TMI Meditation 7: Overcoming Gross Dullness/Sleepiness

As you get better at meditation and the mind begins to settle, it often also begins to get very sleepy! This is often a sign of progress, even if it doesn't feel like it.

This track includes some guidance for how to overcome sleepiness (or gross dullness) when it arises. If you consistently apply these antidotes, you will eventually be able to overcome dullness and stay bright and alert, even when the mind is settled and calm.

Transcript

So this is a track to listen to if you're experiencing gross dullness,

Sleepiness,

Drowsiness in your meditation.

We'll apply some antidotes to dullness to bring more energy back into the mind.

Feel free to pause this track at any time if you feel that you've successfully overcome the dullness and start it again if the dullness begins to return.

Don't apply more antidotes than are necessary to overcome the dullness.

So let's begin with some of the lighter touch antidotes,

Starting with just refreshing extra-spective awareness.

So to do that,

Taking a few seconds to expand the scope of attention to cover the whole body as well as the sounds around you,

The space around you.

So feeling the whole body and the breath moving in the body,

Staying attuned to your environment and then narrowing attention back on the sensations at the tip of the nose and seeing if you can maintain some sense of that extra-spective awareness.

So some sense of the body,

The space around you.

And you might notice that that brings some sense of energy back into the mind.

It tends to be when extra-spective awareness collapses that energy starts to decrease.

So the next antidote we'll touch on is simply bringing some greater degree of intention to noticing the sensations of the breath.

So you could just tune into the breath sensations with a little bit more intensity than perhaps you have been before,

Seeing if you can bring more interest in the moment-to-moment details of the breath sensation.

Perhaps you could notice precisely whereabouts in the nostrils the breath sensations are arising.

Seeing as well if you can not allow extra-spective awareness to collapse.

Counter-intuitively,

Another antidote to dullness that sometimes can work is actually backing off the breath a little bit,

Giving some space around attention,

Not drilling down so hard,

Not being so intense with the attention.

Sometimes dullness can arise from just being too tired,

From trying unnecessarily hard to pay attention to the breath.

So just experimenting with that as well,

Experimenting with being lighter in your attention,

Dropping the effort a little bit.

So the next antidote that we'll try is simply expanding the scope of your attention.

So if you're following the breath of the nose,

You could expand your scope to just follow the sensations of the breath wherever you notice them,

Wherever they're arising in the body.

So when you do this,

You'll notice that there are more sensations,

There's more content to pay attention to,

And this can help to bring some energy back into the mind.

Again,

Somewhat counter-intuitively,

It can also work at times to narrow in the scope of your attention.

So picking one specific area in the nostrils,

Or maybe just one nostril if that feels too difficult,

And really zeroing in your attention just on that one point.

So the next antidote that we'll try is simply opening the eyes,

Or if that doesn't feel comfortable,

You could just open the eyes enough to let a little bit of light in.

Again,

Having a little bit more content in the mind,

Some more light,

Can help to rouse the mind out of dullness.

Another important point to just mention here is to check on your posture.

It's often the case that if you're starting to slump,

Or if you're sitting in a posture that doesn't allow you to sit upright comfortably,

Then you can very easily start to fall into dullness.

So maintaining a relaxed but upright and alert posture,

Trying to embody alertness just in how you're sitting.

So the next antidote we'll try,

And this is getting into slightly more intense antidote territory,

Is taking some deep breaths and forcibly exhaling.

So breathing in deeply,

And then as fast as you can exhaling out very forcibly.

So,

Like that.

So,

For the sake of your eardrums,

I won't repeat that again,

But doing that maybe three times or more if it feels helpful.

Okay,

So the next antidote we'll try is tensing all of your muscles and then relaxing them again.

So,

Starting now,

Just tensing all the muscles that you can tense,

So clenching your fists,

Curling your arms,

Curling your toes,

Scrunching up your face,

Clenching a jaw,

Holding that for a couple of seconds and then relaxing,

And then again,

Tensing up all of your muscles,

Anything that you can bring some energy into,

Tensing it up,

Feeling the body,

And then relaxing,

And then one last time,

Tensing up the muscles,

Clenching,

Pushing,

Pulling,

Contracting those muscles and then relaxing them again.

And you can repeat that if that feels helpful,

And here it might help to just check in on the body and see if you can get a feel for that increased level of energy in the body,

That kind of buzzing after sensation.

So,

The next antidote we'll try is standing meditation.

Very difficult to fall asleep standing up,

So posture-wise,

I recommend placing your feet shoulder-width apart and parallel,

Having a slight bend in the knees,

So knees soft,

Not locked,

And you can place your hands in your pockets or by your sides or behind your back,

Anywhere that feels comfortable,

Or you can hold them in front of you as though you were kind of holding a beach ball at about waist level.

This is a posture that you might recognize if you've done any qigong.

Keeping the shoulders relaxed,

Again,

Standing upright,

And just taking a few moments here to really tune in to the feeling of alertness in the body as you're upright,

Relaxed,

Still,

That alert,

Like a martial artist has to stay relaxed in order to be responsive.

So I'd recommend trying out this posture for at least a few minutes before moving on.

If the dullness subsides,

You can either go back to sitting posture or you can stay standing if you prefer.

So the last antidote that we'll touch on is walking meditation.

There's a separate track on the app for this which I recommend you listen to,

But in brief,

Finding a stretch of the floor that you can walk up and down,

Unobstructed,

And walking quite slowly,

Perhaps in time with the breath.

For example,

You could lift the back foot on the in-breath,

Place it on the out-breath,

And switching the object of your attention from the sensations of the breath to the sensations in the soles of your feet as you walk.

So it is also possible to just stay with the breath sensations if you prefer to do that.

So you can pause the recording and continue to walk until the dullness subsides or until the end of your session if you need to.

And the last ditch,

Final antidote is to splash some cold water on your face.

A more drastic version of that is to get a wet tea towel and freeze it or soak it in ice-cold water and drape that over your shoulders or over your head.

So apply these antidotes as much and as often as you need to,

Trying to stay aware of progressive dullness.

The earlier you can begin to apply the antidotes,

The easier it will be to overcome dullness within a session.