The alchemy of ELD, ETB and SDR
Ever since I started to get up very early in the morning using that particular energy to allow things to happen in a smooth and positive way during the day, it came quite natural to me to seek to get to bed earlier too. Sufficient hours of rest in order to be able to live the early morning hours and get my body and mind ready for the day ahead. To close the circle and to get to bed early I needed to adapt my dinner time and the kind and amount of food I would allow to feed my body and mind on.
I call myself lucky to not have lost my natural clock over the many years I allowed disordering sleeping and waking hours as well as feeding hours to dominate. I believe that this natural clock is a given and everybody can find the way back to it if they care about one’s mental and physical health and just genuinely want to feel good. In the past, my mind would not give it a second thought. What would be so special about having a rhythm to be repeated over the weeks, months, seasons, and years? What would be the great difference in living circadian rhythm? And what is a circadian rhythm in the first place?
According to the sleep foundation: «Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions and processes. One of the most important and well-known circadian rhythms is the sleep-wake cycle ». Other cycles taken into account are according to Wikipedia: vigilance variations, body temperature, blood circulation, urines and stool production, hormones production, hair growth, cellular metabolism, cortisol level, level of potassium.
Factors that most influence circadian rhythm still according to knowledge assembled on Wikipedia: jet lag, artificial light, and fatty nutrition. I haven’t been traveling long distances lately. Covid19 frenzy has been positively contributing to this. I keep on working on my lights off strategy most of the evenings and mornings. Candlelight helps out most of the time. I have doubts about fat consumption as my ayurvedic diet favors the use of mainly vegetable fats but also a good amount of ghee. I will, nevertheless, check if lowering fat consumption over the coming week might influence the quality of my sleep positively.
What changed during the holiday period related to ELD, ETB, SDR? Well, I had to adapt as a matter of fact. I allowed for dinner to happen later, I of course went to bed later considering Christmas Eve (very important in my cultural setting) and New Year’s Eve. As a consequence, I woke up a little later too. This had the consequence to lose that magical early morning time where nobody rushes you, your life unfolds naturally and you are called to listen into body, mind, and spirit. Nevertheless, there was more to infringing the rule of keeping times right. There was a mix of not being called to work and not feeling called to celebrate.
Celebration being considered as the act of assembling to honor. This was somehow missing even more so this year than the past years to my SELF’s understanding. The winter solstice on the 21st of December was a celebration I shared with my children and we enjoyed it. Christmas didn’t feel the same. As usual, the preparations to make it beautiful in terms of food and gifts were important. But then the feeling of being close to each other, the warmth between people on these winter nights, got lost. Instead of making me feel good I felt quite alone and got into the bad habits again. On 25th, 28th, 29th, 30th of December I went to bed at the end of pitta time around 1:30-2 am, on 1st of January at the end of Vata time at 5:30 am which would roughly be the time for me to get up and on 3rd of January again at the end of pitta time around 2 am.
I could feel the pain in my lower abdomen for a few days, probably due to the effort of staying awake in an upright position whilst my body was feeding upon itself at pitta night time. What saved me? A well-anchored ELD practice enabling me to free up much time in the evening to be able to prepare my bedtime practice. Getting ETB again fast after the long evenings into night staying awake. I felt regenerated by waking up early again and making my morning body-breath and meditation practice to SDR. It came naturally and without effort. I felt relief and a deep connection. That connection makes you want to celebrate. In gratitude, these habits shall never leave me because they are so loyal and deeply rooted.
The alchemy of ELD, ETB, and SDR is making my body, mind, and spirit a work of art. Looking at what getting old can do to you, both seen and unseen, in matter, energy, and other more subtle manifestations… You may either have your beautiful castle decay in no time or stay busy molding it in a way that years become decades and decades become centuries without you feeling the strain. You can build a bright future without much effort but the capacity to use your five senses and build your sixth sense. Rest, nourish and treat yourself right in the evening and early in the morning. Let time open up for you!
