The Earth has turned its face away from the vibrant buzz of solar energy and is greeted by the cooler,
Calming lunar energy of the moon.
It is time to let the day dissolve and sink into your body's wisdom.
It is time to connect with your outer and inner night.
Sometimes it can be really hard to fall into slumber,
Seemingly impossible.
Other times we don't even have to try.
But we can invite sleep to find us when it is ready,
By bringing the mind and body to a restful state.
Notice if you feel ready for sleep to arrive,
Or if there's some unwinding to do.
You can gently close your eyes,
Or let them gaze at nothing.
Open your ears and listen to your soundscape.
Hear the far away night,
And the sounds close by to you.
When you're ready,
You can close your ears to the outside world,
And begin to listen inwards.
We are going to start with a short breathing exercise to settle yourself for rest.
We are going to breathe in for four,
Hold for four,
Breathe out for four,
And hold for four.
Breathing into yourselves when you're ready.
In two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four.
And again,
In two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four.
And last time,
In two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
And hold two,
Three,
Four.
And you can carry on or keep your own pace now.
Some people say sleep is our natural state.
Wakefulness was a serendipitous mistake in evolution that happened billions of years ago.
What would exist if there was no wakeful experience?
Just peace and growth and rhythm,
Perhaps?
As diurnal creatures,
We are so dependent on the night.
It is our pause to recalibrate between conscious moments,
To recharge and process the day.
But have you ever noticed that you and the night are one and the same thing?
As we breathe,
We breathe the night into our lungs and exhale the night back out.
Our bodies intuitively have a 24-hour rhythm,
And the darkness of the night sky outside the window works in harmony with the rhythm of our bodies,
Generating a cascade of sleep hormones,
Including melatonin,
Which is likely to be pulsing around your body about now.
See yourself as wondrous as the night sky.
Your body a vast,
Open landscape of weather and space and true amazement.
Feel the space inside your body,
Full of sensation.
Your feet that have carried you throughout your day.
Feel legs like two tunnels of energy,
Heavy and light at the same time,
Subtly releasing your hips and pelvis into the safety of the bed.
See if you can put your awareness into the space in your belly,
Almost as if your belly button was above you and your lower spine beneath you.
What can you feel around you in that space?
You don't have to label it with thought.
Just feel.
Notice how,
When you are feeling the body through awareness,
The outside lines are blurry.
This is because the energy extends beyond your skin.
Gliding into the middle of the chest now,
Notice if you're holding onto any tension there and let it soften.
Let it go.
Feel your heart beating its own unique language.
Relaxing any tightness in the muscles around your neck,
Letting your shoulders settle a millimetre deeper into the surface beneath you.
The space in and around your head.
Feel your brain melt into your skull as it completely relaxes.
A bit like the feeling of slipping into a warm bath.
Every cell of your body warm and full of space.
The cells in the body are made up of molecules and molecules are chains of individual atoms.
In quantum physics,
We know that in each atom there is an electron spinning around a nucleus.
The space between the electron and the nucleus is known as the electron cloud and is consisted of nothing but immaterial energy.
Pure space.
We know that atoms are more immaterial energy than they are matter.
In fact,
The space between the electron and the nucleus is so vast,
An atom is 99.
9% immaterial energy.
And you can have millions of atoms just making up a single cell in your body.
Can you grasp how spacious you are?
Can you feel how full of the universe's energy you are?
Feel how much space you have inside you.
Your atoms like stars in the night sky,
Millions of miles apart.
Nothing but beautiful,
Calm,
Peaceful space between them.
You have all of this inside you.
Settle into the rhythm of your breath.
The wind flowing through the dark sky.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Let go.
Into the night.
Connect with the infinite.
You are the night.
