Welcome to the failed nap meditation and firstly just taking a moment to acknowledge that this is hard.
I'm acknowledging that for you,
I invite you to take a moment to acknowledge it's really normal to feel frustrated,
To feel this lack of control,
Feel disheartened or angry and we're just going to spend a little bit of time just trying to soothe that frazzled nervous system and back to a bit of grounding and centering.
So first I might just invite you,
If it feels comfortable,
Just take a breath,
Take a deep breath,
Allow it to flow out.
Might take a few more,
Just inviting you,
If it feels comfortable to allow the out breath to become a little longer than the in breath.
You might notice the points of contact with the surface beneath you and allowing that out breath to be a prompt to soften down a little each time.
Each time you're breathing out,
Seeing it as an invitation to just allow a little bit more softness in the shoulders,
In the forehead,
Just releasing a bit of effort,
Releasing a bit of tension each time.
And as you do that,
Just knowing that the fact that this nap or this sleep of whatever kind didn't happen the way that you thought it would,
Doesn't mean that you've done something wrong.
And it doesn't mean that your baby,
Your child has done something wrong.
This is just something that happens,
Something that is challenging and something that you're moving through.
And again,
Coming back to that out breath,
Softening down,
Allow yourself to soften down into those points of contact with the surface beneath you.
Just allowing yourself to let go of the effort or trying to fix.
Just allowing that to fade,
Inviting a sense of acceptance of where you are now.
And I invite you to try to take a step back from the thoughts that might be going through your mind,
You might imagine that your mind is like a river with lots of thoughts floating down it,
And it's so easy in these moments of stress to jump in and follow that log,
That twig,
Whatever it is floating down the river.
But instead of getting carried away by our thoughts,
I invite you to just try and step back,
Sit on the bank of the river and just notice the thoughts instead and allow them to pass by.
And as you notice these thoughts,
Trying to notice them with a sense of kindness,
That you're a person doing their best,
Trying to care for their little one.
And I invite you if it feels comfortable to take a moment to imagine that you're breathing in a sense of kindness and compassion and warmth.
Breathing it in on the in-breath and on the out-breath,
Send that out through into your whole body.
Breathing it in,
You might even visualize a golden light or a different color or temperature,
Just allowing that to come in,
And then on the out-breath sending that through down to the tips of your toes,
Tips of your fingers.
And then you might start breathing in that sense of kindness and compassion and warmth,
And on the out-breath sending it out to your little one.
Breathing in the kindness and on the out-breath sending it out to them,
Knowing that they're not sleeping because they can't in this moment for whatever reason,
And allowing both of you to be bathed in this kindness and warmth.
And now as we make our way to the end of this meditation,
My invitation is for you to just take a reset in whatever way you need to,
And whether you're going to try this nap,
This sleep again,
And you can come back a bit more resourced,
A bit softer,
A bit more ready,
Or if you're just going to let this one go and carry on with your day and respond to what comes up as you go.
I believe in you,
You've got this,
And this meditation is here if you ever need to come back to it.
