This practice is your guide to drift softly to sleep whenever you're feeling restless in need of a little extra space or you're suffering from insomnia.
You can lay on the floor or take a moment to get into bed.
Make sure that you're warm and comfortable.
I suggest lying flat with your legs out straight and your arms out to the side with the palms of your hands facing up unless that brings any discomfort to your back.
Place a pillow underneath your head.
Lengthen through the back of your neck and softly close your eyes.
Begin by checking in with the points of contact between your body and your bed or the floor.
The backs of your heels,
Calf muscles,
The backs of your hips,
The back of the ribcage,
Back of the shoulders,
Maybe the backs of your arms and hands.
Also the back of your head resting on your pillow.
See if you can surrender through those points of contact into your support even 1% more.
Allowing your bed or the floor or the earth beneath that to take the weight of your day.
To take the weight of the anxieties that may be running through your mind.
Surrender into this feeling of being supported,
Of being held,
Of being safe where you are.
Once you're ready,
Guide your awareness now towards your breathing.
Breathing in and out through your nose as best you can.
If it helps,
You can place your hands on your belly to feel that rise and fall of breath as it moves through the body.
Just watching the ebb and flow of breathing.
Feeling that rise and fall.
We're going to invite a breathing exercise here which will help to clear the mind but also relax the nervous system guiding your body into greater rest and your mind will begin to follow.
To do this,
All we need to do is count the length of our inhales and length of the exhales.
Be inhaling for a count of 4 and exhaling for a count of 6.
Once you're ready,
On your next inhale,
Counting 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale for 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Inhale for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Continue in your own time now.
In your own mind.
Counting the length of your inhale for a count of 4 and exhaling for a count of 6.
We'll do 10 breaths in total.
Let's take 7 more.
Inhale 4,
Exhale for 6.
In your own time.
Maybe just take one more breath like that.
Inhaling for a count of 4.
Exhaling for a count of 6.
And take that long,
Deep exhale to once again surrender your body into your support.
Fully letting go.
Soften through your feet and your lower legs.
Give your legs to the ground.
Soften the muscles around your hips.
Give your hips to your support.
Soften your abdomen,
The sides of your waist and your lower back.
Soften your chest and your upper back.
Soften your shoulder blades into your support,
Giving your torso into your support.
Soften your shoulders,
Your upper arms,
Elbows,
Forearms.
The backs of your hands,
The palms of your hands.
Consciously relax each finger and thumb.
Give your arms to your support.
Relax the muscles around your neck.
Soften your ears.
Soften your jaw.
Relaxing your bottom lip.
Your top lip.
And softening your tongue.
Relax your cheeks.
Soften your nostrils and the corners of your nose.
Soften the space around your eyes.
See if you can even soften the space behind your eyes.
Soften your temples.
Across your eyebrows.
The space between your eyebrows.
Fully soften the space across your forehead.
Relaxing through the crown of your head.
Feeling that sense of heaviness at the back of your head.
And giving your head into your support.
Give your whole body,
Head to toe,
Into your support.
And return to simply observing your breathing.
From the rise and fall of your lower belly.
The space around or below your navel.
Watch the breath.
The subtle movements as you inhale and exhale.
Drop any need for control.
Or even for breathing the fullest breath.
Allow your body to breathe itself.
Each exhale guiding your body to sink deeper and deeper into your support.
Your body and mind relaxing further and further into rest.
Continue watching your breathing.
If your mind starts to wander.
Come back to consciously softening the muscles of your body.
Consciously giving your body into your support with every exhale.
Keep sinking.
Keep surrendering.
Allowing your body to drift.
And soften into a restful sleep.
From here just keep breathing,
Keep surrendering.
The music will stay playing.
It will gradually start to fade as you fade with it.
And drift off into a restful night's sleep.
