Welcome to quick and easy sleep.
The purpose of this practice is to teach you simple movements that you can make every night,
Along with a very relaxing breathing sequence that you can use to put yourself to sleep in a very simple and easy way.
In order to get the most out of the session,
Please find yourself in a comfortable position,
Feeling warm but not too hot,
In a dark environment that allows your body to fully rest.
Please begin by sensing the contact you're making with the surface that you're lying on,
And relaxing more and more into its support with each breath.
Allow yourself to take a big inhale through the nose,
Sensing the movement of your belly as it expands,
And very gently letting it out in a slow and calm way,
Enjoying the wave-like motion of your breath.
Repeat this breathing a couple times.
Deep inhale,
Sensing the fullness of your abdomen,
Ribs,
Lower back,
In a very slow and gentle exhale,
Slowing it down more and more without worrying about how long it is,
Only noticing that you can slow it down more and more each time.
And when you breathe now again,
Taking a big inhale,
Feel your body completely all the way to the top of your lungs,
So take the biggest inhale that you can,
And when you feel this fullness of your breath,
Just hold it a little bit,
Sensing the oxygen everywhere in your body,
And as you exhale now,
Very slowly let the air come out of your mouth,
With a small opening between your lips as if you're hissing or deflating air from a big balloon.
And now again,
Inhale completely,
Feeling your whole body as much as you can,
Expanding,
Hold the breath at the top of the inhale completely full,
And very,
Very slowly make a small opening between your lips and let the air come out.
For as long as you can,
Easily.
And now on your own you continue this breathing sequence,
It's a long inhale,
A brief hold,
And a very long exhale,
Hissing,
Letting the air come out very gently.
And as you do this now on your own in the background,
Follow my voice through this very simple movement sequence.
Begin by sensing your eyes and noticing that they're floating in their sockets,
Supported by fluid,
Layers and layers of muscle,
As if they were resting in big,
Soft hammocks.
Let gravity now sink your eyes into the sockets even more as you breathe.
By reducing the effort around your eyes,
You're letting gravity do what it's designed to do,
And you're letting them be supported.
If you're feeling extra tension around your eyes today,
You can rub your hands together to create a little warmth,
And then very gently place your fingertips around your eyes,
As if you're tracing the shape of them just with your fingertips,
And hold the muscle around your eyes together a little bit,
Supporting this tightness and tension,
The squeezing that we do sometimes with our eyes during the day.
As you breathe,
Long inhale,
Even longer exhales,
Let your hands support the tired muscles around your eyes for a little longer.
Maybe a couple more rounds of breath,
Letting your fingertips softly cup your eyes in this way,
And then very,
Very slowly,
As if you're moving in slow motion,
Let your fingers expand and open,
The orbits around your eyes creating more and more space.
Your eyelids are closed,
And your fingers are gently expanding the muscle around your eyes,
On your forehead,
Below the eyes,
On the temples.
Now take your hands down,
Put them on the side or over your belly,
Continue breathing and follow my voice.
I'm going to guide you through a very simple movement sequence with your eyes as you breathe.
Begin by gently moving your eyes to the left and to the right,
With your eyes closed.
It doesn't need to be a large movement.
A simple movement to the left with your eyes,
All the way to the left corner,
And then gently to the right,
As if you're sweeping or making some sort of a line with your eyes closed inside your sockets.
You can imagine the shape that you're making could be round,
Could be straight.
Just notice what's there,
Continue breathing.
Now very gently let the eyes rest in the middle,
And see if you can take a deeper inhale,
And an even longer exhale,
Hissing,
Perhaps even humming,
Letting a little sound come out.
Now slowly let your movement return,
And let the eyes now find out the length that they can look inside the sockets,
With your eyelids closed as they look up,
And then all the way down,
As if you're tracing an imaginary line.
You're moving your eyes up towards the top of your head,
And gently down,
Passing through the middle.
It's a small movement,
Slow,
Relaxing.
Do it a couple more times,
And as you do it,
Observe if there's any tension in your teeth,
Your hands,
Your toes,
And give yourself permission to relax even further.
With the next breath as you breathe out,
You can let your mouth and teeth open a little bit,
And perhaps sigh or yawn.
Make the breathing simple and soft.
Enjoy the sense of fullness and emptiness as you exhale.
Pause with your eyes now and just rest,
Letting them sink deeper and deeper into the hammocks that are holding them in this fluid,
Soft,
Velvety-like space.
Now take one more breath,
Long inhale.
Notice how much easier it is for you to maintain this breathing rhythm.
Hold it in fullness and very,
Very gently let it out through your mouth with a soft sound or hissing motion.
And noticing now that it's easier for you to let your eyes just sink,
Float,
Be held.
And very,
Very gently now as you continue breathing in this nice rhythmic cadence,
Let your eyes now go all the way to the top of your head.
Your eyes are moving,
Your eyelids are closed.
From the top of your head now let them move to the right,
And then down,
And then to the left,
And then up again,
Beginning to trace the shape of a circle with your eyes closed.
As if you're sweeping,
Making a round movement with both eyes,
There's nothing to see,
Your eyelids are closed.
You're just moving your eyes inside their orbits as you breathe,
And this gentle movement is soothing you and quickly putting you to sleep.
Allow the movement to be slow,
Small,
Don't worry about making it perfect.
Notice if at any moment during the shape of the circle your teeth get tense or your fingertips and relax them.
Find your breath deeper,
Longer,
More and more relaxing.
And allow the movement of your eyes now to change direction,
Going from the top to the left,
Below,
Down,
Towards your feet,
And then to the right,
Moving in a circular,
Counterclockwise direction,
Letting the movement be slow and lazy,
Without paying too much attention to doing it perfectly,
But just a simple,
Easy way.
Notice now that it might be easier for you to move the eyes to the left first,
Or to the right first,
And when you do this movement on your own,
Pick the easy direction first,
Letting your body gently follow the circular direction of your eyes,
Softening your throat,
Your shoulders,
Your back,
Your hips,
Your knees,
Your ankles and your feet.
With the next round of movement,
Just take a deep breath in,
Hold,
And slowly breathe out,
Gently letting all the air slowly come out of your mouth and let the movement of your eyes stop.
Breathing out,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
