The purpose of this meditation is to help you relax,
Let go,
And to set up the conditions for sleep to happen.
First of all,
Lying in a comfortable position,
Perhaps on your side,
Maybe on your back.
Letting your eyes gently close if they're not closed already.
And just acknowledging any sensations arising from the world around you.
Perhaps there are sounds.
Perhaps there's some light.
Perhaps there's a sense of space around you.
And letting yourself feel a sense of expansive awareness.
As if your mind is actually filling the space around you.
And everything that's arising,
Any sounds or vibrations or any other sensations,
Is okay.
We're just accepting whatever arises.
Just allowing those sounds to be there.
If any grasping or resistance arise in the mind,
Just gently letting go and just coming back to being aware of and accepting of any sounds or other sensations.
And if any thoughts are arising,
Just letting them pass through the mind like distant clouds passing by.
Just recognizing that the past is just a memory and that the future does not exist.
There is only now.
There is only the present.
Unfolding breath by breath by breath.
Moment by moment by moment.
And within this spacious sphere of awareness is your own physical being,
Your body lying here.
And beginning to take more awareness into the body now.
Noticing the various sensations that are arising.
From your head and neck.
From the shoulders and the arms and the hands.
From the length of your back.
From the chest.
From the belly.
From your hips.
From your pelvis.
From the upper legs.
Lower legs.
From your feet.
And just seeing if you can be aware now of the whole body.
From the soles of your feet up to the crown of the head.
With your awareness diffusely filling the whole body.
Like a gentle candle light.
And it can help if you consciously relax the muscles around the eyes.
As if you were staring into space.
But with more of a sense of presence than normally happens when we stare into space.
And it's with that relaxed gaze or the internal counterpart of that that we pay attention to the body.
To the whole body.
From the crown of the head down to the soles of the feet.
And within all of these sensations,
These many sensations that are arising right now.
These are sensations connected with the breathing.
Just allowing your breathing to flow naturally.
Just letting it happen.
The chest is gently rising and falling.
In and letting go.
The belly is gently rising and falling.
Filling and emptying.
Air is gently flowing in and flowing out of the body.
And you can practice being aware of the whole body.
As you breathe in and as you breathe out.
And particularly being aware now of the process of letting go that takes place on every out-breath.
The way that your body relaxes every time you breathe out.
How every muscle softens and lets go every time you exhale.
Just letting go takes place everywhere in the body,
Not just in the chest,
Not just in the belly.
But in the arms,
In the hands,
In the hips,
In the legs.
In the feet.
And it's as if there's a wave of relaxation sweeping downward through the body with every exhale.
And you can even imagine that the breath is flowing down through your body,
Out through your feet.
Every time you breathe out.
Just enjoying this sense of relaxation.
This letting go.
This release that takes place on every exhalation.
And you can let your body be heavy,
Sinking downward.
You can imagine that gravity is being slowly turned up.
So that your body is being pulled down into the earth.
More than it usually is,
Your body being one and a half times as heavy as normal.
Twice as heavy as normal.
As if you're merging with the earth.
Your body at rest.
Your body very still as it becomes too heavy to move.
But when you Spiritual I'm just lying here.
Gently aware of the whole body as it breathes.
Just being in this moment,
Enjoying the flow of the breathing,
Enjoying the sense of letting go that takes place on each out-breath.
With no aim,
Nothing to achieve.
The only thing that's important right now is just being gently present with our experience as it unfolds.
Breath by breath by breath.
Moment by moment by moment.
And relaxing deeply into this present moment.
Right now,
You're safe.
Right now,
You are at peace.
