If you haven't already,
Do everything you need to do to get ready for sleep.
And when you're ready,
Get into bed,
Lay down in your favorite position,
And get ready to start this meditation for sleep.
Feel free to move around until you're totally comfortable.
Feel the sheets touching your skin,
Feel your head supported by the pillow.
Feel the warmth of your covers and blankets.
Any worries you have about your sleep tonight,
Start to let them go.
Start to just let them go.
Say to yourself,
Tonight I'm going to sleep deeply and soundly,
Tonight I'm going to sleep deeply and soundly.
I want you to start by deepening and slowing down the breath,
Breathing in deep through the nose all the way into the belly.
You can put a hand on your belly if it helps.
Feel the belly expand,
And then breathe away through the mouth.
You can even sigh it out if you'd like.
Breathing in deep through the nose,
Away from the mouth.
Repeat this process three more times,
Big deep breaths,
Each breath a little bit deeper than the one before.
Breathing in deep and holding it at the top of the breath to absorb all of the oxygen.
On your last exhale,
Feel yourself just melting into your bed.
Letting the breath return to a nice normal rhythm.
And this time,
As you inhale,
Say to yourself the word let,
As you exhale,
Say to yourself the word go.
Let go.
Let into a state of relaxation and letting go.
Now,
Bring it back to the breath,
Back to those two words,
Let,
Go,
Let.
Trusting that the day is done.
The day is done.
Letting today go,
Letting tomorrow worry about itself,
Leaving tomorrow's worries for tomorrow.
Just let.
If at any point you fall asleep in this exercise,
Just let yourself fall asleep.
Just let go.
I want you to see yourself standing outside at the top of an old wooden staircase.
At the bottom of the staircase is a scenic little stream of water.
It could be a place you've been,
It could be a place you make up in your mind.
See yourself at the top of that staircase.
You reach out to the old wooden handrail on your right,
Gripping it with your right hand,
Pressing your thumb firmly into the wood.
Feel its texture,
Feel its temperature,
It's even a bit damp.
Start to invite these details,
Start to allow these details to take you further down and down.
Down into a state of relaxation,
Totally letting go.
With each breath,
Letting go a little more.
And on my count,
We're going to slowly make our way down the staircase.
Down,
One step at a time,
Letting go.
Ten stairs,
Starting at ten,
Drifting down to the next step at nine.
Nine,
Already more relaxed.
Drifting down to eight.
See the number eight in your mind.
Eight,
Stepping down to seven.
Seven,
Seven,
Six,
Five.
Halfway down and twice as relaxed,
Yet only halfway down to four.
Four.
Letting go to three.
Three,
Down.
Two,
Down.
To one.
One.
See yourself walking lazily up to the stream.
Hear the water moving.
See the water flowing over the rocks.
Find a seat by the stream and take in all the details.
Fully immersed in this image.
Sights,
Sounds,
Feelings.
Just letting go.
Just letting go.
If you have worries,
Just imagine those worries are like a rock in your hand.
For each worry,
See yourself taking that rock,
Tossing it into the stream.
And away it goes.
And away it goes.
Let go.
Let tension go.
Let worries go.
Just float.
Just float.
And if you haven't already,
You can leap into a deep and restful sleep.
A deep and restorative sleep.
And if you wake up in the night,
You can just breathe and let go.
You can imagine this stream and you can go right back to sleep.
Sleeping all the way to the morning.
Just letting go.
Just letting go.
And what you'll find over the coming days,
Weeks,
Months and years is that your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep grows stronger and stronger and stronger.
Better able to just let go.
Better able to fall asleep and stay soundly,
Peacefully asleep until the morning.
