
We need the space internally for happiness and better sleep.
When we hold tension, it tends to be in the centre of our body, principally in the gut area. In particular, we hold fear and anger in the belly.
You may have felt a knot in your stomach when you’re feeling unhappy. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘Brahma Granthi’. Granthi means knot and Brahma is the creator, so the Brahma Granthi is the blockage of creativity.
If our centre is dominated by tension it creates imbalance in all the systems of the body and mind.
If you’re out of sorts, therefore, always look to the centre, is there space or just tension?
This Dukkha is obstructed space in the mind and the body.
The ancients basically said we want less bad space, Dukkha, and more good space, Sukkha.
Sukkha, therefore is the unifying principle or the missing link.
How do we get more good space?
In the ancient yogic text, The yoga sutras of Patanjali, in sutra 2.15, Patanjali says:
Parinama tapa samskara duhkhaih
guna vrtti virodhaccha duhkham evam
sarvam vivekinah
“Change, longing, habits, and the activity of the energy around us can all cause us suffering. In fact, even the wise suffer, for suffering is everywhere”
Patanjali is saying that we suffer when there’s change, we suffer when we don’t have something we long for and we suffer when we repeat habits that don’t serve us. He offers us the practice of yoga as a solution for this ‘Dukkha’ and teaches us how to respond with more equanimity by giving us practices that help us create space in the mind and body.
He then goes on to say in Yoga Sutra 2.16
Heyam duhkham anagatam
“Prevent the suffering that is yet to come”
Patanjali is saying that if we are able to change our reaction and responses to our suffering, we can avoid the destructive thought patterns that cause the suffering or Dukkha.
Yoga helps us build resilience to suffering before it happens, when it happens and after it happens.
The yoga I’m talking about is not just posture, it’s a combination of mantra, breath, posture, meditation and philosophy, all of which I include in Sleepology Yoga.
Enquire about Sleep Guru members here where you’ll find different Sleepology Yoga practices