This is a short mindfulness meditation to follow as you fall asleep.
So get ready,
Make yourself comfortable,
Adjust your body as you need to,
Into your favorite position to fall asleep in.
Once you're comfortable,
Start by simply noticing your thoughts without trying to change them,
Without judging them.
Your thoughts are neither good nor bad,
They are just thoughts.
Allow the thoughts to come to the surface,
Take note and then allow them to drift away.
As each new thought pops up,
Acknowledge the thought and let it go.
Acknowledge the thought and let it go.
Some thoughts may be accompanied by feelings,
Emotions tied to thoughts.
Notice these as well.
If a certain thought makes you anxious or whether it makes you feel happy or angry,
Notice and acknowledge the thought and give the emotion attached to it a label.
Anger,
Joy,
Sadness perhaps.
And once you've acknowledged the thought and the feeling,
Allow both to drift away.
If you like,
You can imagine the thought and the feeling together floating away like a balloon in the wind.
And if your mind wanders to other things,
That is alright.
There is no judgment,
Just acceptance.
Notice and redirect again back to thoughts and the feelings attached to those thoughts.
And allow them to drift away.
You may find yourself hanging on to certain emotions that might be more difficult to let go of.
Let's let go of those emotions and thoughts with a physical action.
So take a deep breath in,
Filling your lungs.
Hold it and then as you breathe out,
You let go of the thought,
The feelings.
Feeling them physically leave your body.
Let's do that again.
Breathing in,
Holding the breath at the top with those feelings and thoughts and breathing out.
Letting go.
Releasing.
And we'll do that one final time.
Breathing in deeply,
Filling every corner of your lungs.
Holding at the top,
Gathering those feelings and thoughts and then breathing out.
Releasing.
Letting go.
And allowing your body to relax.
Allow your breathing to return to normal.
Just comfortable,
Relaxed,
Normal breathing.
Turning your attention now to your physical self,
Your body.
Taking a moment to notice where you might be holding some tension from the day.
Where there might be some discomfort.
Notice these sensations one by one and then release them.
Allow that body part,
That muscle,
The tendon to let go of the tension,
To release it.
You may want to do this with a breath as well.
Breathing in to that spot,
Into that tension and then breathing the tension out,
Letting it go.
You can shift the attention to a different part of the body and repeat this process.
Notice the tension,
The discomfort,
Acknowledge it and let it go.
Allowing muscles to soften and your body to sink further into the mattress,
Readying for sleep.
And if your mind wanders to other things,
It's okay.
Gently bring your attention back to your body.
Noticing tension and releasing tension.
And now we'll once again breathe in deeply.
Gathering any discomfort,
Any tension that's left over from the day and breathing it out,
Letting it go.
And again a deep breath in,
Hold it at the top and breathing out,
You let go of it,
You release it.
Allowing your body to settle,
Your mind to find calm.
And we'll do this one last time.
Deep breath in,
Hold it at the top and let go.
Allowing your body to settle deeper into the mattress,
More relaxed.
More at peace.
Your mind is calm and your body is at rest.
Allowing you to sink down comfortably into a deep sleep.
Allowing you to rest and recover.
