Tempo quiet Close your eyes.
Get comfortable.
And consider what does the word relax mean to you?
If there is any kind of doing related to the word relax in your conception,
Drop it.
To truly relax is to cease doing.
So cease.
Cease thinking.
Then cease again.
Enjoy whatever pause you are able to create right now.
And do not concern yourself with how much you may have been thinking before or how likely you are to begin thinking again.
Listen again to that word relax.
Perhaps say it to yourself.
Is there any sense of obligation that arises when you hear the word relax?
Our culture is so skewed toward doing that we even assume we must do something to relax.
To cease that doing is to relax.
And when we relax,
We can rest.
And as we rest,
We open ourselves to the possibility of sleep.
Given that relaxing is not a doing,
Resting too is not a doing.
And certainly sleep is not a doing.
Sleep is an accident.
And the way to make yourself accident prone is to stop all doing right now.
And right now.
Let go of concerns of how much doing came before.
And what doing might come after.
Only cease doing right now.
If some thought occurs in the mind,
Do not try to stop it.
Simply don't engage.
Just stop.
Leave yourself alone.
We are trained to interfere with ourselves.
To attempt to change ourselves.
To mold ourselves into one shape or another.
This can work for participating in society.
But it will never work to bring about natural processes.
Sleep is a natural process.
One that must be surrendered into.
It cannot be brought about by our own volition or trying or doing.
Indeed,
Surrendering into sleep requires us to surrender to the possibility of not sleeping.
To truly relax is to be okay with whatever is happening in your experience right now.
To hold no desire to change anything.
This may sound impossible.
But we are typically so accustomed to desiring.
To changing things.
And this is why mindfulness is called a practice.
We practice surrender.
We practice relaxing.
We practice letting go.
To whatever degree we are able in the present moment.
And we even practice accepting that which we cannot let go of.
When we accept both our ability to relax and our inability to relax.
True surrender and freedom is made possible.
In this surrender,
Rest is possible.
Where rest is possible,
Sleep is possible.
May we all learn to surrender.
May we all learn to relax.
May we all find rest.
And may we open ourselves to sleep.
