Go ahead and put on your Superman or Wonder Woman PJs.
Get into bed.
Make sure the temperature in your room is right.
The shades are closed.
It's nice and dark.
And you're ready to let go of the day and drop into a nice deep sleep.
Welcome back to the Grounded Sleep Podcast.
I've been away for a little while and it's good to be back.
Let's just say I was hibernating for the holidays.
So get comfortable.
So eyes closed.
I want you to gently rest your shoulders onto the mattress,
Onto the bed.
Nice your body start to sink into the bed.
And in tonight's sleep meditation,
I'm going to help you get to 100% relaxation.
Either that or I'm going to bore you to sleep first.
We're going to accomplish that tonight by doing a really gentle,
Effortless body scan.
And as we scan the body,
We're going to release tension in every single part,
In every single place that our consciousness touches.
You might find that most of your awareness is up in your head.
Your brain,
Your mind,
Uses a lot of your body's energy.
Mostly thinking about cat videos and money.
As we go to bed,
We're going to bring our attention and our awareness back down into the body.
As your body relaxes,
It'll make it easier for you to let go into a really calm deep sleep.
Tonight I invite you to almost reorient your relationship with your body.
If there's been any judgment or any expectation that seems excessive,
You're going to put it down and you're going to let yourself really just feel.
Allow yourself to unwind and to be at rest.
You can start by bringing your attention to the crown of your head.
Just notice the very top of your head.
Notice if there are any sensations up in this area.
Notice your scalp.
Notice your temples.
See if you can release any tension around your temples.
See if you can release any tension from the top of your head,
From your forehead,
Even from your eyes,
Your nose,
Your mouth,
Your cheekbones.
You can take a nice deep breath slowly into your head.
In every place that breath touches,
As it breathes out,
As the breath leaves your body,
It takes any tension with it.
Notice any tension in your jaw just releasing.
Even allow your tongue to lay calmly on the bottom of your mouth.
Even notice if you can relax your nostrils.
Relax your ears.
Notice that you see,
You smell,
You hear,
You taste.
All from this area,
All from a very small area at the top of your body.
There's a lot of information and energy input.
Almost like turning a volume knob down.
Let it shut down.
You can even notice your brain just starting to rest as a muscle.
Let yourself loosen your throat,
Start to relax the muscles in your neck.
This is the channel that connects our heads to our bodies.
If you can open and loosen this space,
Let go of tension.
You can actually enhance the relationship between your head and your body.
Drop your shoulders away from your ears.
And start to release any tension in your shoulders.
Any tension in the top of your back where your neck meets your back.
Any tension in your collar bone in the front where your neck meets your chest.
When you come down into the center of your chest,
Your heart center,
Your energetic heart center.
The place where if I asked you to point to yourself,
You would point here.
Let this space start to relax and release any tension,
Slowly taking a deep breath into it.
And a soothing breath out,
Just releasing any tension out of your chest,
Out of your heart.
Anything that's been weighing on you.
Release any tension off of your back,
The middle part of your back.
And bring your awareness down into your abdomen.
This is where you digest food,
But it also may be where you digest some emotion,
Where you hold some tension.
See if you can breathe into your belly and just expand it like a balloon,
Relaxing your nerve endings.
As you breathe out,
Just empty it of air and let it gently start to loosen any tension.
You're letting go of any tension in the lower back,
The entire trunk of your body.
And your arms,
Noticing you're relaxing your arms at your sides,
Or perhaps one hand on top of the other,
Over the chest or belly.
You can even take a deep breath in as you do allow the air to move all the way through your arms into the palms of your hands.
Feeling what we might call the energy centers in the hands,
Where our creative energy flows through.
And then as you breathe out,
Any tension just releasing.
The tension just releases out of your hands.
You may not even realize how much you hold in your hands.
Open your palms.
Use the fingers.
Bring your awareness to your waist.
We tend to hold a lot of emotion in the waist.
As you breathe into the waist,
See if you can allow it to gently relax.
Your waist connects your upper body and your lower body.
Sometimes your waist is more concerned with earthly pleasures,
With being grounded,
With creating a foundation and stability for you.
Sometimes when it does its job well,
If it tries too hard,
There can be tension.
Release any tension as you breathe.
Ease this place.
Bring your awareness into your glute muscles.
If anyone's been in pain in your glutes,
You can start to release that tension.
You can allow yourself to actually breathe into whatever part of your body you're relaxing.
And you can start bringing your attention down into your legs,
Into your thighs,
Quadriceps,
Into your hamstrings,
And release any tension out of your legs.
You can release tension out of your knees,
Out of the backs of your knees,
And even out of your shins.
Unwind any excess energy,
Any excess tension out of your shins,
Out of your calves.
Slowly as you breathe into your legs.
With each exhale,
You release a little bit more tension.
And you bring your awareness down into your ankles,
And into your feet and your toes.
Perhaps some energy flushes out of the bottom of your feet.
As you breathe in,
Notice your entire body oscillates and moves with each breath in and with each breath out.
And with each exhale,
You release a little bit more tension.
And you get closer and closer to being 100% relaxed.
You start to feel a night calling you.
You're happy to let go into the dream time,
So you can have a really deep,
Full,
Deep,
Deep forest.
