Winding down to sleep.
When we have a lot on our mind,
Or we have a lot of fear,
It's hard to get to sleep.
Our body can feel quite tight,
Or agitated,
Or restless,
And certainly our mind can be very busy.
This short practice is a way to relax your whole system,
Let your nervous system experience that it's safe enough to sleep,
And then let yourself drift off.
Lie on your back with a pillow under your head,
Your arms and legs relaxed.
Start by noticing your whole body.
Notice what it feels like to be lying comfortably in your bed,
Warm and cozy.
It can be such a relief to let our bodies stretch out,
To feel the coolness of the sheets,
The warmth of the blankets,
Or the quilt.
If you feel like stretching,
Or moving around a bit,
Do that until you get really comfortable.
As you relax the whole back of your body,
Let your neck and shoulders soften,
The large muscles around the shoulder blades.
Let your shoulders get kind of heavy.
Bring your attention down through your arms,
Let any tension flow out through your shoulders.
Your arms and hands,
Fingers,
Fingertips.
Bring your attention through the back of your neck and shoulders,
Through your upper back,
Mid and lower back,
Behind your hips.
Let your legs get heavy and settled.
There's no need to go anywhere right now.
We don't need to be prepared for movement.
We could let our whole body be at rest.
Take a few deeper breaths.
As you breathe in,
Notice what that feels like in your body.
Maybe you haven't been breathing quite deeply enough today.
When there's fear or stress,
We often hold our breath,
Or we breathe more in the chest,
Not using the diaphragm.
Let your body settle into a deep diaphragmatic breath for a moment.
As you breathe in,
Your belly rises.
As you breathe out,
Your belly softens,
Moves back towards the spine.
Notice the whole front of your body.
Relax and soften through your forehead,
Your eyebrows and eyes,
Down through your throat,
Collarbones,
The large muscles that cover the chest.
Into that area of your body that's moving with your breath,
Your stomach,
Navel center,
Lower belly.
And notice again the rhythm,
The pace of your breath.
Let your belly soften as you breathe out.
Notice your legs,
From your thighs through your lower legs to your feet and toes.
Let any remaining tightness or tension flow out through your legs,
Down through the soles of your feet,
Out through your toes.
Let your legs be settled and at rest.
Let your shoulders get heavy again.
Allow any tightness to soften as you move your awareness from your shoulders,
Down through your upper arms,
Lower arms.
Let it drain out through your hands,
Fingers,
Fingertips.
As busy as we can be during the day,
Right now,
It's okay to let our arms and hands be at rest.
There's nothing more that we need to do.
There's nothing more that we can do today.
It's time for sleep.
Bring your whole attention to your body again,
To the body as you're breathing.
Notice how you're settled back into the comfort of the bed.
Your body heat is warming you up.
You feel cozy and secure.
And with a little bit of attention on your breath and that smooth movement of the body as you're softening your belly,
Bring your attention now to your forehead,
Your eyebrows,
Your eyes.
And as you breathe out,
Allow your forehead muscles to soften.
Keep your awareness there as you breathe in.
And as you breathe out,
Let them soften some more.
And notice if there are any thoughts right behind the forehead and the area of the brain.
And if there are,
We could remind ourselves that right now,
It's time to sleep.
Any planning that we need to do,
Anything we need to think about,
We could let that move to the background.
We could wait until tomorrow to engage our thinking brain again.
Right now,
It's time to rest.
And now,
Moving slowly and with awareness of your movements,
Turn so that you're lying on your left side.
Bend your knees,
Support your head.
And when you're comfortable,
Bring your awareness to the flow of breath in your right nostril.
Notice the feeling of air as it moves through your nose.
It comes in a little bit cooler,
And it's warm by the body.
You breathe out a bit warmer.
Keep all of your attention on that flow of awareness and breath in your right nostril.
And silently in your mind,
Count your breath.
Each time you breathe out,
That's another full breath.
Exhaling one.
Exhaling two.
Keep a mental count as you relax your body.
Let your breath be smooth,
Soft through your forehead and eyebrows.
Just noticing that flow of breath,
Counting each exhale.
Notice how good it feels to be warm and cozy in your bed.
Work is done for the day.
It's okay to rest.
And when you've counted 18 complete breaths,
Take your time and roll over onto your right side.
Bend your knees again,
Support your head.
And now,
Follow the flow of breath in your left nostril.
Until you've counted all the way up to 18 complete breaths.
And when you've come to 18 complete breaths,
Slowly move so that you're on your back,
And begin counting your exhalations again.
And notice how your belly softens as you breathe out.
Breathing through our right nostril as we're lying on our left side helps to activate our digestive system so that it can operate through the night.
Lying on our right side with our awareness flowing through the left nostril helps the parasympathetic nervous system to come online.
It helps us to relax.
If there are thoughts in the mind,
Let them be way in the background like you can hardly hear them.
Just focusing on that flow of the cool breath as you inhale,
The warm breath as you exhale.
Keep counting in your mind until you get to 18 breaths.
Notice your forehead and eyebrows.
Let your whole face be soft.
Let your tongue rest on the floor of your mouth.
Relax your jaw,
Your neck and shoulders,
Arms,
Your legs.
It's time to rest and go to sleep.
Let yourself drift off into sleep.
