99 Breaths to Relieve a Wandering Mind
Author's Note
I've gotten a ton of PMs and instant messages from people who have comments or questions about my previous post about this matter so I've decided to clear up some of those questions with a new thread about it. I hope that you enjoy it and may your mind be blank.
The Wandering Mind
Many of us go to sleep with things on our mind. An exam coming up in the next few days, something that happened at work, or even something that we saw on television. Laying in bed and thinking about these things keep you from falling sleep. As you think about things, random thoughts start racing through your mind, making your mind even more active. So you toss and turn.
If you find yourself doing this for more than twenty minutes you may start to stress out that you're not getting to sleep, this distances you from sleep even further and it may cause a temporary insomnia.
The Empty Mind
The key to sleeping is an empty mind. Similar to meditation (this technique can also be used for meditation), this technique clears the mind of all thought and leaves it blank. While your mind is being cleared your body will also deeply relax, possibly even into sleep paralysis. During WBTB it is possible that you may fall asleep halfway through and not realize it.
The Position
During the process or clearing the mind and relaxing the body it is imperative that you not move so find a comfortable position. Doing it on your stomach is not advised because it will constrict your deep breathing and not let your relax as deeply.
I find that for WILDing I get the best results on my sides with a pillow between my legs, but for simple meditation and falling asleep initially I recommend that you lay on your back with your hands either at your sides on resting on your stomach.
You need to keep your eyes closed and as your body gets close to sleep paralysis the eyelids may want to open. Forcing them closed defeats the purpose of relaxing so a sleep mask may be necessary if you find your eyes drifting open. I counter this by simply pulling the covers over my head.
Breathing
During this technique you are going to take 99 breaths, and it should take about 45 minutes. These breaths are to be extremely long, slow, and most importantly, deep. Breathe in very slowly, filling up your lungs and don't stop breathing in until you can't get any more air into your lungs. You will be surprised how deep you will be breathing.
Each breath should be about fifteen seconds in, hold it for a moment or two, then about fifteen seconds out. This amounts to only two breaths every minute.
These deep breaths gives your body the oxygen that it needs to function, but your brain realizes that it's not as much as it normally gets so it slows the body's systems down, thus relaxing you. The first time you do this would will be amazed at how relaxed your body is by the end of it.
This is the same effect that smokers get. Most of the chemicals in cigarettes are stimulants, yet smokers say that it relaxes them. Why? It's because they are breathing more deeply, it's not the chemicals.
Counting
You are going to count each breath, this keeps your mind occupied. If you tried to completely blank your mind right off the bat, those pesky random thoughts will rush to fill the void. Counting keeps those thoughts at bay. Simply counting is too easy for the brain, you've been doing it since preschool so if you were to count from 1 to 99 stray thoughts may still make it through, so we are going to do it backwards. You will find this more difficult than you think.
99 Breaths
Subtract as you exhale, a simple count is in, hold, and out:
Inhale
Pause
Exhale, 99
Inhale
Pause
Exhale, 98
96
95
Focus on your shoulders and hands letting go of tension and melting away
94
93
Now your legs and feet should let go
92
91
Focus on your breathing and counting
...
84
83
You may start to see dim swirling or tunneling colours
82
81
You may feel as if a weight is being placed over your legs and then your midsection
74
73
You may get a tingling sensation in your hands and legs
The lights may get brighter now
Focus on your breathing
65
64
You may start to loose track of your numbers
Remember to ignore outside thoughts and focus harder on the numbers
58
57
The tingling is probably gone now, but your body feels heavy
Don't move even though you may get itches on your nose and arms
Focus on long deep breaths
45
44
The swirling colours may be gone by now
Your eye may start involuntarily twitching, this is normal
Make sure the twitching doesn't cause them to open
35
34
All outside thoughts should be gone by now and counting is easier
Your body feels immensely heavy, don't move it.
Focus on your counting and breathing
20
19
Don't get excited that you're almost done
Counting down should be easy now
You may have lost feeling of your extremities
10
9
Focus on your breathing
Make sure you don't speed up your rate
Continue to sink deeper
5
4
You should see, feel, hear, think nothing
2
1
If some of the things that I've mentioned happen out of order or not at all don't worry. The process of falling asleep and deeply relaxing is different for everyone. I've just recounted my experiences doing this.
If you're using this to fall asleep
You're done, you are probably not asleep yet. Take a final deep breath then you can roll into your normal sleeping position, notice how deeply relaxed your muscles are, it may be very difficult to move. Now just drift off to sleep, it will be very easy and your mind should be blank.
If you're using this to relax / meditate
You want to bring yourself back. Going from such a relax state to jumping up would be bad for you, your muscles are nearly asleep and using them may cramp them up. You've also been low on oxygen, getting up would cause a blood rush and maybe even knock you out.
Repeat this twice in your mind: "On the count of five I will come back and each time I do this I will go deeper, faster." It doesn't have to be those words, but something to that gist. Now slowly count from one to five and open your eyes. The first time that you try to move your body will feel heavy and go slowly. A reality check should probably be done, as you may have fallen asleep during your meditation.
If you are WILDing
During the technique, if you feel that conscious shift any time you can cut off the technique and enter your lucid dream. If you didn't feel the shift then you have a choice to make. You've been perfectly still for nearly forty five minutes. If you think that you are probably asleep then you can get up and do a reality check, but like with all WILD techniques, if you aren't asleep then you've set yourself back.
If you want to go on then your mind is now clear enough so that stray thoughts shouldn't enter. So you can now count regularly back from 1 to 99. Since counting up is easier you may want to start incubating your lucid dream at this time.
