This is a meditation to help calm and still your mind and release tension through your whole body for deep rest and restoring sleep.
When you're ready get really comfortable lying on your back,
Hands resting by your sides,
Shoulders relaxing down away from your ears,
Creating extra length in the sides of your neck and allow your head to really rest back to rest.
Without too many pillows make any adjustments you need to get as comfortable as possible.
Close your eyes,
Bringing all of your awareness to your breath,
Noticing the in-breath and the out-breath,
Notice the sensations of the breath coming in through your nose,
Breathing out through your nose or your mouth.
Do whichever feels more natural,
Your jaw soft and relaxed,
Letting your tongue just rest at the bottom of your mouth,
Sense your chest rising with the in-breath and falling with the exhale,
A sense of space and ease,
Expanding with the in-breath and the out-breath,
Just let the air go softly and slowly,
Notice the feeling of space at the top of the in-breath,
Feel your shoulders relax and release with the falling breath,
Feel your forehead soften and behind closed eyelids feel your focus soften,
Eyes completely resting,
Skin of your eyelids softening,
Any efforts in the muscles in your face just dissolving and disappearing,
Feel the contours of your face softening,
Start to imagine you can breathe in through your forehead,
Filling your body with the breath from your head all the way to your feet and with the exhale imagine the breath draining out of your body,
Out of your hands,
Out of your feet,
Like water draining out of a bath,
The breath gently flows and through your forehead,
Chest and belly swelling,
Arms,
Legs and torso all filling with the in-breath,
Allowing the exhale to drain out of your body,
Breath flowing gently,
Softly,
Like water,
Each breath bringing a sense of gentleness and softening,
Allowing a heaviness to spread down the back of your body,
Feel the back of your head soften,
Muscles softening at the base of the skull,
Feeling all the muscles in the back of your neck softening,
Feeling a sense of softening through the whole of your back,
Feel any stresses of the day dissolving,
Washing through you with the gently flowing exhales,
Out of your hands,
Out of your feet,
If you notice your mind wandering gently bring yourself back to your breath,
Allowing your mind to effortlessly rest in the flow of your breath,
Allowing the breaths to become a little slower,
A little deeper and a little smoother with each breath,
Belly swelling with the in-breath,
Notice how the breath feels leaving your body,
Washing through you,
Out of your hands,
Out of your feet,
Feel an openness and a softness in the space between your eyebrows,
Breath gently flowing through you like water,
A sense of softening along the length of your arms,
From your shoulders,
To your elbows,
To your wrists,
Hands completely resting,
Fingers softening,
Allow your awareness to scan from your hips all the way to your feet,
Just slowly noticing anything you can feel in the tops of your thighs,
Your knees,
Your shins,
The backs of the legs,
Your ankles,
Your ankles,
Noticing sensations in your feet,
You might like to imagine that you can breathe all the way from your feet to your hips,
Inhale rising and flowing along the tops of your legs with the inhale,
Exhale like a slow wave that rolls from your hips to your toes,
Releasing tension in the length of your legs,
Imagining any residual stress in your body dissolving,
Just allowing the breath to gently flow,
Whole body settling and softening,
Knowing that the bed will support you if you let go completely,
Invite the breath to pause just for a moment at the bottom of the exhale,
Noticing the openness and spaciousness that the breath leaves behind,
Each breath opening more and more space and ease in your body,
Imagine filling your torso with the breath and then allowing it to drain out of the space between your shoulder blades,
Softening the middle of your back,
Filling your torso with the breath,
Imagining your torso emptying,
Allowing your shoulders to relax with the exhale,
Leaving a welcome emptiness and spaciousness in your body,
Allowing the breath to flow,
The focus your awareness in the centre of your chest,
Imagining the breath rising and subsiding from within this space,
The in-breath expands from the middle of your chest,
The exhale returns and dissolves,
Disappearing into the centre of your chest before it reappears,
Becoming the inhale,
The breath carrying a sense of space and ease,
The breath nurturing this space,
Allowing each breath to gently expand and dissolve in the centre of your chest,
A sense of space and ease,
Expanding with the in-breath,
With the exhale feeling a gentleness and a softening in the centre of your chest,
Notice the spaciousness spreading from your chest,
Slowly through the whole of your body,
Your whole body nurtured by this spaciousness,
Becoming a little bit sleepier with every breath,
Every cell in your body softening into the deepest rest,
I'm going to leave you resting here,
The music will continue,
Wishing you a peaceful rest,
Rest,
Restoring sleep.
