Wiggle and squirm.
Get yourself settled.
Stretch out,
Curl up,
Whatever you need to do.
I'm not going to do anything special.
Anything odd,
Anything you can't do on your own.
We're just going to do it together.
We're not going to put ourselves to sleep or make ourselves go to sleep.
Force ourselves to bed.
There's.
.
.
That's very counterproductive and not really possible.
So we're going to spend some time getting out of the way of sleepiness.
Maybe you start to acknowledge that you're tired.
Surf around your body and notice what feels tired,
What feels weary.
Might be in your head,
Might be your shoulders,
Your knees.
Maybe your breathing is getting labored and tired.
Maybe you need to yawn.
Take a deep breath.
Maybe you stretch so much your spine crackles and pops.
Whatever you do,
Do it safely and enjoy just giving yourself some time to relax.
You don't have to sleep.
This is more of a sweeping aside things that would prevent you from sleeping than it is meditating into sleep.
So we're doing a little housecleaning,
Just checking our bodies,
Checking our breath.
What feels good,
What's ready,
What needs a little extra love and attention.
Notice your environment.
The way your skin feels in the air.
If you have pillows or blankets,
The weight,
The texture,
Soft or hard.
Your sleeping platform,
Whether it's a bed or a couch or a chair,
The floor,
Textures,
Comfort,
Solidity,
Whatever you need,
Just notice it.
Maybe you want to set yourself an intention,
Not necessarily to sleep,
But an intention for the coming time that rest will recharge you or that you'll dream about something neat,
Or that you'll let go,
Or that sleep will help you heal grief or release you from need and want.
Take a moment just to set an intention.
You're not grasping at it.
You're just putting it out there in front of you like a nightlight.
It would be nice that sleep could do whatever you need.
Take care of this.
You're settling in,
You're getting heavy.
Your muscles are doing less work.
Gravity is doing more work.
Every moment that we're together,
You make less effort.
Reducing and reducing,
Doing less,
Trying less.
You're breathing,
And at some point,
You might want to use the ancient word of breath,
Selah.
Selah.
Maybe your bed starts to feel a little bit woozy,
Like a hammock,
A boat at sea.
Your eyes start to go a little blurry,
Or pieces of dreams start to invade reality,
Because you're not sure if you're conscious or unconscious.
It's a fun place to be,
That liminal state between sleep and waking.
If you want to stay there the whole time,
You can start by forgiving.
Let it go.
People can be lousy.
People do lousy things.
People make mistakes.
People do it on purpose.
People do it again.
Do it once and forget about it.
You may not be ready to forgive,
But you could think about forgiving,
Making a plan to forgive.
Just let it go,
Because it serves you.
Holding a grudge isn't going to help you sleep,
So you could at least put it aside for the night.
And then,
In all fairness,
If people have done nasty things to us,
We probably do nasty things to other people.
We're just regular human beings,
Not infinite creatures.
We make mistakes.
There is no perfection in the world.
Maybe you can apologize.
Think about apologizing,
Or just desire not to do it again.
No pressure,
Just possibility.
May that be acceptable.
You feel the light dimming.
You feel your sense of self dimming.
Feel your sense of the concrete world and your role in it evaporating a little.
Becoming a little more amorphous,
A little more open,
And less discreet.
Lying down in peace,
So that you can get up peacefully.
Without bad dreams or disappointments,
And just gentle fantasies through the night.
The whole world is illuminated,
Even when it is dark.
And you can take a moment to acknowledge that incredible oneness of all creation.
That all of it originated together,
And all of it is part of the same stuff.
Sharing a destiny.
Breathe into that oneness.
Or maybe that oneness fills you with a sense of awe and wonder.
Love and compassion,
Moment to moment,
Day by day.
In your heart,
And in your spirit,
Your mind.
When you think,
When you walk.
When you go to bed,
When you'll get up.
Just filled with grace and compassion for all.
A world without end,
Of shared destiny and origin.
In that loving sense,
Maybe you feel heavier.
Your mind starts to go a little blank and woozy.
Lose track of a thought.
You try to get it back,
But it's gone.
And then you realize you're falling asleep.
Or maybe not yet.
Regardless,
You're protected.
You can trust the universe.
You are saved.
And covered with wings and a shield,
A great shield.
Protected and healed.
Healthy.
And kind forces guard you and carry you.
You are strengthened and answered and free and sated.
Take all of that in with a deep breath and a relaxing exhale.
Maybe use the word sela.
A good yawn.
A good stretch,
A good curl.
And you lie down with peace and wholeness.
And soon you'll get up in peace and wholeness.
Sheltered and protected.
No trouble around you.
You can go out of the conscious moment in peace.
And when you're ready to come back into consciousness,
You will,
Peacefully.
Your spirit is held lovingly.
And great and good forces preceded us,
Cared for those who went before us.
And great and good forces look over you and us now.
And after our time,
Those great good forces will look after those who succeed us.
Breathe into all that security.
All that density,
All that weight and caress and love.
All that warmth.
And the world blesses you and guards you.
I'm going to take that in,
The truth of that.
The world shines down on you with grace.
Breathe into that,
That grace,
That safeguarding,
That blessing.
Fill yourself up with that as you prepare for sleep.
The world looks toward you to offer you peace.
You can be peaceful.
Nothing to fight,
Nothing to worry about,
Nothing to struggle with.
And great and good forces look over you as you sleep.
You struggle with needs and expectations,
With grief,
With doubt,
Concern.
And you can put all of those questions to your right side with a great and good force responsible for questions.
You work so hard to be yourself.
You work so hard,
Play so hard,
Clean so hard.
Expend vigor and energy.
But there's no reason to be strong right now.
So you can put your strength down on your left side.
Be watched over by a great and good force responsible for strength.
And ahead of you with that intention you set,
Good force holding out a light and a lamp through the dark.
And behind you,
A healer massaging care into you,
Helping you grow and restore through the night.
And above it all,
Incredible presence,
Incredible sense of love and majesty,
And wonder,
And awe all around.
Peace upon you.
You may want to wiggle and shift,
Stretch,
Get heavy,
Feel light all at once.
Stretch and yawn and exhale on the word Sela.
And the world is this incredible universe,
Interconnected,
Ongoing,
Eternal.
You have a part to play and you are cared for more than you can imagine.
As you breathe and rest and slow down,
Become even more still and even more quiet.
You can do that knowing that the world is there for you,
Still going.
Beginning,
No end.
You are held by it.
Body and soul going to sleep,
Waking up always at all times.
You are in the loving hand of the universe with nothing to fear.
