Meditation For Sleep

Often what's keeping us away is our anxious thoughts. This meditation guides you to keep bringing your attention into sensations in your body. This will also help your body to relax. I include a poem at the start and end called The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry.

Transcript

This is a meditation that you can either do before you go to bed to help you get ready for sleep or you can do it when you've already tried to get to sleep for a while and you don't seem to be able to.

A quick tip if you are struggling to get to sleep is if there's a particular thought that's going round and round in your mind,

Try writing it down in your phone or on a piece of paper so that your mind doesn't think it needs to keep reminding you of this thought lest you forget it.

What we're going to be doing in this meditation is bringing your attention away from your thoughts which are often what are keeping you awake and into your body,

Focusing on relaxing the body.

Getting yourself into a comfortable position now,

Taking some deeper breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Feeling the body expanding as you breathe in and softening as you breathe out.

On your next out breath,

Closing your eyes and allowing your breath to return to its natural rhythm.

This is a poem called The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry.

When despair for the world grows in me,

And I wake in the night at the least sound,

In fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water,

And the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water,

And I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light.

For a time,

I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

I recommend you do this as a lying down meditation.

Feeling the connection between the different points of your body and the surfaces that you're lying on.

Starting with the back of your head.

Having a sense of letting your head be heavy,

Letting it sink down.

Feeling the back of the neck and the back of the shoulders,

The contact that they're the backs of the arms.

Feeling the pressure between your back and the surface that you're on,

From the upper back to the middle,

The lower back,

The buttocks and the backs of the legs.

The ankles.

Seeing if you can have a sense of sinking down,

Letting go of any effort of heaviness in your body.

During this meditation,

There will probably be many times when your thoughts take you away from where I'm guiding you to place your attention.

Seeing if you can be really patient with yourself when that happens.

Just notice that you've become distracted and then keep bringing the attention back to the body.

Let's place the attention now in the hands.

Noticing the shape of the hands,

All the different fingers.

Feeling the temperature of the hands.

Notice if there's any texture or pressure that the hands can feel.

And is there any tension,

Any sense of gripping in the hands?

Can you bring an attitude of softening,

Soothing and allowing the hands to be as they are?

And now bringing the attention into the forearms,

Between the elbows and the wrists.

The upper arms between the elbows and the shoulders.

Noticing the way the different points of the arms connect to each other.

Feeling connection with clothing,

With bedding.

Seeing if there's any tension in the arms,

Any restlessness.

Seeing if you can let the arms soften,

There's nothing your arms need to do in this moment.

Allowing them to fully relax.

And now bringing the attention into the forehead.

If we're feeling stressed or anxious,

There can often be tension here.

Exploring with your attention,

How does my forehead feel in this moment?

Can I allow it to soften?

And the same with the eyes.

Is it possible to have a sense of softening all the muscles around the eyes,

So that they can fully relax?

Is it possible to feel the air traveling in and out through your nostrils?

Do you feel the air more strongly in one nostril than the other?

And now what about the jaw?

Is there any clenching or gripping in the jaw?

Is it possible to have a sense of softening,

Of soothing your own jaw?

And feeling the lips,

The teeth,

The tongue.

Is it possible to let the tongue be really loose in the mouth,

To rest lightly?

Moving the attention down into the neck and shoulders.

Imagining as you breathe in,

Your breath could travel into your shoulders.

And as you breathe out,

Your breath could travel out from your shoulders.

And carry away any tension that's there.

Noticing where in your body you feel the breath most strongly.

Is it in the chest?

Is it the belly?

Can you have a sense of allowing your breath to relax?

Do you have a sense of how the rhythm of your breath is soothing your body?

Like the gentle waves of the ocean.

As it comes in and as it goes out.

If your mind has wandered off,

Gently bringing it back again to the sensations of breathing.

And now,

Noticing what you can feel in your back.

Your middle back,

Your upper and lower back.

Is it possible to have a sense of releasing?

Letting go of any tension,

Any effort.

Letting your back relax.

And now bringing your attention into your groin.

Your buttocks,

Your hips.

Another area that can hold a lot of tension.

Can you soothe this area with your attention?

Can you let go of any gripping or holding?

Any sense of effort?

And now feeling sensations in your right thigh.

Between your hip and your knee.

Feeling the sensations in your thigh and seeing if you can allow them to be exactly as they are.

Is there twitching?

Is there tension?

Is there a sense of weight?

Feeling the knee and the back of the knee.

Down to the calf muscle,

The shin.

Feeling the right foot.

The toes.

The sole of the foot.

The top of the foot.

Now the left thigh.

Feeling the weight,

The shape.

Any movements or is it completely still?

Feeling the knee and the back of the knee.

The calf muscle,

The shin.

Feeling the ankle.

The sole of the left foot.

The top of the foot.

And feeling the toes.

Seeing if you can expand the attention now to include the whole,

The feet,

The legs,

The torso,

The arms,

The hands,

The neck,

The head.

Feeling the whole body as one and seeing if you can have a sense that whatever's going on in this mind and body right now,

That that's okay.

Allowing yourself to be exactly as you are in this moment.

The peace of wild things.

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water and I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light.

For a time,

I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

If it was your intention to fall asleep during this meditation and you're still awake,

That's okay.

You can repeat the meditation as many times as you want.

And the more meditation you do,

Whether it's late at night or during the day,

The better.

So rather than getting frustrated that you can't get to sleep,

Appreciating that you have this extra time to practice meditation.

Reviews

I really like the simplicity of this meditation. 😊 No music, just body awareness and a beautiful poem works wonders for me. 😊 Just a tiny tip to include the suggestion of the lying down body position in the intro (before the poem). But it’s really a detail, overall it’s a great sleep meditation. Thank you so much! 😃🛌🌞🙏