Amrit Vela & CBT
A friend of mine is Sikh, and she told me they have a practice called “Amrit Vela,” which occurs between 3:00-6:00 AM. This three-hour window is considered a time of peace and calm wherein the mind is clearer and more receptive to spiritual connection. From my experience as a psychotherapist, this is also a time when you awaken from dreams or have dark thoughts. In these brief moments, the mind exists in the “preconscious” (see Freud)—a sort of purgatory between the unconscious and the conscious. This state can have a sense of non-reality upon waking, begging questions like, Where am I? What day is it?
Whereas Sikhs think of the 3:00-6:00 AM time frame as receptive to spiritual connection (which I don’t doubt), I think of it as a window into the recesses of the mind, ripe for accessing the unconscious. To me, the preconscious state is like having one foot in the unconscious and one foot in the conscious; consequently, it’s a pathway to dark thoughts or “forbidden” imagery that is typically outside of awareness. I believe that in these seconds upon waking, you can access this dark content, allowing for micro-opportunities to reshape it.
Aaron Beck, the father of CBT, developed the concept of negative core beliefs—i.e., deeply held, rigid, and often unconscious assumptions about ourselves, others, or the world. They function as so-called "truths" that shape how we navigate the world, even when evidence contradicts it. Dr. Beck also came up with the idea of cognitive distortions, which can simply be described as thinking mistakes. Like negative core beliefs, they are oftentimes irrational and not grounded in evidence. Identifying your cognitive distortions can help you understand that just because you think something is true doesn’t necessarily mean it is. Perhaps the most common negative core belief is: I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH, and here’s how it may play out…
Say you unconsciously carry the belief you are not good enough, perhaps because you were psychologically and emotionally abused as a child and told you were “bad” by a parent or caregiver. When you’re in a preconscious state during the Amrit Vela hours, I believe you have the potential to be the most aware of your negative self-talk. Words like “loser” or “failure” or thoughts like, “I’m bad” or “I suck” may pass through your mind because that’s when the preconscious is most uncensored—much more so than during the remainder of the day when defense mechanisms or distractions are in full force.
To challenge or change negative self-talk, try doing so during these more penetrable moments. If the mind says you’re a “loser,’” counter it by saying “I’ve done some things well.” If the mind says you’re a failure, say “My mistakes have taught me important lessons.” If the mind says you’re “bad,” tell yourself you’re just as good as everyone else. When doing cognitive restructuring like this, I encourage patients to say less extreme statements, like “I’m just as good as everyone else” instead of “I am good” because such statements can be too much of a mental leap. It’s better to move the mind out of black and white thinking (e.g. good, bad) and exist in the gray.
Likewise, you can challenge negative imagery in the preconscious with a similar approach. If you awaken from a bad dream in which you’re being hunted down, reimagine that same scene with you being the chaser instead of the chased. Or, if you wake up screaming because you were calling for help in your nightmare, reimagine that same scenario wherein your cries of help are met with throngs of people running toward you in a show of support. Whether it be words or pictures in your mind, you can change the script while your psyche is in a vulnerable yet receptive state.
This coping skill is one you can hone and practice to rewrite self-sabotaging narratives and imagery. In addition, I suggest writing down dreams on paper or recording what happened in them with voice memos (then, ideally, talk about them in therapy). Nightmares, like negative self-talk, represent the dark content of the mind—lingering, haunting negative energy often carried, unwillingly, from childhood, weighing you down and keeping you stuck. Yet you can work to change it. If your mind says “no,” say “I’ll try.” If your mind says, “I can’t,” say “It’s possible.” Because it is.