Do You Wake Up at the Same Time Every Night?

Do you find yourself waking up at the same time every night? Waking up between 3 AM – 5 AM could be an ascension symptom but if you find yourself waking up constantly around the same time each night, it could be because your body is trying to send you a message.
According to the ancient Chinese Medicine Body Clock, energy runs through a different meridian of your body at different times of day.

These meridians are like channels which send energy to different organs in order to promote health and vitality.

When there is a blockage in these channels however, energy cannot pass through causing stagnation or a build up of energy. This can then disturb your sleep and wake you up.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine if you wake up consistently at the same time, it could indicate a sign of weakness in the corresponding meridian or organ.

Here is a list of the organs associated with different times:

Between 9pm-11pm
This is the time when most of us try to fall asleep. If you have a hard time sleeping between this time it could be that your body is too stressed and is subconsciously in fight or flight mode
You may also find that your fearful or anxious thoughts become louder and make you feel either threatened or unsafe in some way.

This is the time of day when energy is also sent to replenish your immune system, so if you are feeling ill you may experience stronger symptoms at this time.

If you find yourself having trouble sleeping at this time, try reciting positive mantras that make you feel safe and protected.

You may also benefit from meditating or adopting a night time ritual to help calm your mind.

Between 11pm-1am 
The meridian that services your gall bladder is activated during these hours.

Blocked energy in this meridian could indicate that you are being too judgmental with yourself or with others.

If you have been disappointed by a loved one you may also feel triggered at this time.

On a physical level, the gall bladder helps the break down of fats so it could also be that you need to adjust your fat intake or eat healthier oils.

In order to relax yourself at this time, try practicing acceptance and forgiveness and being less judgemental towards your self and others.
Between 1 AM – 3 AM
This is one of the more common times to be woken up as this is when the meridian servicing the liver is strongest.

The liver is responsible for so many bodily functions including hormonal balance, digestion and the clearance of toxins and stress. So waking during this time could indicate that one of these areas is stressed or weak.

Blockages in the liver meridian can also indicate anger, anxiety, guilt and rage. In fact, feelings of unresolved anger and resentment could manifest at this time.

If you find this to be true, try to take ownership of the situation and reflect on the truth of how you really feel. It may also help to practice self-loving affirmations and positive self-talk.

Waking up during this time may also indicate that your body has too much yang energy, so try balancing it with more yin energy by eating cooling foods and connecting with your emotions.

Between 3 AM – 5 AM
This is when the meridian that services the lungs is strongest. Of course, we are always breathing but during these hours the lungs are given a boost of energy and are replenished for the day ahead.

In order to breathe the body has to be relaxed, so waking up during this time could indicate a blockage or inability to go with the flow and relax into the direction that life is taking you.

The lungs also symbolise where we process grief and sadness, so if you have been feeling emotional you may also wake around this time.

In order to ease any emotional feelings at this time, try to release control over events and have more faith and trust in the flow of the Universe. You may also benefit from taking deep, conscious breaths.

Between 5 AM – 7 AM
This is when the meridian that flows into the large intestine is activated and symbolises a need to let go and release control.

The large intestine is responsible for clearing the body of toxic waste from our digestive system, so waking up during this time could indicate a weakness in this area.

You may also wake at this time if you are feeling emotionally blocked or restricted in your life in some way. It may also be a sign that you need to release and let go of guilt or burdening emotions.

If you find yourself waking during this time, you may benefit from practicing mantras that promote letting go, relaxing and trusting in divine timing.  You may also benefit from stretching or cleansing your body.

The Chinese Medicine Body Clock offers a great insight into the messages of your body however, also use your intuition to determine if there may be another message that is trying to be delivered to you.

Author: Tanaaz Chubb – Awakening People

Active Dreaming: Exploring the Vivid Dreamscape

It is possible to enter a lucid dream directly from waking. Usually this entails lying down, relaxing, and allowing the body to fall asleep while the mind stays awake. Difficulties include falling asleep along with the body, or the body staying awake with the mind. Decoupling body and mind so that the latter can stay awake while the body falls asleep is difficult but possible.

The Process of Sleep

To enter normal sleep we begin by letting our thoughts wander until they turn into daydreams that either dissolve into oblivion along with our self-awareness and volition or else spontaneously evolve into hypnagogic imagery (short vivid hallucinations) that eventually cohere into a full-blown three dimensional dreamscape.

Whether drifting off takes us into oblivion or into a vivid dreamscape can depend on how far we are into our nightly sleep cycle. Early in the cycle, sleep tends to consist of delta brainwave activity and no REM (rapid eye movement), which indicates consciousness is off elsewhere. Most likely the soul is running its astral errands while the body does its repairs. Later in the cycle after these tasks are out of the way, or when taking a nap, the delta stage is replaced by immediate onset of hypnagogic andREM activity after mental relaxation. But these are passive dreams since lack of lucidity in them implies impaired volition.

Why are dreams so much more vivid than imagination? Because the images are being projected by the subconscious, not the conscious mind. Why do we lose self-awareness when we go to sleep? Because as we let our thoughts wander, the subconscious starts to influence our consciously projected internal images (imagination, visualization, daydreaming, mind chatter) while the conscious mind takes on a more passive and self-obliterating role. Not long after that, the subconscious takes over the role of projector and that is when mere mental images become virtual realities. The trade-off is that we have already abandoned ourselves by the time the dream projection kicks in.

We can understand the various states of internal imagery as being the result of either the conscious subconscious either directing or projecting these images:

Active dreaming: conscious directs while subconscious projects.

Passive dreaming: subconscious directs and projects.

Daydreaming: subconscious directs while conscious projects.

Visualizing: conscious directs and projects.

Inducing lucid dreams from a waking state therefore requires that the conscious mind retain its awareness and volition while the subconscious is given free reign to begin projecting the dreamscape. The prerequisite is total relaxation of the body, usually done in a step-wise fashion from head to toe, either by focusing on relaxing a particular body region, or tensing and releasing that region. A good exhausting workout that leaves you wiped out can also accomplish this.

Watching Phosphenes

One method of keeping your mind awake while falling asleep involves watching the phosphene images behind closed eyelids. These are the glowing blobs of static noise patterns that always fill our vision but are more easily noticed in the dark. Unlike passive dreaming, this keeps one’s visual faculties active and focused on real sense impressions instead of turning within and getting lost in consciously projected daydreams or visualizations.

Active Dreaming - Exploring the Vivid Dreamscape 2

Why is this important? Because notice that in dreams your “eyes” are focused on an environment existing “outside” you, seemingly as real as anything you might see with your physical eyes while awake. Also notice that in a dream, despite both your thoughts and the dreamscape being all “in your head”, you can still imagine things internally that are separate from the surrounding dreamscape. This means that the full blown 3D dreamscape is always perceived as an external phenomenon to your five senses, than mere imagination which is internal and runs in parallel to your surroundings. So staring out into the field of phosphenes involves a similarly externalized point of focus, even though eyes are closed. In this way, one aspect of the dream experience (the external visual focus) is already established. It therefore does not take long for hypnagogic images to start up this way, although these can startle one back into full consciousness. With repeated exposure they become less startling, especially if you cultivate a calm, detached, nonplussed attitude and ease into these images without becoming self-conscious and excited, which can snap you awake.

The next issue is becoming so quickly absorbed in the phosphenes and hypnagogic images that one loses self-awareness before the subconscious is ready to begin fully projecting a dreamscape. To counter this, a second technique may be employed: quickly opening and shutting your eyes every two or three breaths. This allows enough real sense data to come in, and is so intentionally controlled, that the mind has better chances of staying alert. And yet since this involves mere movement of the eyelids, the rest of the body is not prevented from doing its thing to fall asleep. One can keep this up until the hypnagogic state kicks in, then continue watching those and the phosphenes.

Sleep Paralysis

Very soon the body falls asleep by entering sleep paralysis, which feels like a sudden sinking, melting, tingling feeling. This is not your body going numb with boredom from having lain still for an hour. Sleep paralysis comes with a release of the soul from the physical body, and that induces the sinking or melting feeling. You may also notice your breathing suddenly becoming deeper, effortless, and automatic as the parasympathetic nervous system takes over. If your mind is still highly active, your breathing restricted, and your body simply numb from lack of stimulation then you’re not in sleep paralysis. You literally have to fall asleep, but with your awareness intact.

The subconscious is then at the verge of fully projecting the dreamscape, and one has only to retain enough self-awareness throughout the onset of sleep paralysis to allow the final consciously directed nudge to kick off a dream. (After catching your body falling asleep, before a dream begins you can visualize and intend to roll out of bed and that will induce an astral projection instead of a dream). Or you can visualize something and “get into it” and that will initiate a dream.

It is the intent combined with visualization that puts the subconscious fully online, and a dream begins. Then you can do reality checks (flipping a light switch, looking for inconsistencies) or astral checks (seeing your body still in bed with correct clothes on) and lucidly go from there.

Active Dreaming - Exploring the Vivid Dreamscape

Take note that because this technique requires immediate access to REM sleep, it must be done after already having slept five or six hours, or during the day when napping. If you’ve had a long day and are beat, and crawl into a cozy bed for lights out, you’ll have a tough time retaining awareness and your brain won’t initiate heavy REM activity right away. Rudolf Steiner talked about remaining aware regardless as being a qualification for occult initiation, and that in doing so you get to witness what happens during the delta non-dream sleep. He says one visits the spirit realm and experiences things there are harmonies and colors (which is probably all that the conscious mind can decode of that experience at first, whereas the subconscious or higher mind during this experience is probably having a very involved time “up there”). But for active dreaming purposes, later in the sleep cycle or during a nap is better.

Some induction techniques start off with visualization, whereby the conscious mind directs and projects mental imagery until the subconscious takes over the role of projector. The above technique of staring into the phosphene void and looking at hypnagogic imagery that arises does not use intentional visualization until the final nudge, thereby allowing the subconscious to start projecting more easily because it does not have to wrestle that role away from the conscious. To repeat, visualization is not necessary until the final stage when the body is asleep, otherwise it might interfere with the subconscious stepping into its role as projector. You can indeed use visualization, and Steiner’s method as well as Theun Mares’ method employ that, whereby an imagined visual suddenly blooms to life when the subconscious takes over and turns it into a dream experience (Steiner himself got that technique from Goethe, who wrote of experiencing exactly such a imagination -> dream phenomenon).

Applications

Why is active dreaming important? Because it allows access to the dreaming faculty at will and is therefore more repeatable at will compared to other methods of lucid dream induction involving autosuggestion, dream signs, periodic reality checks, and so on. However it is also more difficult to implement due to having to be conscious the moment the body falls asleep. But like any activity that requires finesse, whether hitting a golf ball or parallel parking, it can be trained with practice.

When you have achieved this state, which Robert Monroe termed “mind awake, body asleep” then you are effectively on a launch platform for dreaming, astral projecting, scrying, remote viewing, healing, entity evocations, past life exploration, spirit releasement therapy, subconscious reprogramming, communicating with the higher self, etc. This state of mind, which some claim consists of theta brain waves overlapped with high frequency gamma waves, is the state from which most occult maneuvers are performed.

Mnemonic Anchoring

When the body has entered its melted tingly state, it is possible to anchor this mnemonically using some tongue position, breathing pattern, eye movement, visualized sequence of symbols, hand mudra, or command phrase. When the anchor is repeatedly associated with this state, later the anchor can be invoked to cause the body to reflexively enter the state, dramatically shortening the induction procedure. But creating the association takes much repetition. Theun Mares’ technique and the Silva Method employ such mnemonic triggers.

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Author: Montalk – Wake up World