While growing up, I did not have the Discipline of sleeping and eating. I myself did not understand its importance until the past 2 or 3 years. I have been working on it, but I’m not quite good at it. I have these impulses now to sleep more or to eat more than my hunger. How do I get rid of these? 😕

Food and sleep are two of the activities that are done most unconsciously as they are rooted in the most unconscious part of our being, in the body itself. Hence it requires great patience and perseverance to master them. The method is to eat consciously, to feel the hunger, to differentiate between hunger and greed, be conscious with each morsel whether you need the next one or not. Fixing a time works for both food and sleep. The gastric juices and the sleep related hormonal system get activated at the right time which helps enormously. So too waking up at a fixed time sets the biological alarm clock and wakes us up fresh. 

Of course before and after eating, before sleeping and after waking up spend a few minutes thinking, praying, meditating upon the Divine or simply doing the Naam Japa. 

Affectionately,

Alok Da