A Healing Space For Sleep

Welcome to the healing space for sleep meditation.

With healing sounds and music to hopefully take you into deeper,

Healing and restful sleep.

When you are trying to sleep or if you have woken up and are unable to drift back off,

It can often feel like all your thoughts,

Worries,

To-do lists,

Previous conversations and future plans are coming at you from all angles.

It's important to try and create a space or a little distance from these things.

So just for now imagine moving all those things to one side.

Tell yourself you can deal with them later and for now let's create a healing space where we can rest and heal and do the work of sleep even if sleep is not coming.

Meditation practices like the practice of yoga nidra are shown to provide better rest than sleep.

So know that if you are here and unable to sleep as long as you are meditating and resting and listening to me and the healing sounds of this meditation,

You are getting everything you need.

So when you are ready,

Let's step into the healing space for sleep and invite our minds and bodies to rest,

Heal and recharge.

Don't worry if you miss any part of the meditation,

You may just be drifting off.

You don't need to rewind if you miss anything,

Just continue wherever you find yourself in the meditation.

I will also purposefully leave this meditation open-ended so as not to wake you if you have managed to drift off.

So make yourself ready to sleep.

Make yourself comfortable and adopt any position that you like to sleep in and that you can listen comfortably.

Adjust your blankets,

Covers and pillows.

And then just allow yourself to soften into your bed.

Close your eyes and enjoy the supported feeling of being held so completely that you can just let go.

You can let go of any holding or tension in your body and let yourself sink a little deeper.

Feel relaxation coming into your body as you let go.

Let's just take a nice deep breath here.

So when you are ready,

Breathing in and as you breathe out,

Let go of your day,

Of your week,

Of everything outside of this meditation.

And again,

Breathe in and as you breathe out,

Let go,

Sink into your support a little more.

And now bring your awareness into your head.

It's the heaviest part of the body.

And where the head goes,

The body follows,

Much like how your thoughts influence your body.

So let's start in the head.

Allow the head to become soft and heavy.

Feel the softening at the crown of the head,

Like a warmth,

A comforting feeling.

Allow that softening to spread down into the face,

Through the face.

And then just soften behind your eyes,

That space behind your eyes,

Just softening in there.

Allow your jaw to release and your tongue to relax in your mouth.

And then really give the weight of your head over to the support beneath you.

So let the head be heavy.

And as you allow the head to be heavy,

All the muscles in the neck and shoulders begin to relax.

They are not needed in this moment to hold the head up,

So they can release.

And as they release and soften,

You can feel that softness moving into the shoulder girdle,

The collarbones and the shoulder blades.

The tops of the shoulders.

And then that softness trickles down from the shoulders to the elbows.

And from the elbows to the wrists.

That softness in the shoulders and neck trickles down the length of the shoulders and the length of the spine.

Giving softness to all the attachments to the spine.

The bones,

The ligaments,

The tendons,

The muscles and nerves.

From the base of the spine,

The softness moves into the pelvis.

And that softness moving into the hips.

And from the hips,

That softness trickles down into the knees.

And from the knees into the ankles.

And from the ankles into the feet.

And toes.

Bring the awareness from here into the center of your body.

Into the stomach area,

In the area of your diaphragm.

And really feel the softness coming into this space.

All the nerves that cross over this space softening too.

Gently deepening into this space.

And just allow that breath to be natural.

Spontaneous.

We are all in this together.

We are not forcing the breath or controlling the breath in any way.

We are just witnessing the movement of the breath in that area of the diaphragm as you soften.

And then sink that awareness down even further into the lower abdomen.

And soften deeply into this space.

And as you soften here,

Just witness that breath coming down even deeper into your body.

Right down into the lower abdomen area.

And again,

That breath is natural.

Spontaneous.

And we are not forcing that breath down.

It's happening through the softness.

And as we soften here,

It sends a message to the nervous system to relax.

So feel the body soften.

Softening.

And relaxing.

Feeling the breath in the lower abdomen filling.

And then just imagine that your whole body has become a hollow space.

A hollow space in which the breath can move through freely.

Move the awareness back up to the head.

Imagining the head as a hollow space.

An empty space.

Where the breath can move freely.

To cleanse.

To heal.

To clear the space of your head.

And then move that awareness down to the hollow space of your neck and throat.

Cleansing with the breath.

Moving down into the hollow cavity of the chest.

Again,

That breath cleansing.

Nourishing that space.

Allow the awareness and the breath to travel down the hollow space of the right arm.

Down from the shoulder to the elbow.

Through the elbow and lower arm.

Through the right wrist into the hand.

Through the right thumb.

The index finger.

The middle finger.

And the little finger.

That breath moving freely through the space of the right arm and hand.

Cleansing.

Nourishing.

Allow the awareness to come back up through that right arm.

Back into the cavity of the chest.

And journey then down through the left arm.

From the shoulder to the elbow.

Through the elbow and lower arm.

Through the left wrist.

And into the left thumb.

Index finger.

Middle finger.

And little finger.

Allow that breath to freely cleanse.

Heal.

Nourish.

The space of the left arm and hand.

And then allow that awareness to travel back up that left arm.

Back into the chest cavity.

And then moving down the hollow space of the torso.

Allowing that breath to cleanse.

Heal.

All the way down through the torso.

And into the pelvis.

And nourish the pelvis with the breath.

And then allow that breath to travel down the hollow space of the right leg.

And into the right big toe.

And then bring the awareness back up the right leg.

Into the pelvis.

And then journey through the left leg.

That hollow space of the left leg.

From the hip.

Into the left big toe.

Allowing that breath to cleanse.

Heal.

And nourish the space of the left leg.

And then bring that awareness back up that left leg.

Back into the pelvis.

Back into the centre of your body.

And then just take a moment to direct that breath.

That cleansing.

To anywhere in your body that needs some extra attention.

Maybe an area you hold more attention.

Or you have any aches or pains.

Any area of disease.

Allow that breath to move through the space.

And now imagine the breath.

As you breathe in that breath travels up through the body.

To the crown of the head.

And as you breathe out it moves down through the body.

And out through the soles of the feet.

Breathe in that breath travels up to the crown.

Breathe out.

That breath moves down and out through the soles of the feet.

The breath washing through the body.

Like waves on a beach.

Allow that breath to be natural.

You are just guiding that natural flow.

Through the body up.

Every exhale allowing yourself to sink deeper.

Into relaxation.

And now begin to count the breaths backwards from 54.

On every exhale count mentally.

As you follow the exhalation down.

And out through the soles of the feet.

Count.

54.

Breathing out 52.

And so on.

If you lose track of the counting.

Or you drift into sleep that's fine.

But if you catch yourself and you are awake.

Simply go back to 54 and start again.

If you reach 1.

Go back to 54.

And start again.

With every count backwards feel the body softening.

A little more.

Letting go.

A little more.

Sinking.

Continue to witness the breaths.

Continue with the practice.

Imagine that your body is floating in a sea of water.

In space.

Like you are being held in comfort.

Support.

Held in a deep knowing.

Held in unconditional love.

Held in a quiet space.

A nurturing space.

And then feel all those boundary points between your body.

And that warm and friendly darkness softening.

And this expansive place.

Feeling a deep connection.

And support.

A space of everything and nothing.

A warm safe space.

A healing space.

Experience the healing.

And nourishing.

Of this space.

The gentle ebb and flow of your breath.

Being massaged and healed.

By the gentle caress.

Of this space.

Keep softening.

Thank you.