I’ve never been scared of the dark. Ever since I was a kid, I seemed to associate darkness with safety and coziness. It’s not strange for me to keep the lights low in the evening or to take a nighttime swim (sans pool lights) in the summer duration or give a little jump for joy when I’m hiking in low light conditions considering the tree cover blocks out the light. And have I mentioned that I like to keep my bedroom as dark as possible (I like to think of my bedroom as my cozy little cave)? I love all of the windows in the house and all of the light that they let in, but my bedroom windows are covered in room darkening shades for a completely black effect. I was definitely not the child who needed a night light or who thought that the darkness heralded monsters creeping out from under the bed and in the closet.
As I got older and became more interested in eastern healing modalities and practices, I learned that in many cultures darkness is seen as something nourishing as opposed to scary. Needless to say, that resonates with me. There’s actually a meditation found in Tibetan Buddhism in which you sit in a completely darkened room — windows covered completely, tape by any LCD displays (alarm clocks, stereos, alarm key pads, etc, and towels stuffed in the gap amidst the bottom of the door and the floor. You simply sit in the pitch blackness with your eyes open and…be. Take in the dark and feel the tension drain from your mind and body.
Sounds anything but relaxing to you? Believe it or not when someone in Bali begins to show signs of mental imbalance, he/she is ushered to a dark room and left to sit for a few days. I’ve actually tried the meditation above a number of instance and have always found the dark to be nourishing, calming, and rejuvenating.
If sitting in the dark seems a bit too extreme for you, I highly recommend the practice of palming. I first learned of that practice when I stumbled across a gem of a book in a yoga studio book store. You simply close your eyes gently and cover them with the palms of the hands without putting pressure on the eyeballs. Any light should be shut out completely by keeping the fingers of the hands close together. You can keep your eyes opened or closed. Although that practice is recommended for improving eyesight, I additionally find it to be extremely relaxing. It’s great for headache sufferers as well. I like to practice 5-10 minutes of palming each day, preferably before bed (or any duration I need a break from the computer and want to rest my eyes).
My lights will be off on Saturday at 8:30 for certain, but soon after again, that’s not all that strange for me! Who says you need to be afraid of the dark???
Namaste!
