At 3.30am I am wide awake. I listen out for the holy chants that I know will start blaring from the distant mosque at around 4am. I have anxiety over the amount of uni work to do. I am so overwhelmed by my brain activity that I almost hyperventilate, until I eventually get up to make a cup of tea. I am missing a textbook from uni so I have decided to drop the subject and do it next year, rather than struggle through it. This decision has instantly calmed me down so that by the time I get up, I just start studying. I am starving by mid-morning so we go to see the boat. The Budyadahri has been re-painted and repaired and is looking very shiny and scrubbed up next to the shaky wharf. I don’t dare walk over the shifting planks of wood that hang precariously over the green-brown opaque water of the Muara river. I like Padang in the mornings. Before it is too hot, before there are too many people around and too many smells in the air.
We ride the motorbike through the market to pick up some bananas and pineapple for breakfast and vegetables for lunch. When we get back to the house, we make oatmeal and I eat slowly. Exhaustion and jet lag has just hit me smack in the face and it is only 9am. I have a whole day of this to get through. I have downloaded a Jet Lag Meditation track from Brain Sync which has three different tracks. It sounds like just music, but what is happening underneath the music is the important part. It works with binaural beats that target specific brain wave patterns. The four main brain waves are Beta, the awake state in which we are most alert and aware; Alpha, the meditative state where intuition lies; Theta, the deep sleep or deep meditation state and Delta, the unconscious. There are many sources on the internet which offer quick and easy meditation using this technology so I am curious to see how it works. This particular album has three tracks. One called the Delta sleep, the Theta relaxation and the Beta refresher. Since it is the morning I decide to do the Beta refresher. I lie down on the bed because I am too tired to bother with the yoga mat and there are still remnants of unpacking on our little lounge. I know this is probably not the best position to be in for a ‘refresher’ meditation but I am too tired to argue with myself. I close my eyes and put the headphones on. The track starts off slow, sounding like gentle Spa music. It has no rhythm and I can’t hear the binaural beats. I can feel myself drifting off to sleep and start to see the strange dream like thoughts dancing around in my head. I know that this is my brain trying to sleep. Eventually I force myself to open my eyes and sit up. I am thinking, “man, this stupid beta crap sucks” but when I reach for my computer and start to type I realise how much more alert I am than before. Since I only listened to about thirteen minutes of the half hour track, I leave the headphones in while I type and appreciate the background music. It really is helping me focus. I think if I tried this meditation again sitting up, I wouldn’t fall asleep. In fact, I am going to try it again right now.
Yep, it definitely works better NOT lying in bed…
365 Days in Bliss 