Reduce Stress Before Sleep

Go ahead and focus your eyes on any point on the wall or the ceiling.

And get comfortable and let yourself settle in and settle down.

Take a deep breath in and as your eyes are open,

Let your face relax.

Relax your jaw.

Allow your shoulders to relax and unwind.

Relax your arms down to the fingertips.

Relax your chest.

Relax your stomach.

Relax your hips.

And send a wave of relaxation all the way down to the tips of your toes.

Relaxing,

Unwinding,

Releasing,

And letting go.

Drifting,

Dreaming,

And relaxing.

Now as I count,

With every count,

Send a wave of relaxation through your body until your eyes naturally begin to close.

One,

Relaxing the whole body.

That's right.

Two,

Going deep relaxed.

That's right.

Three,

Deep relaxed with every count.

Drifting,

Dreaming,

Unwinding,

Letting go.

Four,

All the way down.

Deeply relaxed,

All the way down.

Five,

Deeply relaxed.

Drifting,

Dreaming,

Unwinding,

Relaxing,

And letting go.

Drifting twice as deep now with every count.

Seven,

Eight,

Nine,

Ten.

Relax and drift and dream.

Relax and drift and dream.

Now as I count from five to one,

Allow yourself to go all the way down.

All the way down inside to a deep,

Profound level.

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Relax and drift and dream.

Relax and drift and dream.

Now imagine floating up out of the body onto a cloud and drifting up above them to a pleasant place,

A peaceful place.

A place where you can relax deeply.

And you are relaxing.

And you deserve a few minutes for yourself.

By taking this time today,

You are already on your way to feeling content,

Calm,

And hopeful.

So sitting there or lying down wherever you are,

Imagine a beautiful waterfall.

Focus your attention on the moving water.

And as you watch that moving water,

Perhaps it brings a sense of peace.

Because water represents the power of life.

And sometimes watching water fall can distract from the current stresses and worries of life.

Either way,

As you watch the water move,

Allow yourself to feel calm and relaxed.

And as you relax,

Scan your body.

If there's any place where you're holding tension,

Let those muscles become loose and relaxed.

Many people don't even realize they're carrying tension until they make the conscious choice to scan their body and to let go.

Now continue to focus all of your attention on that image of the waterfall.

As the water flows,

Let any stresses or anxieties or sadnesses flow with the water away from you to a far and distant place.

Allowing the stress to let go little by little as the water flows.

Letting the stress and the worry and the sadness far away,

Allowing you to feel wonderful.

And you may notice how your body is becoming more relaxed,

Isn't it?

After focusing your attention on this image,

You may notice that your body is significantly more relaxed and it's perfectly okay to let yourself sink or float into that feeling,

And mind,

And soul.

Now pay attention to your breathing and notice how your breathing has become slow,

Smooth,

And rhythmic.

You don't even have to try and do it.

It's just something that comes naturally by taking a moment for yourself and letting go of any obvious tension.

Focus in on your hands and notice the sensation of relaxation and calm that you have already created in your hands.

Now silently to yourself,

Think the word warm and focus in on your hands,

Allowing your hands to feel a sense of warmth.

Think to yourself,

My hands are warm.

My hands are warm.

And as you do,

Notice the sensations of warmth that you have created in your hands.

And now say the word heavy inside your mind.

And notice how heavy your resting hands can become while you say to yourself,

My hands are warm and heavy.

My hands are warm and heavy.

Now focus on your feet and say to yourself,

My feet are warm and heavy.

My feet are warm and heavy.

It is amazing how as you say,

My feet are warm and heavy,

That you can even begin to feel that wonderful sense of warmth and happiness and heaviness,

Can't you?

The first lesson here is that we can control the way we feel.

This is true both mentally and physically,

No matter how difficult life's situations are.

That sense of warmth and heaviness brings a sense of relief from the weariness of life.

It allows you to recharge the mind and body in the time that we have in this session today,

Or while you're listening to this recording at home.

Now focus on your breathing and notice that it's smooth and rhythmic,

Isn't it?

Relax with every breath that you take.

And it feels so wonderful to relax this deeply,

To become so calm.

This is a totally natural state,

Isn't it?

It's not something that I have created,

It's something that you have allowed yourself to create and you can re-experience these feelings at any time.

Simply by closing your eyes and focusing in on deep relaxation,

You can re-experience it any time that you'd like.

Just focus on a feeling of calm.

Repeat that word to yourself silently in your mind,

Calm.

And invite that word down into the chest,

Breathing the word calm down into your heart.

Now focus on the word hope.

Repeat the word to yourself in your mind,

Hope.

And let that feeling roll around your mind and drop down into your heart.

And notice that you begin to feel some feelings of hope,

Don't you?

And it feels wonderful.

Water always makes me feel hopeful.

I don't know why,

But it does.

Maybe it's because it reminds me that nothing stays the same.

Or maybe it's because there is power and energy there that revitalizes and energizes my spirit.

Do you desire peace?

Do you desire calm?

Take a moment now and focus in on those words.

Breathe them in.

And feel them deep inside.

And now,

Imagine before you a series of knobs and dials,

Like those old knobs or dials that used to be on those old-fashioned radios.

You know what I'm talking about,

Don't you?

And each one of those knobs and dials represents a volume control of sorts.

A volume control that can help you turn down the volume on certain things and to turn up the volume on others.

One dial represents the dial of stress.

You're reaching out and holding that dial with either your right or left hand.

And then begin to dial down the stress.

That's right.

Dialing it down until the volume becomes quieter.

That's right.

And quieter until the stress is barely a whisper.

Barely a whisper.

Barely a whisper.

And then with that same hand,

Reach over to the dial of sadness and dial down the sadness,

Turning down the volume on the sadness until it's barely a whisper.

Now,

There's a third dial that represents anger.

Grab hold of that dial and dial down the anger until it's barely a whisper,

Letting it go.

As you drift and dream deeper inside into a profound inner trance,

Turning down the volume on anger until it's barely a whisper.

And there's another dial that represents fear.

Grab hold of that dial and turn down the volume on the fear,

Turning down the volume until it's only a whisper.

It feels so good to let it go,

Does it not?

And then there's a volume knob for acceptance.

Acceptance doesn't mean that you like something,

But it means that you've fully accepted the current situation.

So grab a hold of that dial for acceptance and dial up the acceptance,

Turning up the volume until you can feel those feelings inside,

The feelings that say,

I accept my life and I accept myself just the way I am,

Increasing the volume on the acceptance.

Now turn up the volume of hope,

Grabbing hold of the hope dial and increasing the volume of hope in your life.

And as you turn that dial,

The dial of hope,

You can feel new feelings,

Positive feelings rising up within you.

As you turn up the volume of hope in your life,

It feels so good,

Doesn't it?

And now,

As you sleep tonight,

Allow your unconscious mind to send you healing dreams,

Dreams to help you feel wonderful inside,

Dreams to bring you hope for the future,

Dreams to create a positive sensation inside your mind and heart.

Now drift into a deep and wonderful sleep,

Sleeping soundly through the night,

Waking tomorrow morning feeling rested and wonderful.

Go deeper now as I count from five to one,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Drifting to sleep,

Two,

One,

Relax and drift all the way down,

All the way down,

Deeply sleeping through the night.