12 Simple Steps To Fall Asleep By Relaxing Your Brain 1

The first step is to become aware of your breath but not to the exclusion of anything else so keep a nice open and light awareness holding the breath in the center or the foreground of your awareness but still open to and aware of sounds thoughts other sensations just paying more interest to begin with to the breath I'm really feeling the physical sensations of the breath in the body so we'll spend a few moments on this awareness of the breath allowing your awareness to be open and light enough so that you don't feel your attention is going to choose between the breath and other things you can notice that you're thinking and you can notice things in your environment whilst you're breathing and explore the sensations in the body of each breath the second step is a very simple one and it is don't try and change your breath in any way don't try and breathe more slowly or more gently or more quietly or more deeply or more calmly just find your breath as it is be aware of your breath however it is we'll be applying this approach of each of these steps with the breath to our thoughts later on so that this may seem like a redundant step or a overly simplistic step for the breath it's really good to practice it with the breath so we can apply it to our thoughts later so awareness of the breath and not changing the breath in any way you can make this step a little more active a little more engaged if we have that feeling of knowing that we could choose to change the breath but we're choosing not to so we're actively consciously deciding with each breath not to change it and noticing how that feels to be aware of the breath and choosing not to change it in any way the third step for the breath is to just check we're not hindering or restricting the breath in any way and we can do this by simply adding the word or the thought of allow of allowing the breath as we breathe in and release or letting go as we breathe out so really consciously allowing the breath in as freely and as fully as the breath wants to enter the body so without restriction and releasing and letting go of the breath without holding on to the breath at all a few more moments that idea of really allowing the breath in and really letting go as you breathe out the next step is to see if you can get a real sense of the flow of the breath experiencing the breath as a flow through the body rising and falling in the stomach or chest really enjoying that experience of the breath flowing freely through the body and the final step for the breath is to subtly change our experience of the breath by experiencing the breath as doing all the work of the breathing so I don't have to breathe but I can experience that the body is being breathed by the breath so how does that feel to allow the body to be breathed by the breath how does that subtly change the experience so I'm making no effort to breathe the breathing is happening to me to the body so now we can apply all of the same approaches that we've done there with the breath to the thoughts and the first step with the thoughts is that simple step of being aware that you are thinking being aware of your thoughts and as before just gently lightly holding your thoughts in the center of the foreground of your awareness allowing everything else to happen in the background around your thoughts and notice how it feels to think and be aware of thinking at the same time quite a different experience to how we normally experience thinking when we add this element of attention and awareness the second step is to not change your thoughts in any way not have any desire to change your thoughts this can be a little more difficult than with the breath because we tend to identify a lot more with our thoughts but for this meditation the content of your thoughts are completely irrelevant so as you are aware of your thoughts just allow them to be as they are no need to judge them or categorize them or try and change them or stop them or redirect them doesn't matter how positive or negative fast or slow loud or quiet your thoughts are so aware of your thoughts just as they are knowing we could try to change them in some way if we wanted to but we're actively engaged in choosing not to change the thoughts so how does that feel to experience your thoughts in this way and the third step for the thoughts is to see if you can get a sense of the flow of your thoughts just as we had a flow of the breath so feeling the thoughts are flowing freely through your mind just one thought after the next flowing through the mind like water flowing down the river and the fourth step for your thoughts is to see if you can experience that you're not making any effort to think you're not choosing or deciding to think each thought but the thoughts are occurring to you the thoughts are arriving into your mind naturally spontaneously so just as we are experiencing the body being breathed by the breath seeing if we can experience the thoughts are occurring to our mind without any effort from us at all and the final step for the thoughts is to be really alert and open with our awareness and seeing if we can catch that moment a new thought arrives in the mind so our present thoughts the thoughts we are having and have been having being really disinterested in those they can stay or go hang around for as long as they like really doesn't matter the content irrelevant I'm going to turn my interest my awareness and my alertness to seeing if I can catch the arrival of each new thought that comes to mind so whatever the current thoughts are what's your next thought going to be being open and alert always to the next thought allowing your current thoughts just to do whatever they want to do content irrelevant completely disinterested in those thoughts and only interested in what the next thought might be and being alert and open and welcoming to catch the arrival of that next new thought okay so moving on to the final part of the meditation and the relaxation and like to invite you first to spend a few moments just being really aware of and practicing that process of relaxing a part of your body and really feeling that relaxation response in the body so if you pick a part of the body and the shoulders downwards so maybe a hand or a foot an arm or a leg and you can do the same part of the body a few times or use different parts of the body and you may want to tense that part of the body first to exaggerate that contrast with that relaxation response so just however you would normally consciously relax a part of your body so just to spend a few moments doing that but really being aware of the process you go through to relax a part of your body and really feeling the response the relaxation response in the body as you allow it to relax so a few moments practicing that okay and then when you're ready we bring our attention to the face and become aware of all the muscles around the eyes and forehead the mouth and the jaw and in whatever way you relax allow your face to completely relax right now and notice how that feels and moving our attention to the top back and sides of the head the scalp and the skull allow all these parts of your head to totally relax and really enjoy that feeling of relaxation and finally approaching the brain just as you would any other part of the body now allow your brain to completely relax now does that feel to allow your brain to totally relax so bringing everything together to finish the meditation feel your breath flowing freely through your relaxed body and feel your thoughts flowing freely through your relaxed brain free flowing thoughts and breath through your relaxed body and brain just allowing yourself to really enjoy that sense of relaxation and flow you