Hi dear,
And welcome to this deep sleep somatic track.
In this meditation,
I will guide you through some gentle and easy to remember practices that will help you to access a state of very deep relaxation and deep inner safety in your nervous system.
When we fail to fall asleep,
When we feel overwhelmed,
When we are overthinking about our day,
What has happened or what's yet to come,
Our nervous system and our body doesn't feel completely at ease,
Completely safe.
The truth is that your body knows how to fall asleep deeply,
But sometimes our own mind can get in the way.
So this practice I will guide you to landing back in your body and teaching your body gently and slowly how to feel safe again within yourself.
So I'm guessing you've already found a comfortable position to receive this in,
Perhaps you're all ready for bed and you're nestled in your cozy and warm bed,
With your head resting on a pillow.
Feel free to grab another pillow and make yourself even more comfortable,
Placing it below your knees,
Below your feet and we'll start our practice today with simply being with ourselves.
I invite you to be present with what is going on in your body right now,
Notice the different sensations that arise and where you feel it.
Sometimes we rush through our days and we can even rush through our meditation practice with doing many things and not leaving much space for being.
As you are witnessing what is happening in your body,
Can you allow this attitude of acceptance,
Of curiosity with what is happening,
Can you allow the sensations to be there,
Knowing that they will pass,
Can you allow some areas in your body to soften as soon as you bring your awareness to them and perhaps you feel the need to take a deep breath here,
A comfortable breath in and we'll start with sending signals to the nervous system,
To the whole body that it's safe to relax,
That it's safe to begin the process of falling asleep.
I invite you to bring your fingers to your face now and start to massage your jaw.
We hold so much tension in the jaw,
Especially during our sleep we can often clench our jaw,
Wake up with some pain perhaps.
So this is a beautiful practice to do before bed.
Allow your fingers to become curious about where it feels good to massage your jaw,
Where is your sweet spot,
Which pressure feels nice,
In which direction does it feel good to massage,
Which movements are you making with your hands and your fingers.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Now gently make your way up towards your temples.
For your temples you can use your index fingers or your middle fingers or both.
Your temples are right next to your eyes,
In between your scalp and your eyes.
This is again a space where we hold a lot of mental tension,
Anxiety as well as irritation.
So by massaging this point,
We allow ourselves to release it and notice how good it feels to apply some gentle pressure here.
Perhaps you need a little bit more pressure today,
Beautiful.
Now release your fingers and take a moment to tune in with yourself.
How was that?
And then now we'll take our two index fingers and we'll place them right at the bridge of our nose.
This point is excellent for relieving your mind of mental tension,
Especially if you've been absorbing a lot of information.
Whether you're studying something,
Learning something new,
Or maybe there's just a lot going on in your life.
Keep massaging the point right at the bridge of your nose,
In between your eyes.
Breathe deeply and then release your fingers again and notice how you feel,
Beautiful.
The next practice we'll do,
We'll be using our ears.
So we are doing some somatic practices here to down-regulate the nervous system and we are activating the biggest,
Longest nerve in the body,
The vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve has a branch in your ears,
The auricular branch.
So I invite you to bring your fingers towards your ears and we'll start by placing your index finger and your middle finger behind your ear and your ring finger and pinky finger in front of your ear.
And gently start to move up and down,
Massaging the ear.
And breathe deeply while you're doing this.
Make sure with your pinky finger,
Or your ring finger,
Or both,
That you are touching the tragus,
The front part of your ear.
By doing this,
You are directly stimulating the vagus nerve and this will make sure that your immune system,
Your digestive system,
Your reproductive system comes back online.
Noticing which pace feels good for you,
Which pressure feels nice in this moment.
Continuing to breathe deeply.
And perhaps you notice that you start yawning or you feel the need to take a deep breath.
These are all signs that your nervous system is down-regulating.
Allow it all to happen.
Keep massaging your ear and then gently release your hands and take a moment to check in with yourself.
How did that feel?
What effect did that have on you?
And then now we'll take our fingers back to our ears.
Place your thumb at the front of your ear,
At the top of your ear,
And your index finger and middle finger in the back.
So you're holding the top of your ear and your thumb is in the front.
Gently start to massage the top part of your ear and you can gently pull it upwards towards the ceiling as well.
And then slowly make your way down,
Massaging the side of your ear all the way to your earlobe.
Gently pulling down your earlobe.
Massaging it.
Let's do that again.
Starting from the top of your ear,
Massaging the top of your ear.
Gently pulling it upwards towards the ceiling.
Become aware of your whole body while you're doing this.
Relax your belly.
And then making your way down towards the side of the ear.
Gently pulling your ear out to the side,
All the way down until you reach your earlobe.
Gently pulling down your earlobe and massaging it.
Take a deep breath and notice how that felt like.
Beautiful.
Allow yourself again to just be in this moment.
Realizing what is going on inside of you,
With the thing.
Being with it,
But not in it.
Take a moment to realize you're in this transitional space in your day.
From your busy day,
Whether you're working,
Studying or you had a day off,
You had dinner and you're now moving into the final part of your evening,
Which is sleep.
Take a moment to land here,
Land in a knowingness that you are safe,
Right here and right now,
With your breath flowing in gently and comfortably.
Your nervous system is settling down and being soothed.
You are safe.
You are right here and right now.
There is nothing else you need to do and nowhere else you need to be.
And as you're laying down,
You feel your body more relaxed and perhaps your mind is slowing down as well,
And maybe you still feel like you have some mental clutter that you want to clear out.
Imagine that with every breath you are sweeping in your mind,
Sweeping away all the clutter.
Your breath is like a broom,
Sweeping back and forth,
Back and forth.
With every sweep,
You are creating more space in your mind and you feel yourself become more lighter and allow the broom of your breath to do its work.
Beautiful.
Now that you feel your mind is more clear,
We'll move into a soft practice that's called narrow modulation.
You don't have to lift a finger,
All you can do is lay down and we'll use our voice this time to create even more safety and relaxation in the body.
Together three times we'll make the sound VU.
Take a soft,
Comfortable breath in and follow my lead.
VU VU VU Allow the vibrations of your voice to ripple through in every cell in your body.
This narrow modulation by activating the throat all the way down into your gut,
Which is where the vagus nerve runs through as well.
We are taking control back and creating safety in the body.
Notice how it feels like to slowly create more and more safety within yourself.
Notice any difference you feel and perhaps you can set the intention for nourishing restful sleep and here you can allow yourself to start letting go,
Start easing into deep sleep.
Be in this moment,
Allow yourself to simply exist,
It's enough.
You are whole,
You are complete and you are worthy,
Unconditionally,
Just as you are.
I'll now guide you through a gentle,
Relaxing body scan and you don't have to do anything except to drift your focus to the part of your body that I will bring you to.
You don't have to relax it,
You don't have to tense it,
You don't have to breathe into it.
All you need to do is witness this part of your body.
Become aware of the soles of your feet.
Your whole ten toes.
Your whole feet.
Left and right.
Your ankles.
Your calves.
Your shins.
Your hamstrings.
Your thighs.
Your knees.
Your hips.
Your lower back.
Middle back.
Upper back.
Your lower belly.
Stomach.
Chest.
Your whole torso.
Your shoulders.
Your upper arms.
Your elbows.
Your lower arms.
Both your wrists.
The palms of your hands.
Left and right.
All ten fingers.
Your whole hands.
Left and right.
Your whole body from your chest all the way down to your toes.
Witness.
Notice.
Your attention is like a spotlight.
Shining light on where there was darkness or pain before.
Your neck.
Your throat.
The back of your head.
The top of your head.
Your forehead.
Your eyebrows.
Your eyelids.
Your temples.
Your nose.
Your cheeks.
Your jaw.
Your mouth.
Allow your tongue to come down from the top of the palate and to the bottom of your mouth.
Breathe.
Be with your body.
Feel your body deeply relaxed.
Your mind clear.
Spacious.
And your nervous system soothed.
Safe.
Allow yourself to drift into a deep,
Restful sleep.
Sweet dreams.
