12 Simple Steps To Fall Asleep By Relaxing Your Brain 3

And the first step is to simply become aware of your breath.

And I like to not focus or concentrate on the breath,

But rather hold my awareness open so it's light,

Easy and open.

And I'm just gently holding the breath in the centre of that open awareness,

If you like,

In the foreground of your awareness.

So I still acknowledge sounds and sensations and thoughts,

Never trying to block anything out,

But just allow them to be in the background,

Just around the breath.

And see if you can really feel the physical sensations of the breath in the body as you breathe in and out,

Exploring all those sensations associated with the breath.

The second step is to simply not change the breath in any way.

So don't try and breathe in a meditative way or a mindful way,

Don't breathe more deeply or more slowly or in a more measured way.

Just being aware of your breath exactly as it is,

Just allow the breath to be as you find it and exploring the sensations of the breath as it is without making any effort at all to change the breath.

And the third step is to just be aware of your breath.

The third step is to just check we're not interfering with the breath in a subtle way or maybe an unconscious way.

To do that I like to just add the thought of allowing as I breathe in,

So I really want to consciously allow the breath into the body.

So the body can enter freely and fully without me restricting the breath at all.

And for the out breath I just add the thought of letting go or releasing the breath so I'm not holding on to the breath at all.

So just a way of checking that I'm really allowing the breath to enter fully and freely and I'm letting go of the breath,

Allowing it to leave fully and freely.

So notice how that feels in the body to allow the breath in and let go as you breathe out.

The fourth step is to see if you can get a real sense of the breath fully.

The feeling of the breath flowing through the body.

So really enjoying that feeling of the rise and fall of the breath in the body.

And then just a little bit of a deep flowing breath through the body.

And the fifth and final step to the breath is to see if you can get a real sense of the breath fully.

The fifth and final step for the breath is to just have a subtle change of view or attitude towards the breath.

So again we're not trying to change the breath in any way,

But maybe experiencing the breath in a different way.

See if you can feel as if the body is being breathed by the breath rather than I am breathing,

That the body is being breathed.

See what that feels like.

Remembering just to allow everything else to happen around the breath,

Just in the background.

Just paying more interest at the moment to the breath,

A few moments more.

Feeling the body being breathed by the breath.

So the next steps will be mindfulness of the thoughts,

Of our thoughts,

But using exactly the same approach as we've just done with the breath.

So the first step for the thoughts is simply become aware of your thoughts,

Be aware that you're thinking.

And as before just gently hold that awareness of your thoughts in the foreground,

In the centre of your awareness.

And allow everything else,

Breath,

Sounds,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Etc.

Just being in the background as we pay particular attention to our thoughts but without that feeling of concentration or focus,

An open light awareness.

And noticing how it feels to be thinking with this awareness can be quite a different experience to our normal thoughts.

So how does it feel to be thinking and being aware of those thoughts at the same time?

And the second step with the thoughts is to not change the thoughts in any way.

This can sometimes be a little trickier than with the breath because we are attached to our thoughts and identify with our thoughts so much and used to engaging with our thoughts.

So this step is an invitation to be really disinterested in what the thoughts are.

Just allow them to be whatever they are and it really doesn't matter whether they are fast thoughts or slow thoughts,

Positive or negative,

Interesting or random.

So the content of your thoughts really doesn't matter what they are,

Just aware that you are thinking and not changing or trying to stop or redirect any thought.

So how does that feel to give your thoughts that freedom?

And the third step for the thoughts is to see if you can get a sense of what you are thinking.

And the third step for the thoughts is to see if you can get a sense of your thoughts flowing freely through the mind,

Just as the breath flows freely through the body.

Free flowing thoughts passing through the mind.

Free flowing thoughts passing through the mind.

And the fourth step for the thoughts is to see if you can get a sense that just as with the breath,

The thoughts just come naturally,

Spontaneously,

Organically.

You don't have to remember to think or choose to think or know what you are about to think.

So getting that sense that your thoughts happen to you,

They come to the mind,

Rather than that it is you that is doing the thinking.

Similar to the idea of I am not breathing but the body is being breathed,

So I am not thinking the thoughts are occurring to me.

And remembering that I am not breathing.

And remembering that it really doesn't matter what the thoughts are,

It is just having that feeling that they are occurring to you without any effort needed from yourself.

And the final step for the thoughts is to see if your awareness can be really open and welcoming and led.

And see if you can catch the arrival of your next thought,

The next new thought.

See if you can notice it as soon as it arrives in your mind.

So we are not interested in the current thoughts once they have arrived.

Then they can stay or go,

Whatever they want to do,

Just allow them to be and do whatever.

Turning our interest and our alertness and our open awareness to see if we can catch the arrival of the next thought,

Whatever that thought may be.

If you notice you have been engaged or become interested in a current thought,

Then just thinking,

Okay,

But what is my next thought going to be?

Am I ready to receive and notice the next thought that comes along?

Yes.

And moving on to the final part and the relaxation part,

And as we did with the breath before the thoughts,

The first part is a practice.

And I'd like you to pick a part of the body,

Anything from the shoulders downwards,

So it could be a hand or foot,

Arm or leg.

And I want you to relax a part of your body.

And I want you to do that with full attention,

Full alert awareness.

And really notice that process of relaxing a part of your body and really paying attention to how it feels in that part of the body when it relaxes.

So I'll give you some moments to do that a few times.

If you're feeling quite relaxed already,

Then just to exaggerate the difference,

You could,

For example,

Clench your hands first and then release them so you really feel that contrast and feel that relaxation response in the hands.

And I'll try that a few times.

So now if we move our attention to the face and become aware of all the muscles across the face,

Around the jaw and mouth,

Around the eyes and forehead,

And allow your face to completely relax.

And really notice how that feels as all those muscles relax across the face.

And then bringing our attention to the top,

Back and sides of the head,

The scalp and the skull,

And allow all these parts of your head to completely relax.

And notice how that feels.

And now approaching the brain just as you would any other part of the body.

Allow your brain now to totally relax.

So how does that feel to allow your brain to completely relax?

Becoming aware of the whole of your head,

Face and the brain,

Allowing your whole head and brain to completely relax.

And allow the whole body to be relaxed.

The whole body including the head and the brain to totally relax.

Allowing the breath to flow freely through your relaxed body.

And allowing your thoughts to flow freely through your relaxed brain.

Just enjoying that feeling of a relaxed body and a relaxed brain.

Those free flowing thoughts and breath.

Lab Underworld.

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