Start by making your bed and body ready for going to sleep or going back to sleep.
Make sure you are a comfortable temperature and that your pillows are the right height.
Lie on your back if you can and make your body straight.
If this is not possible,
Take up whatever comfortable but alert position will work best for you and with whatever extra support you need.
This will help reduce the restlessness that is often experienced when sleep won't come.
It will also help you stay alert to follow this guidance which aims to tire the mind in a natural way by directing awareness into the sensing,
Feeling body.
You can roll onto your side and take up your favoured position once you are ready to sleep.
All movement should be done gently and slowly.
Only the small muscles which initiate movement will be engaged.
You may find comfort in the fact that even if sleep remains elusive by the end of the meditation,
Your mind will be much more renewed as you will be resting in calmer,
Deeper states of consciousness.
So to begin with,
Close your eyes if you haven't already.
Enjoy the heaviness of your eyelids.
Take a few slightly deeper breaths.
As you breathe out,
Let your body relax and sink into the bed or surface beneath you.
Let the shoulders and upper back sink and relax.
Let the back of your head and neck sink into your pillow.
Let gravity bring a feeling of heaviness through your whole body as you fully relax into the support beneath you.
Now bring awareness to your face.
With an in-breath,
Slowly raise both eyebrows as far as is comfortable.
Hold for a couple of seconds.
With control,
On an out-breath,
Gradually lower them back to neutral.
Do this once more as a continuous movement.
Allow yourself some relaxing breaths as you feel the after-echo of this movement.
Now gently squeeze the right corner of your mouth and by small degrees release it.
Gently squeeze the left corner of your mouth and with control,
Slowly release.
Open your mouth as far as feels comfortable and if possible,
Yawn.
Slowly and with control,
Return the mouth back to a normal position.
Do this again twice more,
Opening,
Yawning and closing your mouth as a continuous movement.
Let the jaw soften and release.
Let the front of your throat be soft.
Breathe in and out evenly as you rest your awareness here.
Begin to notice your breath more closely.
Exhale and inhale through both nostrils smoothly.
Place your hands on your abdomen and feel the rise and fall of your body as you breathe.
Bring your attention to the palm of your right hand.
Notice any sensations here.
Perhaps warmth,
A slight tingling,
A small amount of pressure from the contact with your body.
If you can detect little or no sensation,
Still place the whole of your attention here.
Notice if there is any slight temperature difference between the palm and the back of your right hand.
Move attention into the wrist,
The smooth skin on the inside of the wrist.
Bring attention to the tip of the right thumb.
Feel for any subtle sensations here.
Rest the thumb against the tip of the finger next to it.
Very slowly squeeze them together,
Applying whatever pressure feels comfortable to create a small amount of sensation.
When you release the squeeze,
Feel the echo of the sensation.
You are not thinking about the finger and thumb,
Just directly experiencing the sensations.
Slide awareness smoothly up the lower arm to the elbow,
Along the upper arm and into your armpit.
Rest your feeling awareness deep inside the small cave of the armpit.
On an in-breath,
Slightly tense the right arm by squeezing it gently into your side.
On an out-breath,
Release the arm.
Feel it heavy and warm beside you.
Now transfer your attention into the left side of your body.
The palm of the left hand.
The back of the left hand.
Notice if there is any slight temperature difference between the palm and the back of the left hand.
Any tingling or pressure in the palm.
Bring awareness into the wrist,
The smooth skin on the inside of the wrist.
Along the lower arm and up into the elbow,
Along the upper arm and into the small cave of the left armpit.
With an in-breath,
Slightly tense the left arm by squeezing it into your side.
On an out-breath,
Release the arm,
Feeling it heavy and warm beside you.
Take your awareness to the middle of your chest and to your heart centre.
Breathe deeply and evenly in and out of your heart centre.
If it feels comfortable,
Place your hands on your chest,
Or one hand on your chest and one on the solar plexus just above the navel.
Pause to feel the comfort placing the hands in these positions brings.
Quietly say to yourself in time with the rhythm of your own breathing pattern.
Breathing in,
I feel calm.
Breathing out,
I feel peace.
In,
Calm,
Out,
Peace.
Take a few relaxing breaths and continue to say these words to yourself with your hands gently holding your body.
Now slide attention down the front of your body into your stomach,
Upper abdomen and lower abdomen.
Feel into any sensations here,
Perhaps a pulsing or slight throbbing.
Relax this whole area with the rhythmical in and out of your breath.
Move into the pelvis and feel into sensations here,
Both sides of the right and left body together.
With an in breath,
Slightly tense both thighs down to the knees.
And on an out breath,
Let the tension release.
Feel the backs of your thighs heavy and warm in contact with the support beneath you.
Keeping the rest of the body relaxed,
Tense the right leg by gradually pointing the toes away from the body.
Return the foot and leg to neutral.
Tense the left leg by gradually pointing the toes away from the body.
Return the left foot and leg slowly to neutral.
Notice that as the mind has settled more deeply,
The body and senses may have become more attuned and sensitized.
You may notice an intensity around the third eye between the two eyebrows or a slight pressure across the forehead.
You may feel sensitivity at the bridge of the nose or more sensations in the eye sockets.
The right eye socket,
The left eye socket,
The cheeks and cheekbones.
You may be able to feel the energy inside your inner ears activating if you deliberately listen for sounds in the room,
However quiet.
Now move your awareness from the physical body to the inner energy field.
Move deeply into this inner space of beingness.
Notice that the sensation of beingness feels completely natural and familiar.
It needs no effort or special state of mind.
Notice that the rhythm of your breath may now be slow and deep.
As you breathe and melt even more into this sense of being.
Let the diffuse sense of beingness come into focus a little more.
Perhaps in the center of your head you can locate the presence of I Am.
Breathe in and out towards this presence.
If you can most easily locate it somewhere else,
This sense of self,
Perhaps at the heart center.
Place your full attention here,
Strengthening the connection by breathing in and out towards it.
Feel the deep presence of beingness pervade your whole inner body.
The deep self,
Your deepest self,
The source of consciousness itself,
Timeless and unchanging.
Without beginning or end.
Here in this absolute sense of self,
You can rest and renew endlessly.
This is where you can find deepest peace,
Deepest rest.
This is where you can go ever deeper inside.
Breathe deeply as you drink from this well and know that it is depthless.
Quietly let your being meet this place of absolute stillness and come home.
