Take a moment to get comfortable.
This practice is to help you settle your mind and your body for restful sleep.
We'll start with an exhale-dominant breath work to settle the nervous system.
Then we'll move into intentional body relaxation,
Before ending with gentle breath work to ease you into sleep.
Let's begin our practice with a 4-count inhale through the nose,
A 4-count hold,
And an 8-count exhale through the mouth with the jaw nice and relaxed.
Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Inhale through the belly and the chest,
Hold it at the top,
And exhale relax your shoulders and jaw.
Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale Find some release.
Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale Find some softness.
Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Inhale 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale Exhale,
Let everything go,
And let your breath fall back at its natural rhythm.
Just notice your body,
Notice your nervous system,
Continue to breathe naturally,
Feel the support of your bed,
Your sheets,
Your pillow,
Your head cradled by your pillow.
We'll take a moment to relax and release the different areas of our body to help you get comfortable.
Bring awareness to the space between your eyebrows and find some softness.
Continue to find softness in your eyes and your eyelids,
Your jaw and your tongue.
See if you can relax your neck and throat.
Bring some awareness to the heart center,
The center of your chest.
See if you can find some softness in your inhales and exhales.
Just take a moment to notice the gentle rise and fall of your chest.
Bring your awareness to your right shoulder.
Let it melt and soften.
Continue to soften your right elbow,
Your right wrist,
Your right hand,
Your fingers and thumb.
Relax your entire right hand,
Right wrist,
Right shoulder.
Bring awareness to your heart center.
Gently notice the rise and fall of your chest.
Small little currents.
Gentle waves rising and falling.
Bring awareness to the left shoulder.
Let your left shoulder melt and soften.
Continue to soften your left elbow,
Your left wrist,
Your left hand,
Your left fingers and thumb.
Relax and release your entire left hand,
Left wrist,
Left elbow,
And left shoulder.
Coming back to the heart center,
The center of your chest.
Finding some softness in your breath as you notice the gentle rise and fall as you breathe.
Bring awareness to your navel center.
Bring the ease of breathing into your navel center.
Let it expand and soften with each breath.
Breathe deeply to bring in some calm and ease.
Bring awareness to your right hip.
See if you can soften your right hip.
Continue to relax and soften your right knee,
Your right ankle,
Your right foot,
Your right toes.
Let your entire right foot and toes soften and relax.
Relax your right ankle,
Right knee,
Right hip.
Coming back to your navel center.
Again,
Noticing the expansion with the inhale and the release and softening on the exhale.
Bring some awareness to your left hip.
Can you release and soften your left hip,
Your left knee,
Your left ankle,
Left foot,
Left toes?
Can you relax your entire left foot and toes?
Bring awareness to your left ankle,
Left knee,
Left hip.
Taking a pause at the navel center and noticing the breath.
Can you find some ease in both of your legs?
Let them melt into the bed.
Can you find some ease in your abdomen,
Your chest and your back?
Are there places you need to release and soften?
Let your both arms melt into the bed.
Can you find some softness in your neck,
Shoulders and throat?
Can you smooth out any areas that you're clenching with your breath?
Can you soften your jaw and tongue?
Find some space in between your teeth.
Smooth out the space between your eyebrows and eyelids.
Feel a gentle softness from the crown of your head all the way down to your toes.
A wave of relaxation from the crown of your head all the way down to your toes.
A softness.
A release.
Bringing your attention back to the navel center and the heart center.
Can you expand the navel and the heart center with every inhale?
Find some softness and release with every exhale.
Inhale finding expansion.
Exhale finding softness.
Take deep,
Diaphragmatic breaths to continue helping us relax.
Focus on the rise and fall of the navel center and the heart center.
And continue to breathe diaphragmatically,
Letting your navel center and heart center expand with the inhales and soften with your exhales.
So keeping that diaphragmatic breathing,
Can we bring attention to the tip of our nose?
Can you feel the breath come in and out of your nostrils?
What is the temperature of the air on the inhale and exhale?
What is the feeling of the breath?
Continue to breathe diaphragmatically as we just notice the breath going in and out of our nose.
Can you soften your breath just a little bit more?
So that the breath is calm,
Soft,
Barely audible.
And as you soften your breath,
Can we smooth out any edges?
So that our breath is steady,
Smooth,
And soft.
See if you can find just a little more softness.
So that the breath is relaxed.
So that your breath is received and not taken.
It's effortless,
Easeful,
Steady,
Smooth.
And we find evenness in the inhales and exhales.
So we're inhaling and exhaling the same length,
The same texture,
The same gentleness and ease.
The inhales and the exhales are mirror images of each other.
Jaw is soft.
Breath is relaxed,
Smooth,
Steady,
Even.
From here,
We'll begin to count the breaths with the hope that by the end you will be sound asleep.
Take an inhale,
Exhale 54.
Inhale,
Exhale 53.
Inhale,
Exhale 52.
Inhale,
Exhale 51.
Continue to count the breaths at your own pace.
Keeping the breath smooth and steady.
Relaxed.
If you lose your place,
Go back to 54.
If you count down to one and you're still awake,
Start again at 54.
And continue to count down.
Breath is soft,
Steady,
