Welcome to your sleep meditation,
Preparing for sleep.
Hopefully you've been able to get ready to rest,
Settling into your bed underneath the covers,
Making any last final movements and adjustments before you land into this sense of ease.
And as you listen to my voice,
You might close your eyes.
And if you can imagine our day is similar to like a snow globe.
Everything gets shaken up in the air and finally when we settle down into our beds,
Things start to settle,
Letting the pieces of your day just land.
As you start to turn your awareness to your breath and just noting the rise and fall of your chest,
Becoming so keenly aware of the breath flowing in and out of the nose.
And although we physically contain our breath in the lungs,
Perhaps starting to energetically pull the breath down a little bit deeper.
Like there could be pockets of space within your toes and your fingers that you could fill with your breath on the inhale and slowly release on your exhale.
Your breath creating this conversation with the body,
Letting it know that the stressors and thoughts of the day are safe to slowly fade off into the distance.
This practice will be similar to yoga nidra.
And if it's helpful for you to set an intention for this sleep meditation,
You might make that intention now.
Creating a positive statement that you wish for yourself,
Filling in the blank,
I am.
And choosing whatever form or intention comes to you,
Maybe it's intuitively,
Maybe it's a state of being that you've been working with for some time now.
And if you need help finding one,
Maybe it's simply choosing the intention.
I am calm.
I am resting.
And whatever this intention may be,
Just taking a moment to repeat it a few times to yourself silently,
Letting it nestle into the heart space.
And we'll start down the body towards the feet.
And as I guide us through,
Just take note of parts of your body.
You might even find a little bit of movement in each part.
Or if this is better,
Taking that image of your body into your mind's eye.
Starting with the soles of the feet.
Maybe there's a wiggle of all 10 toes.
And the ankles,
And the calves,
And the shins,
Your knees,
The thighs,
The upper legs,
The glutes,
The fronts of the hip creases,
The belly,
And the low back.
And taking your awareness up the length of your spine to the base of the neck,
And then through the front of the torso,
The chest,
And then out both collarbones.
To the tops of the shoulders,
And then down through the lengths of the upper arms to the elbows,
The forearms,
And the wrists.
Tops of your hands,
The palms,
And then maybe there's a little wiggle of your fingers.
Let's travel up to the neck once more,
Along the sides of the head,
To the ears,
And then the crown of the head.
Feeling your body heavy into your bed.
Exhale,
Filling up with the sense of space.
And on the exhale,
Releasing and grounding down.
Starting over with our body scan,
But using bigger parts of the body this time.
And bringing to your awareness your feet,
Your legs,
Your torso,
The arms,
And the neck and the head.
Noticing your whole body.
And perhaps now the mind is starting to quiet down.
And you can draw awareness to the more subtle aspects of yourself.
Perhaps feeling your heartbeat in the fingers and the toes.
And if thoughts start to come into your awareness,
Perhaps thinking of your thoughts as just words.
Words that are created by letters.
Letters that were created by a language system many thousands of years ago.
And as they come into your awareness,
There might be a certain level of intensity or attachment.
And that's okay.
Just acknowledging that now is not the time to label these thoughts with meaning.
But they will be here in the morning when you wake.
And that this time is allocated for you to experience rest.
Stepping out of the river of thoughts.
And just resting on the side of the riverbed.
Continuing to watch the rise and fall of your chest.
And this is where I will leave you to find deep rest.
With gratitude.
Good night.
