Deep Healing Sleep

Immerse yourself in practices that gently regulate your nervous system, creating a safe and serene space for restful slumber. Let the soothing guidance envelop you, guiding you into a profound journey of inner healing as you surrender to the tranquil embrace of the night. Drift into a realm where your nervous system finds balance, fostering deep and rejuvenating sleep, creating a sanctuary for your well-being.

Transcript

Good evening.

Welcome home.

Welcome home to yourself.

This is your safe haven,

Your retreat and restoration from your busy day.

This session is designed to soothe your mind and bring safety into your body.

I invite you to get yourself 10% even more comfortable than you are already now.

Place some pillows below your knees,

Your head.

Make sure you're really comfortable laying down and ready for bed.

Ready to fall asleep softly.

In this session we will focus on cultivating a sense of home within.

A sense of safe refuge within us.

We are living our lives often disconnected from our bodies.

We often look for other people,

Things or places to meet our needs and we forget that so often all we need is to come back home to ourselves.

As you are lying down now,

Take a moment to close your eyes and really nestle in the position that you have chosen for today.

Become aware of gravity gently pulling your body down into the bed below you.

Allow your body to become more heavy.

Perhaps you feel the need to take a few comfortable deep breaths.

With every exhale releasing just a little bit more of the weight that you've been carrying with you all day long.

With every exhale there is an opportunity to let go.

Feel your body become more and more relaxed with every breath you consciously take and you can choose to continue this conscious breathing throughout our time together.

The most important thing is that you feel comfortable so allow these deeper breaths to feel comfortable and soft.

We leave all forcing,

All rushing and all hurrying behind right now.

As you notice the soft texture of your sheets touching upon your skin,

As you become aware of the different temperatures in the sheets,

Above the sheets,

The temperature of your feet is different than the temperature of your face.

Notice how soft or hard the pillow below your neck is and as you are tuning in more with your bodily sensations,

Also called the felt sense,

You might start to become aware of some aches,

Some pains,

Some discomfort or disease.

If so,

See if you can extend your comfortable breaths towards this place in your body.

Imagine you are inhaling through this place and exhaling from this place.

Often the pain or discomfort we feel is due to tension being held in the body.

Keep sending your comfortable conscious breaths and allow the tension to unravel like a ball of wool,

Gently unravelling,

Untying the knot.

In meditation practices we can be so heavily focused on the mind that we forget about our body.

We'll continue with some gentle muscle relaxation techniques to help you ease into a state of deep relaxation.

When we relax the body,

The mind follows.

Our nervous system can begin to unwind and calm down.

We will be taking a few deep breaths in together,

Comfortable,

Never forcing.

We will hold our breath and start to tense the muscles in our body and as we exhale we release all tension and you can exhale with a sigh.

So let's begin.

Take a comfortable,

Long,

Soft breath in.

Whenever you're finished,

Hold your breath and start to squeeze all the muscles in your lower body.

Curl up your toes,

Squeeze your calves,

Your thighs,

Your hamstrings and your buttocks.

Keep holding your breath for three,

Two,

One and let go of this tension and you can choose to release your breath with a big sigh out.

Notice how you feel.

With your next comfortable,

Long breath in,

Holding your breath at the top,

We'll start to tense all the muscles in the upper body.

Start to squeeze your stomach,

Your belly,

Your chest.

Make fists with your hands and tense your whole arms,

Your whole back.

Hold the tension for three,

Two,

One and then sigh it out and release all the tension in your upper body.

You might feel the need to take a deep breath or perhaps yawn.

These are signs of release.

Your nervous system is discharging,

Releasing all the built-up tension,

Stress and energy that you were still holding on to.

With your next comfortable breath in,

We'll do the same for our neck,

Head and shoulders.

Hold your breath at the top and start to squeeze all the muscles in your face as well as the back of your head,

Your neck and lifting your shoulders up towards your ears.

Squeeze a little bit tighter here.

We hold so much tension in our jaw,

Shoulders,

Forehead and then let go of the tension with a big sigh.

Allow your shoulders to come back down.

Allow your eyelids to smoothen and soften.

Allow your jaw to unclench and notice how you feel.

We'll do one last final round of this technique called progressive muscle relaxation,

PMR.

And now we'll do PMR for our whole body.

We'll tense all the muscles from the toes all the way up to the top of our head.

Take a big comfortable breath in.

Hold your breath at the top and start to squeeze your whole body.

Curl your toes.

Squeeze your legs.

Tense your whole torso front and back.

Tense your arms.

Make fists with your hands.

Squeeze your shoulder blades,

Your neck and all the muscles in your face.

Hold this tension for three,

Two,

One and let go.

Great job.

It is crucial that we allow ourselves the release of this energy.

The nervous system cannot find safety if there is still built-up energy stuck.

You did a wonderful job of discharging all the energy.

Perhaps you can notice the effects.

Perhaps your body feels more relaxed and your mind is more still.

Take a moment to be in this soft cocoon of safety,

Drawing your attention inward,

Back inside,

Away from the external world,

Back home to yourself.

And just like nature,

When the sun sets every evening and all the animals seek shelter to rest and completely release any tasks of the day,

Any events that happen during the day,

Preparing for a complete reset during the night.

For us humans,

It is also necessary to find a safe refuge every single night,

To draw our attention inwards,

To find rest and rejuvenation so that we can be prepared for another beautiful day tomorrow.

One thing that can get in the way is our mind,

The difference between us and animals.

We cannot simply just turn off our minds.

Our mind is constantly looking to protect us and keep us safe.

It is constantly thinking about potential threats or problems in the future based on our past.

But we are here tonight to create our own safety,

So that also our mind can rest,

Knowing that we have found security right here,

Right now.

And we'll do this by breathing.

When you are asleep,

Your breath is slow,

Deep and you're breathing from the belly.

In order to get to sleep,

We can mimic this type of breathing and not only are we mimicking it,

This is actually proven to bring our body,

Mind,

Nervous system back into safety.

Perhaps you can place one hand or both hands on your stomach now and start to notice if your hand rises as you inhale and lowers as you exhale.

Perhaps you notice your chest moving more than your stomach.

This simply means that your body,

Nervous system still believe that you are unsafe in this moment,

That there is still some lingering stress and this is totally normal and okay.

And perhaps you can begin to shift your breath from your chest into your stomach.

As you inhale,

Imagine you are blowing up a balloon and sending the air into your belly.

Your belly grows just like a balloon gets bigger as it fills with air.

And then as you exhale,

You release the air from the balloon and your belly lowers.

Inhale,

Belly rises,

Your stomach fills with air.

Exhale,

Belly falls.

We will now do a few rounds of the breath of sleep as I call it.

Inhale for 4,

3,

2,

1.

Hold your breath for 7,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

Exhale for 8,

7,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Inhale.

Allow your breath to slowly find its perfect rhythm.

Feel the safety you have cultivated.

Your body is learning how to create inner safety,

How to come back home to yourself.

Feel yourself nestled in this warm,

Comfortable bed with nothing else to do and nowhere else to be but right here,

Right now,

Giving yourself full permission to relax,

Let go,

And find deep,

Restful sleep.

Good night.

Reviews

Magnificent, I didn’t fall asleep but experienced deep relaxation. Thank you.