You can sleep soundly only when you can get rid of stress and for that you must understand your Mind

My earlier article about the 6M-R-N Formula focused on using techniques like meditation and herbs to get rid of stress and sleeplessness. Presently, I want to elaborate on how stress accumulates and why you are unable to sleep soundly as long as the poison of stress keeps circulating in your mind.

 

Mind (or manas) is the field through which the soul does its stuff and accumulates karma. Now, the definition of soul itself may vary from nothingness of buddhism to the supreme consciousness of advaita vedanta but leaving that philosophical debate aside, let's try to focus on why it does what it does and whatever does it want in order to be happy? However ethereal, mythical or outwardly all of this sounds but believe it or not, understanding this is the key to remove all stress and suffering from your lives.

Now, there are some schools of thought (especially vedanta) which state that the soul is always pure and sinless, its the sense organs which force the mind to fall into the trap of cravings and aversions. And thus its the mind which (after obeying the sense organs) is actually responsible for whatever happens and the corresponding accumulation of karma in the soul's destiny.

Our immediate goal here isn't getting rid of all cravings and aversions, that's the ascetic or monk's way of ending all stress and worries. Even though it is a very noble goal to have after a certain stage in life, we can still benefit a lot by learning how the mind works even without going through that route.

Coming back to the stress problem, its the cravings and aversions which have a flawless control over our minds (just as a puppeteer has flawless control over a puppet) and ultimately create the stress poison. More tighter the puppeteer's control, more the stress and worry you feel. What we generally call stress, depression, anxiety, etc. are ultimately nothing but this puppeteer having such a lasting grip over your minds that you've even forgotten whom that mind belongs to and who is supposed to be running the show! Its you who must be running the show, not the puppeteer.

The goal of all forms of mindfulness meditation is to take back the control of our mind from the cravings and aversions (which are ultimately driven by sense organs or the puppeteer). The person who constantly keeps worrying about a future possible event like losing a job, unable to pay rent or mortgage on time, relationship problem, etc. has allowed himself to be absolutely controlled by the puppeteer.

All you must do in order to get rid of stress is tell that puppeteer who the real owner of the mind is, just realize who controls the show! Its you who is really in charge of your life, not your inner demons. The moment you realize that and even as you think about it for a fleeting instance, you can feel the grip of stress losing over you.

But for long lasting freedom, you must make the effort. A regular meditation practice of at least an hour each day in the morning or evening (preferably both if possible) is needed to take back control fully. As you start doing meditation daily, you will feel that you are getting deeper and sounder sleeps, that's a sure sign that you are winning the battle and the puppeteer is losing.

Believe it or not but all the esoteric talks about buddhism and vedanta, vipassana and samatha, dhamma and sattva, nirvana and moksha, etc. ultimately comes down to taking back this lost control of your mind!