My name is Amanda and I'm going to be guiding you through today's practice and what we're doing today is a really great cozy meditation that's great to do before bed and I think that meditating in bed before you go to sleep can be really really peaceful and cozy but for this meditation it's going to be more about before you're actually looking to fall asleep.
So as you're settling into your nighttime routine as you're about to go take a bath or shower or read your book or whatever you do before bed this is a great time for that meditation and it will really help you to kind of settle into that state of getting ready to just let the day go and getting ready to have a really really cozy night's sleep.
So all you need is yourself,
Something comfortable to wear,
Something to sit on,
You can place underneath your sit bones to keep your hips in line with your knees and then once you've got all that meet me here in a cross-legged position hands on your knees and we'll get started.
So as you arrive here close your eyes,
Draw your shoulders up towards your ears and then long down your spine creating a nice long back and allow yourself to settle back into your sit bones and really allow your sit bones to take the weight of your body.
Draw the crown of your head up towards the ceiling while keeping your chin nice and tucked towards your neck so creating a nice long line all the way from your sit bones to the crown of your head.
Just beginning to settle in here and noticing the quality of your breath.
So sometimes I find as I begin to settle from a long day I need to take a couple nice deep inhales and exhales my breath will be a little bit rapid and ragged it'll be short and shallow so just beginning to tune in to whatever is happening with your breath in this moment.
Beginning to deepen those inhales and exhales breathing through your nose if you can.
Now as we begin to unwind from the day that's just happened that we've just had what I want you to do is do a physical body check-in.
So start at the crown of your head and just do a scan through your body just making little mental notes of places of tightness or tension places of pain discomfort just noticing how you feel.
Noticing if you're high energy or low energy just observing how your body is in this moment today.
And as you observe these things I want you to notice without judgment so it's easy to be like ah stupid shoulder it's hurting me again.
Instead of putting that sort of negativity and judgment on something that's happening in your body just notice ah a little bit of shoulder discomfort a little bit of shoulder pain feeling really tired still buzzing from the day just observing.
And then as you finish up that I want you to shift your attention to your mental space and the first thing that I want you to do is just mentally go through your day.
So starting from the moment that you woke up this morning maybe to an alarm maybe not how you got out of bed you know what you did next going off to work what your day looked like and just making a little mental picture of what the day looked like right up until this moment that we're meditating together.
All right and as you meet me in this moment right now at your meditation let's take a couple of deep breaths together just really letting the day go.
So inhale deeply through your nose.
Exhale side out through your mouth.
Two more just like that.
Inhale deeply through your nose.
Exhale side out through your mouth.
Inhale through your nose.
Exhale side out through your mouth.
Really good.
Now bringing your attention back to your mental space and just allowing the thoughts to naturally come and go for a couple of moments beginning to notice what is still on your mind.
So even though you just went through your day and you've just observed things as they come and go what is still something that you're sort of thinking about?
Is there a conversation with a spouse or a friend that upset you?
Is there something that happened to the boss or a co-worker that is still on your mind?
Is there a task that you need to do tomorrow that you're still thinking about?
Just observing these things that are catching your attention.
All right so now that you have these things that are kind of still on your mind and you're just observing and holding on to them what I want you to do instead of thinking of letting them go because let's be real can you really let those things start bothering us go what I want you to do is I want you to stick them in a little space that's going to represent tomorrow.
So you can imagine that in whatever way that you want.
Maybe you think of it as you know putting it on your your desk at your office for tomorrow morning.
Maybe you imagine putting it in a notebook.
Maybe you imagine tucking it in a little box or a file folder.
But just putting it in a place where it becomes not sort of right now's problem but it becomes something that you're going to deal with a little later.
I know for me that creates a lot of ease in my body in my mind so just observing how you feel and for you it might be something that you actually need to write down or physically take care of before you can end your day and so if that's the case you know just tucking it away till the end of this meditation and then taking care of it after.
But just observing right in this moment in this place how you're feeling.
Take a nice deep inhale all together.
Exhale through your mouth.
Really good.
Releasing all the stress and stress and tension with that.
And now what I want you to do is to move into a place of bed,
Of sleep,
Of relaxation.
So what I want you to do is hold in your mind's eye the intention of a relaxing,
Peaceful,
Deep sleep that's gonna leave you feeling really calm,
Energized,
And ready to take on tomorrow.
Imagine what that looks like what it feels like and hold it in your mind's eye.
And now what I want you to do is I want you to think about all the actions that need to happen in order to get you to bed.
Thinking about your bedtime routine.
So after this maybe you're gonna make a couple of notes about your day.
You're gonna get a glass of water or tea.
If you're gonna go upstairs or downstairs or on this level and change into your pajamas.
If you're going to brush your teeth,
Wash your face,
Take a shower,
Crawl into bed,
You're gonna read a little bit.
You know whatever it is for you that's kind of a part of your nighttime routine.
And what I want you to do is create a lot of peace with it.
So try to keep things like checking social media,
Checking your emails out of that.
So walk yourself through your bedtime routine.
What it's gonna take to get into bed,
Feeling nice and relaxed so you can have a nice deep sleep.
Make that picture nice and vivid in your mind.
Be really clear about what action steps you're going to take.
Breathing nice and deeply as you move through this.
A few more moments of the visualization.
All right now letting the visualization go but being intentional about how you're gonna take your next moments,
Your next steps,
How you're gonna move out of this meditation.
I want you to bring your hearts,
Your hands to your heart,
Thumbs facing in and bow your chin towards your chest.
Just take a moment to express gratitude that you gave yourself this time for this meditation.
Thank you for sharing it with me.
Thank you for joining me.
Raise your head and gently blink your eyes open.
Be nice and calm here,
Nice and quiet.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Namaste.
All right so after that you should feel pretty calm,
Relaxed.
Try to keep that nice deep breathing up for the rest of your night and try to really connect with that visualization.
So as you get moving here,
Move slowly,
Move with intention and get yourself to bed in the way that you visualize so that you can have a nice,
Nice peaceful sleep.
As always if you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to let me know.
Otherwise I'll see you soon.
Thanks for watching.
