Today's meditation is on ending your day peacefully.
Let's begin.
Find a comfortable seat for today's meditation.
It might feel nice to sit cross-legged on the floor or on the couch.
It might also feel good to lay down on your bed.
Wherever you are,
Find a place where you can completely let go.
You are welcome to close your eyes or simply lower your gaze,
Whatever feels right for you in this moment.
Start by bringing attention to your breath,
Bringing your awareness to your breath,
Just noticing the sensation of the breath coming in through your nose and then leaving the body through the nose.
Take a moment to notice what it feels like in your body right now.
Any resistance,
Any tension,
Just notice it and if you would like to,
As you breathe in,
Bring your awareness to that area of the body and as you breathe out,
Just visualize the tension and the stress leaving your body.
Notice what it feels like to invite silence into your moment,
Into your day right now.
Silence and quieting the mind,
Quieting the body.
As you breathe and as you relax,
Go to that place inside you that is still,
That is quiet,
That is certain.
Your only job right now is to breathe and let go.
The breathing technique that we will use today is called 4-7-8 breathing.
So to practice this style of breathing,
We are going to inhale through your nose for a count of four and then hold at the top for a count of seven and then exhale slowly for a count of eight.
So let's begin.
Inhaling through the nose for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Holding for seven.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven and then exhaling really slowly for eight.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Repeat this style of breathing now at your own pace,
Doing your own counting.
Research tells us that meditation has been shown to support and help with insomnia as well as daytime sleep related issues like fatigue or hitting the wall in the afternoon.
Meditation and particularly this style of breathing,
The 4-7-8 method,
Supports us in creating overall calmness in the body.
This helps us end our day peacefully,
Knowing that we have done the best that we can and we deserve peace.
We deserve peaceful sleep.
We deserve deep rest.
If you've lost track of the counting,
Just begin again.
Inhaling for four,
Holding for seven,
Exhaling for eight.
Repeat three cycles of this breath at your own pace with your own counts.
After your next exhale,
Allow yourself to come out of this meditation slowly,
Really savoring this quality of stillness,
Remembering it is available to you at any time during your day.
It may feel good for you to open your eyes before we end or for this meditation you may want to just keep them closed and drift off to peaceful sleep.
Thank you for meditating with me today.
