Welcome to this meditation for insomnia relief.
Find your position where you're comfortable,
Most likely lying down in bed or perhaps sitting up in a chair or at the end of your bed.
The aim of this meditation is to bring acceptance,
Openness and softness to the symptoms and experience of insomnia.
Let's begin.
As we lie down or as we remain seated,
Slow down the breath.
Let's aim for about 5 seconds on the inhale and 6 seconds on the exhale.
I'll run you through it now.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Continue to breathe at this pace and don't worry if you're one second off here or there.
Just do your best.
Keep the breath,
If possible,
Through the nose rather than the mouth.
And let's begin in our feet.
Draw your attention into the feet whilst you maintain the rate of breathing that we have established.
Pull all your awareness into your feet right now and let's take a breath there.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 See if you can turn up the dial on the awareness.
What other muscles or fibres can you take notice of in the feet?
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Let's bring the awareness up into the lower legs,
Just below the knees.
Draw all your attention into the lower legs.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Let's move into the thighs,
The upper region of the legs.
Try and find as much tissue,
As much matter physically as possible with your awareness.
And breathe in at your own pace now and exhale at your own pace.
Now bring the attention further up into the hips,
The groin.
Remember,
If you don't follow the perfect count on your breath,
It really doesn't matter.
Just try approximately to keep it 5 in,
6 out.
The reason we have a slightly longer exhale is to turn on the parasympathetic nervous system which is the relaxation dial on our nervous system.
Let's move into the lower abdomen,
Around the belly button and the stomach.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Now bring the awareness up into the chest,
The heart,
The entire upper torso.
Fill it like a balloon with your awareness.
Really try and pull your awareness into this region of the body as we inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Now let's move into the shoulders and before we breathe into the shoulders,
Soften them.
Consciously soften your shoulders and breathe.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Move down the arms into the upper arms,
The biceps,
The triceps.
Move further down the arms into the elbows and see if you can identify more tendons,
More ligaments with your awareness.
Let's move into the forearms and the wrists.
Inhale here 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 And into the hands.
Really cultivate as much awareness as you can in the hands,
The thumbs,
The fingertips.
Try and almost make your fingers throb with your awareness as if your hands are dipped into warm water.
Now let's move into the neck and the throat.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Now let's move up into the jaw and the face and the head.
Inhale into the face.
Exhale.
And try and relax your forehead.
Relax your lips.
See if you can notice a buzz or tiny prickling sensations in your lips.
There are thousands upon thousands of nerves in the lips.
So cultivate awareness there and breathe.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 And now what we'll do is we'll take our awareness to our entire physical body from head to toe.
Bathe in your own awareness right now and inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 So now we're almost lying down or bathing in a ball of our own awareness.
And what we can do is we can expand this ball of awareness about an arm's distance in every direction from our body.
In front of us,
Behind us,
Above us,
To the left of us,
To the right of us.
Try and fill out all of this space with your awareness.
And you might not be able to perceive this space around you in the same way as your body.
But imagine that you could expand out arms with every direction and inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 This awareness bubble,
You're lying in it,
You're bathing in it.
I'd like you to pick a colour for this bubble.
I always like to use golden colours or pure white for my bubble.
Or pick a colour now.
Could be red,
Green,
Yellow,
Orange,
Violet.
Anything you like that represents peace,
Tranquility,
Acceptance.
So we're lying down or we're sitting,
Bathing in this awareness,
In this colour.
And we're going to repeat some affirmations.
In your mind,
Just say these affirmations.
I totally accept that I'm here right now.
I totally accept that I'm here right now.
Even though I haven't fallen asleep yet,
I totally accept it.
Even though I haven't fallen asleep yet,
I totally accept it.
In this bubble of awareness,
I invite peace,
I invite self-acceptance.
In this bubble of awareness,
I accept it exactly as it is.
And now what I'd like you to do is imagine that you have a piece of paper.
We're going to make some bullet points.
Write down sleepiness.
Write down calm.
Write down acceptance.
You can write one more bullet point to that list.
Okay,
It's written.
And now we're going to take this list and we're going to throw it into this sphere of awareness around us.
And this list is going to permeate,
Fill and integrate into that sphere of awareness.
Ready?
We're going to throw it on three,
Two,
One.
Okay,
That list has filled our entire being right now.
There's no going back.
That list has absorbed into every fiber of your being.
Sleepiness.
Calm.
Acceptance.
You're infused with it.
And as you breathe five in,
Six out,
It doesn't matter what happens,
What you think,
What thoughts arise,
What sensations arise,
How much or how little you sleep.
You are infused now with sleepiness,
Calm and acceptance.
See you soon.
