When my mom can’t fall asleep, she thinks about (meditates on them) and looks at the “sparklies” or the patterns of colour a person sees when they close their eyelids. She says that this ancient ancestral technique, taught to her by her grandfather in India, helps to blank her mind and relax her, and she says she can always fall asleep using this technique.

She looks at and thinks about the sparklies and patterns of colours, and when a disturbing or anxious thought, or picture or image comes to her mind, she refocuses her attention on the sparklies and patterns of colours, and the anxious image or thought she has leaves her. She does this several times, whenever anxious thoughts or images come to her as she is trying to fall asleep. She also uses it if she has awakened at night and wants to easily fall back to sleep.

—Submitted by Harvinder D., Age 17