Welcome to this Grounded Life Sleepy Time Meditation.
Make sure you are lying down somewhere comfortable and safe.
And let us start by bringing your attention to your breathing.
Breathe at your natural pace and start to become aware of the nature of your breath.
Is it steady and full?
Or is it more shallow,
Perhaps moving more spontaneously in and out of the body?
You are not instructing your breath here or trying to control it.
Let it be at ease.
There is no right or wrong way to breathe in this practice.
Let your awareness sit on the very top of the breath as it travels in and out of the body.
Now bring your attention all the way down the body to your feet.
Start to let the feet become heavy,
Allowing them to become more floppy and enabling a sense of weight to come into the feet.
Notice the contact the heel or any other part of the foot has with the ground.
And how this may change as the feet become heavier.
Actively softening the skin all around the heels.
And up through the arches of the feet.
Softening the soles of the feet.
Across the top.
And all the way to the toes.
And the skin in between them.
Each part of your foot releasing all tension.
On your next inhale,
Take the breath all the way down to the feet and on your exhale,
Let the feet fully relax.
Spreading this sensation and slowly moving your awareness up into the ankles.
Softening the skin around the ankle joints and releasing inside the ankles too.
Perhaps noticing a sense of space here in the joint as you soften and let go.
Coming up to the calves and around the calves to the shin bone and the bottom part of the leg.
You are now letting this area become heavy.
Invite the calves to unwind.
The ground is supporting you.
You can afford to just let go.
Coming up to the knees.
And here perhaps visualising this area,
This junction of ligaments,
Tendons,
Cartilage and muscles.
Consciously starting to release here,
Letting any tension dissolve from this place.
Visualise them loosening and softening as you open the back of the knee.
Around to each side and all the way to the front of the knee.
Letting go and opening this space to feel more at ease.
Inhale into this area.
And with your exhale,
Release your knees.
Travelling up the leg here to the thighs.
Here lie your strongest muscles.
And it can take a bit of time here to fully relax.
So allow yourself this time.
It's not always easy to just relax on demand.
Letting go and coming into a state of full relaxation is a step-by-step process.
It takes your awareness.
Your care.
Your commitment.
And most importantly,
Your breath.
So consciously invite a sense of letting go to the backs of the thighs.
Spreading across to the inner thighs.
And the glutes and the buttocks and the outer thighs and all the way to the tops of the thighs.
Slowly releasing the muscles here and the tension which can be stored in this area.
Using the exhale to let go.
Letting the area become heavy.
Succumbing to gravity which gently brings you back towards the ground.
See if you can take up more space where you are lying now.
Can you take up more surface area here?
Not by moving but simply by letting go.
Give yourself full permission to feel the space in your body expanding as you continue to release and let go.
Bringing your attention up into the pelvis area and softening into this area.
Bring your breath to this place.
Let the pelvis become heavier and fully grounded.
On the next inhale,
Inhale and on the next exhale completely release the pelvis,
The thighs,
The legs and sink back towards the ground.
It has you and is 100% supporting you now.
Soften the area around the sacrum and the small of the back.
Gently release here and let go of any tension.
Let it fall out of the body and down into the ground.
Let it go.
Coming to the tummy.
Really let this be soft and squidgy.
Wash this feeling of release all around to the sides of the torso.
Feeling the skin softening.
Inviting a release in the middle of the back and coming up to just below the shoulders,
Around the torso and to the heart centre.
You may notice that the shoulders naturally want to settle back into the ground.
The shoulder blades want to nestle back into their ball and socket joints.
And the front of the shoulders open and drop back towards the ground.
Encourage this surrender to gravity.
This opening of the shoulders can create a natural opening in the heart centre or chest.
Take a breath into this space.
And invite the sensation to wash into this area,
Softening on the exhale.
It is safe to breathe and let go in this moment.
The body is perhaps now starting to enjoy this feeling of letting go.
Giving it the time and care to be able to release some of the tension it habitually carries for you in your day in life.
Travelling on up the body with your awareness to the tops of the arms.
And spreading this feeling of calm and comfort down the arms.
So allow the muscles in the tops of the arms to become much heavier.
Come down to the elbows.
And as you release and soften this area,
Perhaps noticing the sense of space and freedom here in the joint.
Keep going on down into the forearms.
To the backs of the hands.
And the wrists.
And the palms.
And softening the skin in the palms of the hand.
By consciously relaxing them.
Spreading this sensation out to each and every finger and thumb.
Allowing any tension to drain out of each fully.
Letting the arms completely be at rest and heavy against the ground.
Inhale into the arms and exhale letting the arms completely release.
Tracing back up the arms and coming to the neck area.
The front of the neck melts like warm wax.
Loosening and yielding to this feeling.
Allow this feeling to travel up through the back of the neck.
And up through the back of the skull.
As your head starts to become heavy.
And falls back naturally into the pillow or ground.
The brain comes back towards the skull as it rests.
Everything beginning to fully let go.
Expanding this sensation over the top of the head and down to the sides of the face and coming to the jaw.
Release the jaw.
Perhaps noticing that when you release the jaw the ears naturally want to come back down towards the earth as well.
Soften the face.
Your cheeks.
Either side of your nose.
Your lips.
Your eyelids.
Let your eyes gently nestle back into their sockets ready for rest.
Softening your whole face.
Completely at ease.
A pleasurable feeling of softness and release.
Lastly bringing your attention to the eyebrows and releasing any tension that lies here.
Softening the space between the eyebrows.
We are just going to take a few breaths while resting our awareness at the centre of the eyebrows.
Inhaling and exhaling.
And giving ourselves the opportunity to ask if there is any more to be let go of.
Any other tension in the body.
Any thoughts which do not need to be here now.
Practice the process of letting them go with your next exhale.
Gently inhaling to create space,
Softness and comfort.
And exhaling to completely release and let go.
Enjoying this feeling of complete relaxation as you gently drift off into a peaceful and easy sleep.
