This gratitude practice is to invoke a feeling of self-compassion and appreciation before sleep.
It is a wonderful way to put the day to bed especially if your day has been full and your mind is busy.
So begin by settling into the place where you are lying and if you find it helpful you could take a deep breath in through the nose and a sigh out of the mouth so that you can land more fully and completely into this moment.
Perhaps doing that a couple more times if that felt good to you.
And from this place of presence I invite you to recall the moment that you woke this morning and that you placed your feet on the floor.
Recalling how you moved about in those first morning interactions and that first cup of tea or coffee or hot beverage and the food that you ate and offering yourself a blessing for those things and those moments when you first woke.
Recalling how you made your way into the day,
The activities and the interactions,
Your comings and your goings.
Offering a moment of gratitude and thanks for each of those moments.
Recalling the food that you ate during the day,
Offering some gratitude for that food.
Remembering how you spent your afternoon,
The places you went or if you were at home,
The types of activities you were doing and offering each moment a blessing and thanks.
Then arriving into the early evening recalling how you made your way into the evening.
If you were cooking and the food that you ate,
Offering some gratitude and a blessing for those moments.
Then recalling the evening activities,
The winding down,
How you made your way about the evening,
The conversations you had,
The emails that you finished up and offering some thanks for those moments too.
And recalling how you made your way into bed,
Into this moment,
Those evening rituals,
Offering a blessing for all of those things.
And as you begin to enter sleep with gratitude for all of the thoughts and all of the actions that have brought you here to this moment,
Gratitude for the day,
Gratitude for all that you have and all that you do,
I invite you to offer yourself some kind words.
Words that can take on the shape of the loving kindness prayer,
To wish yourself to be well,
To wish yourself to be rested and wish yourself to be happy.
Spending a few moments now with these words,
Perhaps phrasing it in ways that feel right to you.
May I be well,
May I be rested,
May I be happy.
And calling to mind a dear friend,
It could even be a dear animal,
Someone in your life that you really care about,
Really get into the feeling of their presence and offer them these kind words too.
May you be well,
May you be rested,
May you be happy.
And then call to mind your family and your friends,
Perhaps calling them to mind as images in your mind and really getting the presence of them and offering them these kind words too.
Wishing them to be well,
To be rested and to be happy.
And sending this prayer out to everybody else around in the world,
All of your good intentions and thoughts.
And you can do this by using the breath to breathe in,
Gathering these good intentions and kind words like warm blessings into the heart space.
And then to breathe out and tend to send them out to everyone around you,
All beings everywhere,
All beings above you,
All beings to the side of you and all beings below you.
And perhaps taking the next ten rounds of breath just like that.
Gathering your wise and kind words into the heart like warm blessings.
Then breathing them out to everyone else around you,
All beings everywhere.
Then breathing in a warm welcome for your deep sleep and healing dreams that you will have for a bright and peaceful tomorrow.
