Why You Should Choose Brahma Muhurta for Meditation?
Do you know that there is a specific time period of the day known as the Brahma Muhurta, which is considered the best time for meditation? Whether you practice the law of attraction techniques like visualization or if you are a yoga enthusiast, knowing about this pre-sunrise time period can be highly beneficial. According to ancient yogic teachings, this particular time of the day is when our spiritual practices can be most effective. This is because our mind is in the ideal state during this time for activities such as meditation, yoga, creative visualization, energy clearing, and more.
The first thing we do in the morning sets the tone for our entire day. That’s why our morning activities should be something that fills our minds with joyful thoughts, and we should always aim to begin the day in a positive emotional state. However, waking up at the Brahma Muhurta for meditation or other personal development and spiritual activities takes it to a whole new level. This is the time when ancient yogis preferred to wake up to reach deeper levels of meditation.
What Is Brahma Muhurta?
Brahma Muhurta is a Sanskrit term where “Brahma” stands for the god of creation in Hinduism and “Muhurta” means any particular time duration or hour, this is why this term is also referred to as the god’s hour. In Yogic and Ayurvedic literature, these few hours before sunrise have special importance as it is believed that during this time our mind is very still and it is easy to focus on a single thought or to achieve complete stillness of the mind if a person chooses to meditate during this time.
A lot of different opinions are there about the exact clock time of Brahma Muhurta, it will vary depending on your geographical location and the season because the time of sunrise will vary accordingly. Some say that it happens during the last hour before sunrise whereas some believe it occurs about 1.30-2 hours before sunrise and ends somewhere between 30-40 minutes prior to sunrise. I would advise you to wake up about an hour before at whatever time sunrise happens at your place right now because all the yogic teachings/institutions agree that about an hour before sunrise is Brahma Muhurta although the starting time and ending time might vary according to them.
You might get a little confused if you try to delve too deeply into the exact timing of this auspicious and sacred hour of the day. However, it becomes very clear when you understand ‘why’ these morning hours are considered special.
Importance of Brahma Muhurta
What is so special about this hour of the day? Why should one wake up so early? Is there really a relationship between the time of the day and our state of mind? Those are some obvious questions that can arise in anyone’s mind. I was also inquisitive about it long ago when I heard this particular term for the first time from my meditation teacher.
Ancient spiritual teachings will tell you that this hour is auspicious because our prana or life force energy is balanced at this time of the day however from an Ayurvedic point of view, during various times of the day, different types of Doshas are dominant, and these Doshas which are specific types of energetic states can decide our state of mind throughout the day. Ayurveda says that the energy of the earth and water which is the Kapha Dosha gets dominant after around 6 AM and you should wake up before this time in order to stay active throughout the day, once Kapha is dominant the mind won’t be as quiet during meditation like it is during early morning hours. Six O’Clock in the morning is the average time in India when the sun rises so this particular Ayurvedic fact could be one of the reasons why waking up before sunrise in order to meditate is preferred by the Yogis.
Sleep Cycles
Now what I am going to tell you is something I have learned from experience, this was when I was learning and practicing the Silva method, so I came to know from that course (which is now an upgraded one, back then I learned it from very some bad quality digital materials) that I need to utilize the alpha state of the mind that lasts for around 10-20 minutes after we wake up. I tried waking up 15 minutes earlier from the usual time but I was not satisfied because I was quite certain that I was not reaching the alpha state of mind. Sometimes I was too sleepy or otherwise, I was too awake, and when I researched a bit more on this I learned about our sleep cycles.
We go through around 4-6 sleep cycles during each night’s sleep and each of those cycles lasts for an average of 90 minutes. Every sleep cycle consists of REM(rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement), NREM stages happen during the initial and deep sleep state whereas a sleep cycle ends with a REM stage in which our dreams occur. If you sleep for 6 hours then it ensures that you have completed a minimum of 4 sleep cycles which is also essential for your mental health.
So why have I been talking about sleep cycles in this post? No, I have not gone off track, what I came to realize from all this information is that I was able to utilize the alpha state of my mind for meditation and creative visualization when I started waking up before sunrise because it ensured that I was completing the required number of sleep cycles, earlier my mind was not able to reach to the alpha state because I was disturbing my sleep cycles, oversleeping and not sleeping for an adequate amount of hours causes you to wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle which makes you very sluggish.
Average people around the world go to sleep somewhere around 10-11 pm and sunrise happens between 5-7 AM in most countries, waking up before sunrise ensures that you have completed the required amount of sleep cycles, and thus you wake without going too deep into another sleep cycle. This means that waking up during Brahma Muhurta will ensure that you will reach the alpha state of mind, and in this state of mind, your meditation becomes very effective because your thoughts are very clear and focused.
Conclusion
After this discussion, you might be thinking that the obvious answer to your question about waking up to meditate during Brahma Muhurta is to be up before sunrise and meditate, but that’s not really my opinion. I don’t wake up during Brahma Muhurta; I will if it’s possible, but what’s more important to me is getting proper sleep before waking up that early.
If you are able to get at least 6 hours of proper sleep every day and still can manage to wake up before sunrise then I will definitely advise you to meditate during those hours but if you are compromising your sleep to meditate then it makes no sense because it is much like taking an antidote after deliberately consuming poison. Also, this way you may end up sleeping while meditating because the tiredness caused by sleep deprivation will come to your awareness while sitting in silence which will cause you to drift off.
However, if you are able to sleep early in the night and you sleep for more than 6 hours during which your slumber was mostly unhindered then you must try to wake up during Brahma Muhurta and sit to meditate, visualize, or perform energy-clearing to bring yourself in a very joyful state of mind because this energetic state with which you will start your day will improve the quality of your whole day. I will conclude this post by reiterating what I mentioned at the beginning: if you’re unable to wake up early, at least try to start your day by filling your mind with positive thoughts and emotions using your preferred method.
What’s the first thing you do in the morning upon waking up? Even those 5 minutes before getting out of bed matter, so make sure to utilize them for your betterment. Please share with me in the comments section your favorite morning activity, and let me know if you have any plans to make the most out of those precious minutes when you begin your day.
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