As we get started,
I invite you to take some deep breaths with an audible sigh,
Letting your body almost cleanse from the day with your breath,
Exhaling as much tension,
Stress,
As much frustration or heaviness that you've walked through or carried with you today.
You can even see if you can make each exhale just a little bit longer,
Letting your shoulders and your body settle down a little bit more with each exhale and each breath.
And as you continue those deep breaths throughout,
I invite you to close your eyes if you're comfortable,
Gently noticing what's happening inside of you right now,
Noticing if there's any sensation in your body,
Any thought or any emotion that tells you anything about the parts of you that might need some rest or need some care before you go to bed tonight.
As you let your mind be curious,
I invite you to visualize what you're feeling inside in terms of parts of you,
Almost like these versions of yourself.
And so maybe there's a really tired part of you that you envision almost as a childlike part of you that's been working hard all day,
Caring so much,
And it's just so tired now.
Maybe you envision a part of you that has some sort of fear,
Anxiety,
Or worry that just won't go away.
It feels hard to go to bed with that unresolved.
You can just let your mind be curious,
Constructing some mental imagery of how you see that.
Maybe there's a sense of overwhelm,
A lack of hope.
You can think about how this feels,
How you envision this.
Maybe you feel nothing at all.
Maybe there's a sense of disconnect from what's happening inside.
Whatever you might be noticing or not noticing,
I encourage you to be curious,
Asking any criticisms,
Judgments,
Or shame.
To take a step back during this exercise and continuing those nice deep breaths,
I invite you to consider how you might ask God to minister to these parts of you as you end your day and go to sleep tonight.
You might even envision God's hand or God's care helping these parts of you wind down,
Get settled and tucked in to a cozy spot for rest,
For sleep.
You might envision certain kinds of protection or barriers for these parts of you to feel secure as you go to sleep.
You might envision God lifting burdens,
Containing those,
Securing those in a place where these parts of you do not have to be weighed down by them.
And whatever you're envisioning,
I'll offer a gentle reminder that we don't want to force imagery like this.
If parts of us aren't ready to imagine God ministering to them,
That's okay.
We just want to notice that as it is and let our minds naturally connect with the imagery that is popping up or not popping up.
There's no need to force any certain imagery here.
You can pause the audio if you would like any more time to envision a place of rest,
Any sort of protection,
Or any relief and containment of burdens for any part of you.
And if and when you're ready,
I'll close us with a prayer.
Lord God,
I thank you that there's nothing too big for you and as we can feel like we sometimes have the weight of the world on our shoulders or we are just exhausted beyond belief,
None of that is too much for you.
None of that is too big for you.
Whatever we are carrying,
I pray in your grace and your mercy you would lift it from us,
That you would securely bless us with rest,
You'd help us exhale and release any of the things that we don't know how to let go of or we don't know how to be free from.
Would you give us patience and grace for the parts of us that don't quite know how to trust your compassion or your care?
And would you bring all parts of us into a place of peace?
Amen.
