Still another, "Think of the Infinite and Eternal Source of the
universe."
Among all these suggestions we can find some truth. Nearly all of them
imply concentration of the mind. If attention can be focused and held at
a point, the excited activity of thinking may be stopped and the body
consequently brought into a state of acquiescence. They succeed, if they
do succeed, because attention is turned from worries to something
besides the antagonism, excitements and duties of the day.
Another element in the suggestions is their regularity. Watching the
sheep jump over a fence and counting one at a time, for example, affects
the breathing and all the vital forces of the body. This causes rhythmic
co-ordination of all the elements and the unity of this will, of course,
bring sleep. The sense of harmony and rhythm and self-control should be
gained; all antagonistic, chaotic and exciting thoughts and all worry
should be eliminated as far as possible before lying down. When we lie
down, we should turn our attention away from the excitements of the
world to something calm and reposeful.
Accordingly there is nothing better than to repeat some of the exercises
of the morning. These stretchings, practiced slowly and rhythmically,
will equalize the circulation, the taking of deep breaths, very
rhythmically, will tend to restore respiratory action and the other
exercises will tend to eliminate constriction from local parts.
Observe the necessity once more of harmonious thought and positive
emotion, for here again there will be a temptation to dwell upon the
failures of the day. It is so hard to forget some unkind word, some
failure on our part to grasp a situation at the right time. We can
easily remember the wrong word we ourselves spoke and deeply regret our
failure to enter into sympathetic touch with someone.
In such an excited frame of mind, with the nerves wrought up at the
thought of the day's work and with all these discordant pictures
thronging into our consciousness, sleep becomes impossible.
Sometimes one is too weary to go to sleep, or sinks into a deep slumber
which is not normal. The taking of breath is short and the giving up of
the breath more sudden. This sleep will not be refreshing. Nine times
out of ten such a one will wake up in the morning feeling more weary
than when he lay down at night. Of course, if a man could sleep for an
unusual number of hours, nature might in time restore him. The
excitement of our civilization prevents normal conditions and therefore
we must aid nature. Man must understand the laws of life and so use them
as to find rest properly.
We need harmony in our thoughts, to let them dwell on what is sacred and
beautiful that our sleep may be normal and that we may enter into the
world of slumber with sympathetic conditions.
We must, also, laughingly throw off negative thoughts and feelings and
allow expansion and stretching to equalize the circulation. All the
vital functions must be harmonized. As we perform these exercises once
more we find various congestions that have resulted from the
one-sidedness of our day's work,--congestions around the throat, parts
of the body are weary, constricted, and cramped. By stretching ourselves
we can harmoniously adjust the activities of our breathing and
circulation. All parts can be restored to harmony and we can rest
properly.
After all, what is rest? It is not a mere slumping into inactivity. It
is allowing the involuntary rhythm of our being, the sympathetic
co-ordination of all the forces of our body to act normally. The rhythm
of our volitional activities must be given up to the rhythm of the
unconscious and involuntary life.
Before this rhythm can reign we must remove all constrictions from any
part of the body.
After taking these exercises we should feel the sympathetic enjoyment of
all the cells of our bodies, then sleep will be refreshing, the rhythm
of breathing will be normal and the circulation and vital processes will
proceed easily and rhythmically.
What are the differences in the practicing of exercises in the morning
and evening?
In the first place the exercises in the evening should be more steady,
more regular, more harmonious, slower and more rhythmic. Every exercise
must soothe the excited nerves, the agitated brain, and the weary
respiratory muscles, the heart, and all the circulatory system.
Release needs to be especially emphasized. After every stretch, for
example, every part of the body must be relaxed. The reaction will take
more time on account of the greater activity through the day. We
should, therefore, take especial pains to accentuate the recovery or
recoil of the muscles into sympathetic passivity and rest.
The object is now not to stimulate as much as in the morning, but to
allay all excitement, harmonize the co-ordination of all parts, remove
all local activities in the different parts of the body, establish
centrality of the vital functioning and the diffusion of blood and
feeling into every part.
It is well to practice the exercises on a hard floor before getting into
bed.
The more violent exercises should of course be omitted unless there has
been a one-sided position during the day. For example, standing
exercises will be beneficial for a person who has been sitting all day.
We must practice intelligently, and carefully apply such exercises as
are needed. Harmony means the removing of constrictions and
over-activity in certain parts which one finds upon exercising. These
often need to be vigorously exercised so as to restore the harmonious
condition.
On lying down on the floor feel in stretching as if the body weighed a
ton,--feel the weight of the arms, legs and head.
Often we lie down but soon the excitement of a thought brings us to our
feet before we know it. Eliminate all such exciting ideas, then let the
stretch reach every part. Let it be slow and steady and let the release
be gradual. There should be a complete rest for quite a little period
before the next activity. Other things being equal, the activity should
be less than one-third of the surrender not only in time but in
attention.
Just before going to sleep it is well to practice a few stretches and to
give full expansion to the chest and to take a few deep breaths slowly
and rhythmically so as to establish a vigorous and normal rhythm,
equalize circulation and bring all parts into harmonious freedom.
In order to emphasize the rhythm in our evening exercises we should
accentuate and prolong especially the passive rest between the
movements. We should not only more gradually give up the actions of the
movements, accentuating the static and eccentric contraction, but we
should also feel more sense of surrender at the end of each movement.
That is, we should feel a sense of weight and of rest at the end of each
action, breathing easily, steadily and freely, all the time.
The time of this rest at the end of the exercising should be prolonged
more and more especially after we are in bed and have felt the
satisfactory feeling all through the body of harmonious diffusion of
energy and the removal of constrictions.
This sense of satisfaction through all the body is fundamental and
necessary in order to bring healthful and normal sleep.
The harmonious extension of all parts of the body should be emphasized.
All stretches are truly conducive to sleep. They allow life to permeate
through the whole body. The exercises, before going to sleep, should be
less rigorous unless there are constrictions and these should be removed
by simultaneous and sympathetic co-ordination of all parts of the body
rather than by vigorous movements.
After any local movement the stretch should be renewed and the
affirmation made of some thoughtful and beautiful idea--as love, joy,
peace. It will be surprising how quickly help will come and weariness
disappear. The entire body, in every cell, will be soothed and enjoy
sweet repose.
The affirmation of confidence, love, trust, and peace should follow as
well as precede the evening exercises. We should make the going to sleep
a sacred part of our lives. In giving up our consciousness we should be
sure to surrender it to the positive forces of the universe. This is not
an idle dream, nor a mere mystical fancy. Even from a psychological
point of view the emotion with which we go to sleep is apt to remain
with us and get in its good or evil work in the unconscious, involuntary
metabolism that takes place in all the cells. We must lie down to rest
in peace.
"Dr. Thomas Hyslop, of the West Riding Asylum in England," according to
Professor James in "Memories and Portraits," "said last year to the
British Medical Association that the best sleep-producing agent which
his practice had revealed to him, was prayer. I say this," he added [I
am sorry to say here that I must quote from memory], "purely as a
medical man. The exercise of prayer, in those who habitually exert it,
must be regarded by us doctors as the most adequate and normal of all
pacifiers of the mind and calmers of the nerves.
"But in few of us are functions not tied up by the exercise of other
functions. Relatively few medical and scientific men, I fancy, can pray.
Few can carry on any living commerce with God. Yet many of us are well
aware of how much freer and abler our lives would be, were such
important forms of energizing not sealed up by the critical atmosphere
in which we have been reared. There are in everyone potential forms of
activity that actually are shunted out from use. Part of the imperfect
vitality under which we labor can thus be easily explained."
Have a few simple sentences full of thanksgiving, of peace and rest. The
best are found in the Bible. The words to Moses, "My presence shall go
with thee and I will give thee rest," may be given and repeated many
times with a realization of their deep meaning and a personal
application to the individual.
Not only repeat phrases, lines, and verses, full of beautiful thought,
but change these into your own words. Learn to articulate your own
convictions and apply them to your own needs,--even paraphrase, for
example, such a phrase as "He restoreth my soul" in the twenty-third
Psalm. For the word "soul" we can substitute anything according to the
specific needs of the hour. We should, however, use nothing that is not
in accordance with universal love and the highest spiritual ideals of
man and of our conceptions of the universe. We must always remember that
truth is universal.
We can change "soul" also to "health," "strength" or "life," to "joy,"
to "success," to "confidence," to the body or any part of the body which
may seem to be afflicted.
There are in this Psalm other good affirmations on going to sleep. Take
individual clauses and repeat them many times, such as "I will fear no
evil, for Thou art with me."
One of the best affirmations is found in the first of the twenty-seventh
Psalm. "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The
Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom [or of what] shall I be afraid?
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord [in a consciousness of His presence] all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in
his temple [to commune with Him in the sacred temple of my own soul].
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."
Everyone should find his own, should find it in his experience, find it
by personal investigation and study of the Bible and through spiritual
realization.
We should live in peace with all men, be able to rejoice evermore, "to
pray without ceasing"; that is, we should always be in an attitude to
receive that which is good and never admit that which is
negative;--hate, antagonism or fear,--but we should welcome love and
that which we know expresses the "Infinite Presence." Antagonism, hate,
discords prevent us from living our hundred years. "Certain classes of
men shall not live out half their days."
The last moment before going to sleep should be one of peaceful rest.
Say "Not my will but Thine" and give up everything to the Infinite and
Eternal.
My own best help is thanksgiving and praise. When I cannot give up the
thoughts and conflicts of the day, I can bring my whole being into
reposeful rhythm best by expressing thanks that I can be awake and that
I have shared in the life of a day. I praise the Infinite Presence that
I can know beauty when I see it, that I can understand truth and know
that two times three are not seven and that I can participate in the
goodness of the universe. Then, before I know it, I have laid aside the
conflicts of the day and have passed into peaceful and harmonious rest.
This method of thanksgiving especially applies to those times when I
wake up in the middle of the night.
* * * * *
Returning to Pippa, we find her retirement to her own room and her
method of going to sleep no less suggestive as an example than her
awakening.
She met the first wakening moment with joy and praise as she resolutely
put aside the dark thought of her life and went singing all through the
day with the same spirit of thanksgiving and love for all mankind.
Now she comes back to her room weary and discouraged, as we nearly all
do. She knows nothing of what her songs have accomplished, nothing of
the wonderful influence that has been exercised. In her disheartened
moment she sees the sunset in the dark cloud and thinking over the day
she would like to know what she really has done.
Yet she checks herself and returns to her morning hymn and keeps her
faith and trust. "Results belong to the Master, Thou hast no need to
measure them." She becomes very humble, willing, and submissive to the
hard task of the morrow. Little she dreams of the revelation that will
come of the secrets of her own life and family.
"We know not what we shall be." Each of us at the close of life lies
down without realizing our relation to the Infinite, without realizing
that we are children and heirs. Blessed is he who feels that his hymn is
also "True in some sense or other," that life is true and that each one
performs some work and it is not for us to say whether it is great or
small. They who wrought but one hour received the same wages as they who
wrought the whole day.
Deeply symbolical, allegorical, and typical in the poetic sense of human
life is Pippa's closing thought as she lies down to sleep.
"Oh what a drear dark close to my poor day!
How could that red sun drop in that black cloud?
Ah, Pippa, morning's rule is moved away,
Dispensed with, never more to be allowed!
Day's turn is over, now arrives the night's.
Oh, lark, be day's apostle
To mavis, merle and throstle,
Bid them their betters jostle
From day and its delights!
But at night, brother howlet, over the woods,
Toll the world to thy chantry;
Sing to the bats' sleek sisterhoods
Full complines with gallantry;
Then, owls and bats,
Cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister's moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!
Now, one thing I should like to really know:
How near I ever might approach all these
I only fancied being, this long day:
--Approach, I mean, so as to touch them, so
As to ... in some way ... move them--if you please,
Do good or evil to them some slight way.
For instance, if I wind
Silk to-morrow, my silk may bind
And border Ottima's cloak's hem.
Ah, me, and my important part with them,
This morning's hymn half promised when I rose!
True in some sense or other, I suppose.
God bless me! I can pray no more to-night.
No doubt, some way or other, hymns say right.
All service ranks the same with God,
With God, whose puppets, best and worst:
Are we; there is no last nor first." [She sleeps]
* * * * *