Hello and welcome to this guided meditation for sleep.
Bedtime can be an anxiety provoking time for many of us,
Where we have a difficult time shutting down our minds and we may become restless when we're unable to fall asleep.
Whether we fall asleep or not is actually not our business.
If sleep happens,
It happens.
Falling asleep is nature.
If sleep doesn't happen,
It doesn't happen.
Being awake is also nature.
Our job is to simply have the attitude that allows the nature of this moment to be as it is.
Take a few moments to get comfortable lying down on your back or whatever position feels most comfortable for you.
Gently close your eyes or lower your gaze.
Take a few deep breaths in,
Inhaling in through your nose and exhaling out through your mouth.
Inhale in all the fresh air and calmness that surrounds you and exhale out your worries and any tensions in your body.
Take a few moments to leave the day behind you.
Any thoughts,
Feelings,
Emotions or conversations that are still replaying in your mind.
All day long,
The energies of the mind have had their own momentum.
Thinking,
Planning,
Organizing,
Talking.
It's natural that this will continue for a while.
So whatever is happening is okay.
Take a few moments to let the thoughts play out and slowly release them.
Now bring your attention to your body,
Allowing your entire body to relax and sink into the surface beneath it.
Feel the weight of the body against the surface.
The sensations of your body in the clothes that you're wearing,
The sensations of the bedsheets against your skin.
Take a moment to notice how the body feels,
How the body is breathing.
Nothing to do here,
Just getting a sense of how it feels.
We're going to work through the body,
Imagining that we're putting the body to sleep,
Muscle by muscle,
Part by part.
Starting down at the toes,
Focusing the attention there and moving the attention from the toes to the feet to the ankles.
Imagining all the muscles,
Big ones,
Small ones,
Allowing them to soften,
Relax and gently shut down for the night.
As you move past the ankles,
Now into the lower half of the legs,
Moving the attention up the body,
Allowing the lower half of the legs to sleep part by part.
As you move up past the knees into the upper legs,
Any tension just being let go of as the muscles shut down and go to sleep for the night.
And the same now for the area of the hips,
The pelvis,
Allowing those parts to soften and relax.
As you scan through the body,
You may come across places that are contracted or tense.
Remember,
Everything is nature.
Contraction is nature,
Relaxation is nature,
It's all just nature.
With this perspective,
See if you can observe and allow whatever is here,
Relaxing any extra tension that's easy to let go of.
As you continue now into the upper part of the body,
The muscles of the stomach and the lower back,
Allow them to relax and switch off.
Continue to scan upwards through the chest,
The back,
The shoulders,
Each part softening and going to sleep for the night.
And as you scan down the arms now,
Again just watching as the muscles relax,
Soften,
And switch off.
And now moving through the hands,
The fingers,
The thumbs,
Allowing those muscles to simply switch off,
Going up the neck and the throat,
Allowing any tension to relax as you allow those parts of the body to sleep.
And now moving through the hands,
The fingers,
The thumbs,
Allowing those muscles of the body to sleep.
And now bringing your attention finally to the muscles in the head,
The face,
Especially the jaw,
Releasing any tension if there's any tension in the jaw,
The nose,
The eyes,
Allowing them to soften,
The entire body at rest,
At ease,
Just feeling the weight of the body sinking down into the bed,
Allowing any lingering thoughts to come and go as they please,
Allowing the mind to wander as you drift off to sleep.
