Welcome to this bedtime meditation.
I'll start by guiding us through a bit of a moving practice.
You can do this in bed and it'll get you ready for sleep and then we'll transition into a more traditional meditation practice where we're lying down,
We're in bed,
And by the end of this meditation you'll be ready to drift off into sleep.
Sleep is actually a very animal activity.
All animals sleep and this is something we have in common with all of life.
There needs to be some rest,
Some regeneration.
We'll start by tapping into our animal self in getting ready to rest by arranging our bed,
Our pillows,
Our sheets,
Our blankets in a way where it's nice,
Where it's inviting,
Comfortable.
Taking care,
That care,
That time,
That effort to build your nest.
If you've ever seen an animal get ready to sleep you'll see them prepare their space,
Their nesting.
It's a very natural animal instinct and sometimes they'll stretch a little bit or they'll do certain movements like a dog.
Maybe they'll turn around in a circle a couple times,
Just inviting movement into their body that prepares the body for a deep release.
For us that could be stretching,
Yawning,
Light self-massage.
Sometimes you'll see the animals make little sounds like my dog will do like a little yawn and it's got like a little whine.
Here's where audible sighs can be nice or even sounds of release or exclamations.
You can literally say out loud,
Oh what a day!
And now if you haven't already,
Go ahead and get into this amazing nest that you prepared for yourself and settle in.
There's that moment as soon as we hit the bed,
There's this one delicious moment of,
Oh my goodness,
Finally.
Allow yourself to savor this moment.
How nice it feels,
How good it feels to finally,
Finally be in bed after a long day.
What would it feel like to allow yourself to savor this feeling even more,
Drawing this sensation of release,
Of ease,
Comfort.
This is a time when I like to run my hands over the sheets,
Stretch again,
Stretch again,
Maybe even smile to myself.
A couple of sighs.
For some of us,
Immediately after this first letting go,
Thoughts will start to come in,
Emotions might come up,
Maybe even physical sensations that you weren't aware of during the day will start to surface.
This is very,
Very natural.
This is very normal.
Our body finally has a moment of safety and relaxation and our attention,
Our focus doesn't need to be anywhere.
Our mind,
Our body is saying yes,
Here,
I've got a backlog of stuff that I want to go over with you now that we finally have the time.
There's no need to push these things that are coming up away.
Give yourself permission to let whatever comes up,
Come up.
And as these things come up,
Inviting a slower and deeper breath now to cultivate a spaciousness,
Cultivating a sense of space and room for all these thoughts and emotions and sensations to come up.
It's quite surprising actually that when we allow these things that come up before bedtime,
When we allow it space and we allow ourselves to naturally rise up and process those things,
They'll fall away as quickly as they came up.
That goes for negative thoughts and emotions too.
So if you feel scared,
Let yourself feel scared.
If you're worried,
Let that worrying thought take up its space.
Trusting and knowing that your body wisdom is so deep that it will only bring up what it knows you can handle right now.
As you rise to meet these things that come up and watch them fall away,
You'll start to notice the time in between things that come up draws longer and longer.
Slowly,
Less and less things are coming up for you to process.
You may find your body and your mind start to slow down too.
And as you start to notice that,
This is a wonderful time to turn our attention to the nourishing hold of gravity,
The downward force exerted on us by the earth.
I like to think of gravity as an embrace by the great mother,
Mother earth.
She is always there holding us,
Supporting us.
And now as we drift off into sleep,
She is here to receive us.
Our entire body can melt,
Relax,
And release into the hug that is gravity,
That is mother earth.
With every out breath,
With every breath,
Feeling your body release into gravity,
Into the earth,
More and more of yourself,
Surrendering to vaster forces,
The earth,
Sleep.
With every breath,
Feeling every single cell in your body reorganize and point inwards and downwards into the earth,
Towards mother earth,
Towards sleep.
May you sleep deeply.
Good night.
