Welcome to this guided meditation to help you sleep.
Perhaps you've been tossing and turning,
Trying to fall asleep for quite some time,
Or maybe you found this in the middle of the night,
Maybe you woke up and having trouble falling back to sleep.
Either way,
I'm glad that you're here and I want you to know that I have been there myself.
It is a really frustrating place to be when we are,
Our bodies want so desperately to have that deep rest,
But our minds are so active.
This meditation is going to help you move from that active mind into a quieter state of mind as you just listen along,
Resting your body.
So before we begin,
I just invite you to get as comfortable as possible,
Making any adjustments you need to make.
I can remember a time when I have two daughters and when my girls were pretty young,
We had recently moved from a two-story home up north to a,
We were renting a house in the south,
A one-story ranch,
And I had the hardest time sleeping.
My daughters slept in the front of the house and my bedroom was in the back of the house,
And I just lay awake,
Almost paralyzed with fear,
Fear that some strange person was going to quietly slide open my daughter's window in the middle of the night and take them.
And I could not shake this fear for the longest time,
It was just a recurring theme for me every night,
Until one night I kind of woke up from that state and thought to myself,
What am I doing to myself?
And who is this that's thinking these thoughts,
And where are these thoughts even coming from?
And just as easy for me to be thinking these terrifying thoughts,
I thought it would be just as easy for me to think positive thoughts,
And we don't always default that way,
Do we?
We typically default into the what-ifs,
Which can be a frightening place to let your mind travel off to.
So this meditation isn't just to help you fall asleep,
It's also to help empower you,
To empower yourself over your thoughts,
Because it's really the mind,
Our minds,
That create the state of suffering that we can find ourselves in,
And we hold the power,
Each of us holds the power to transform and to change for the better,
And it first starts with self-awareness.
So the fact that you have turned to this meditation,
And perhaps other meditations to help you fall asleep,
Is the perfect step.
I honor that,
And I congratulate you on that,
And you should be proud of yourself,
Because that shows that you are ready to make a change,
That you crave the deep rest that your body so desperately needs and deserves.
All right,
Let's begin.
Let's just take a long,
Slow breath in through your nose,
Filling all the way from the bottom of your lungs to the top,
And now a long,
Slow exhale,
Releasing every last bit of air,
And as you release every last bit of air,
Hold the intention of releasing all the tension from the day stored up in your body.
It's just dissolving and dissolving even more every time you release your breath,
Every time you let it out,
And again,
Breathing in just slowly and deeply,
And breathing out even more slowly,
And just beginning to let your body grow heavier and heavier with each exhale,
And another conscious breath,
Taking it all the way in,
And releasing all the way.
Now,
Let your breath find its own natural rhythm.
You don't need to control it anymore,
That was just a simple breath awareness,
And when we consciously exhale our breath to a longer count than our inhale,
Our bodies move into a state of rest,
Our nervous system begins to regulate,
So just let your body breathe with you,
In and out,
In and out,
Each breath slower than the last,
And now bring your soft awareness to the top of your head,
And just notice a beautiful wave of deep,
Velvety relaxation,
Beginning to move through you,
Slowly,
As you imagine moonlight just moving across still water,
And what that might look like,
And bringing your awareness to your scalp,
Releasing your forehead,
Smoothing and softening every tiny muscle around your eyes,
Letting go of your cheeks,
Your jaw,
And your lips,
Just parting ever so slightly,
Your teeth parting ever so slightly,
As you allow your tongue to rest in the lower palate of your mouth,
And now moving your awareness down through your neck,
All that holding,
All that carrying,
That's just melting away,
Into your shoulders,
And down through your arms,
As they start to feel heavy,
Just kind of wonderfully heavy though,
In a good way,
Relaxed,
Relaxing through your elbows,
And down into your forearms,
Into your wrists,
And your hands,
Your fingers,
Through your fingers to your fingertips,
Any tension through your shoulders,
Down your arms,
And your fingers,
Dissolving now,
And then bringing your awareness into your chest,
Your heart space,
Where we hold so much here,
So much do we hold here in our hearts,
Just with your next breath,
Give yourself permission to soften in this space,
To open and receive just a little,
Right in the center of your chest,
Maybe even place one or both of your hands right on your heart space,
You are safe,
It is safe for your body and your mind to rest now,
Your heart can rest,
Bringing your awareness down through your belly,
And just gently noticing the soft rising and falling of your belly,
And so gently releasing into the surface beneath you,
Your hips,
And your pelvis,
All surrendering now,
To gravity,
To rest,
And to sleep,
Awareness,
Gentle awareness,
Down through your upper legs,
And they are starting to feel so heavy too,
As you continue to allow yourself to let go,
Relaxing your knees,
And your calves,
Your shins,
Down into your ankles,
And into your feet,
And out through your toes,
Of your tension,
And just flowing down through your whole body,
And out through the tip of your toes,
Just flowing out and away,
Your body is becoming completely and beautifully heavy and still,
And as your body rests so completely,
Your mind begins to soften too,
Just like the surface of a lake,
Late at night,
When the wind has stilled,
And the water becomes perfectly calm,
And any thoughts that arise,
You can simply just notice them,
And let them drift,
Just like leaves on that still water,
Moving gently to the edges,
And dissolving,
There's nothing you need to hold onto here,
At this time,
There's nothing to follow,
You're just drifting,
I'm going to count down,
From 10,
To 1,
And with each number,
Just allow yourself to gently drift,
Deeper and deeper,
Into the most beautiful,
Peaceful,
Restful state,
Deeper than perhaps you've allowed yourself to go in a very long time,
And knowing that this time is the time for your body to receive deep rest,
When our bodies rest,
Our bodies heal,
And repair,
So starting at 10,
Drifting down,
So peacefully,
9,
Deeper now,
And the world is growing very,
Very far away,
8,
Your body,
So heavy,
So still,
Just sinking,
Beautifully,
7,
Deeper,
And deeper,
6,
So quiet,
Like the deepest,
Softest darkness,
And 5,
Releasing the last thread of your day,
Letting it all dissolve,
And 4,
So deep now,
So wonderfully deep,
Nothing to do,
And nowhere to be,
And 3,
Just drifting,
And floating,
So safe,
2,
Barely a whisper of wakefulness remaining,
Beautifully in the soft darkness,
Behind your closed eyes,
Just allow a soft image,
To gently begin to form,
And this image,
Is an image of you,
Lying on the most comfortable,
Softest surface,
Outside,
That you can imagine,
Perhaps you're on a soft blanket,
Spread across warm sand,
Or grass,
Or maybe you're just weightlessly floating in the open air,
And above you,
Stretching in every direction,
As you can see,
Is the night sky,
And not just any night sky,
But the most magnificent night sky that you have ever seen,
It is so clear,
And so impossibly vast,
Filled with more stars than you ever knew existed,
Some bright and brilliant,
And some soft and distant,
Just entire galaxies,
Smudged across the dark,
And you see the Milky Way,
Arching overhead,
In a river of ancient light,
And the air around you is perfectly still,
Perfectly warm,
And you feel very,
Very,
But in the most beautiful way,
Held by something so much larger than any worry,
Or any story,
And as you gaze upward,
You begin to notice that you are becoming lighter,
As if the Earth's gentle hold on you is softening,
As if you are beginning,
Very slowly,
To drift,
Not falling,
Not rushing,
Just floating,
Gently,
Rising into the sky,
And the way a feather rises on a warm current of air,
And weightlessly,
And as you float upward,
You notice that the stars are growing larger,
Closer,
Each one pulsing with a soft and ancient light,
And you realize that each star you pass is gently,
Energetically drawing something out of you,
And the first star that you pass is taking your worry,
Not forcefully,
But gently,
Like a loving hand relieving you of something heavy you had forgotten you were carrying,
And it dissolves that worry right into the light of the star,
And the next star you pass slowly takes your tension,
Every knot,
Every tightness that remained,
Out so gently from your body,
And just released into the infinite dark,
And another star that you're passing as you continue to weightlessly float,
The looping thoughts in your mind,
The unfinished sentences of your day,
Just into starlight,
And now you float in the very heart of the night sky,
Surrounded by stars in every direction,
To every side,
You are lovingly held,
Completely,
By the universe,
By source,
And you begin to realize that you are not separate from these stars,
You are made of the same light,
The same ancient fire,
The same vast,
Knowing,
Was forged in the star long before our world existed,
And some deep part of you has always known this,
Has always known that you belong in this vastness,
And floating here in this infinite,
Peaceful,
You feel,
Maybe even,
Beginning,
Not forced,
And not pushed,
The way the tide comes in,
Naturally,
Inevitably,
Your eyelids,
If they could get any heavier,
So beautifully heavy,
Gently closed,
By the way,
Deep,
So deep,
Into the breath of someone,
You will sleep,
Deeply,
And completely,
Your body,
Knowing,
Exactly,
How to restore,
How to heal,
While you sleep,
Every cell in your body Receiving the rest it needs tonight Your nervous system softening,
Resetting Returning to it's natural state of ease Keeping gentle watch as you drift after this deep You will feel restored Something of this starlit place With you
