This is a guided mindfulness meditation to work with insomnia and sleep challenges.
Please begin by taking a comfortable position,
Taking a moment to welcome yourself into this very special time.
Time to feel into your body,
Into life and letting be as we begin to settle into this practice.
Taking a few moments to notice how we are in the mind and the body.
Feeling into the mood and emotions.
Feeling into how we're holding ourselves in the body.
Any physical sensations.
Just noticing and letting be.
And now very gently shifting the focus of awareness and bringing it to the belly.
Being aware of breathing in and breathing out.
Feeling the belly expanding on the inhalation and falling on the exhalation.
Breathing in and breathing out with awareness.
Just staying present with each breath.
Taking our lives one inhalation and one exhalation at a time.
If you find that the mind has wandered off,
Perhaps into the future or the past,
Upon this recognition it may be helpful just to make a simple mental note.
Wandering or thinking and then just coming back again to the sensations of breathing and allowing each breath to begin to calm the mind and body.
Following the waves of breathing in and breathing out.
Now gently withdrawing awareness from the breath we are going to move into a body scan.
Feeling into this body,
A felt sense of the body.
As we practice the body scan it's important to feel into sensation.
The body can have a wide spectrum of different sensations.
Itches,
Aches,
Tingles,
Pains,
Restlessness,
Warmth,
Coolness,
Perhaps a neutral feeling.
As we go through the body part by part,
At times we may also feel or experience some emotions or thoughts.
Allowing ourselves to include them as part of our practice.
Acknowledging they are ever arising.
Also as we go through the body we may come across areas that we're holding tightly,
Tension and if at all possible allowing ourselves to soften.
But may we also know in this practice that if we are not able to soften any tight or tense areas,
Our practice informs us to just let those sensations be.
Let whatever areas of tension or tightness just ripple and resonate wherever they need to go and allowing whatever emotions or thoughts that may arise.
Letting them be as well.
Bringing our attention into the soles of our feet.
Feeling the heels,
The top of the feet,
The toes.
Feeling into each of the ankles.
Just feeling sensations in the feet.
Noticing what you feel.
Acknowledging what is here.
Gently bringing the awareness up into each of the lower legs,
The calves,
The shins,
Into the knees.
Feeling any sensation or lack of sensation.
Just allowing and letting be.
Letting the awareness rise into each of the thighs,
The upper part of the legs.
Feeling its connection into the hip sockets.
And now releasing the awareness in the hips and the legs and perhaps just taking a nice exhalation as you release from the hips all the way down to the soles of the feet.
Perhaps coming back to the breath again.
Feeling the belly or the whole body perhaps.
Rising on an inhalation and falling on an exhalation.
Just being mindful for a few breaths of the feeling of the body as a whole.
Rising on an inhalation and falling on an exhalation.
Now gently releasing the awareness of mindful breathing.
Coming back into the body,
Into the hips,
Into the pelvic area.
Feeling the sit bones,
The buttocks,
The genital region.
Feeling the center of the body with awareness.
Allowing and letting be.
Gently moving the awareness into the lower back.
Coming up into the upper back.
Feeling sensation from the tailbone.
Rising up the spine.
Feeling into the back and all the way up to the shoulders.
Feeling any sensations and letting be.
Feeling into the shoulders and then gently coming down into each of the upper arms.
Feeling its connections into the elbows and the forearms,
The wrists,
The hands and fingers and thumbs.
Feeling sensations going through the body part by part.
Acknowledging what's being felt in the body and mind and letting be.
Now releasing the awareness from the shoulders to the fingertips.
Perhaps again just taking another mindful breath in and out and releasing the awareness from the breath and moving our attention into our belly.
The great home of digestion and assimilation and just letting be.
Feeling any sensation.
Letting any sensation just ripple and resonate wherever they need to go.
Feeling into the belly with awareness.
Gently letting your awareness rise up into the chest.
Going deeper inside to the sternum and the ribcage,
The lungs and circulation of the heart.
Feeling into the chest with awareness and letting be and just acknowledging things as they are in the body and in the mind.
Now again bringing the awareness up back into the shoulders.
Feeling its connection into the neck and the throat as we feel into the neck and shoulders.
Allowing our awareness to rise into the jaw joint,
Into the mouth.
The jaw is one of the most exercised joints of the body.
Home of our communication.
Home of how we take in food.
Perhaps allowing the jaw to soften if possible.
Bringing awareness to the teeth,
The tongue.
Feeling into the mouth.
Feeling into the cheeks of the face.
Feeling into the nose.
Feeling into the forehead.
Into the temples of the head.
Into the muscles around the eyes and the eyes themselves.
Feeling sensations in the face and letting be.
Bringing the awareness into the top of the head,
To the back of the head.
Feeling this head with awareness.
Bringing the awareness into the ears and going into the inside of the head,
Into the brain.
Feeling sensations inside the head and the outside.
Feeling the head and face with awareness.
Now expanding the field of awareness.
Feeling the neck,
The throat that is connected to the head.
Feeling below into the shoulders and arms.
Into the chest,
The back,
The belly.
Into the hips.
Feeling into the legs and feet.
Feeling this body as a whole as we breathe in and breathe out.
Feeling how this body rises up on an inhalation and falls on an exhalation.
Letting whatever arises go wherever it needs to go.
Being present perhaps in these last few minutes of practice.
Practicing mindful inquiry.
Being present with what may be within us.
As we feel into this mind and body you might be experiencing some frustration or fears or worries about not getting to sleep.
But the invitation here is to bring your attention into your direct experience of being worried or sad.
Perhaps frustrated and just allowing yourself to feel and acknowledge that feeling.
Knowing that there's nothing that we need to do as far as trying to analyze or figure out why we're feeling this way.
Rather just feeling into the feeling of the worry,
Frustration,
Sadness of not being able to fall asleep.
Just letting be.
Feeling into the feeling.
Noticing what arises into the mind.
Noticing any reactions in the body and just acknowledging whatever comes up and letting be.
Staying with the waves.
Feeling the feelings.
As we open with mindful inquiry you may begin to discover some of the underlying causes that are within the worry.
The fear,
The frustration,
The sadness,
Confusion.
Opening,
Acknowledging and letting be.
So now gently withdrawing from the practice of mindful inquiry.
Coming back to feeling this body as a whole.
Feeling the breath,
The body rising up on an inhalation and falling on an exhalation.
Feeling yourself be connected from head to toe to fingertip.
This body as a whole.
Breathing in and breathing out.
As we breathe in and out just letting whatever is being felt ripple and resonate.
Acknowledging things as they are and as we come towards the end of this practice may we take a few moments to congratulate ourselves for taking this time to be active participants in our health and well-being.
May we remember although we're up in the night and are worried or sad.
May we remember to extend our goodwill.
May all beings be at ease.
May all beings experience the rest they need.
May all beings be at peace.
