Just settling into the portable home of your body.
The deep rest of your mind.
Traveling circus of your thoughts and everything you need.
And then give up.
Just quit.
That's it for the day.
You don't have to meditate.
You don't have to clear your mind.
You just have to surrender and give up.
You're not going to solve any of your problems right now.
Not going to give you anything off your to-do list unless one of the things on your to-do list was to go to sleep or to meditate.
We're just going to be.
Let it all go.
All the stresses and struggles,
Challenges and disappointments of any particular day.
Even its joys and celebrations.
They are behind you.
You are ready to rest.
Maybe you're seated or lying down or in a bed.
See if you can make yourself a little more comfortable.
A little more prepared such that if you do fall asleep,
That is a-okay.
Can't make yourself sleep.
You can just remove all the impediments.
Anything in your way.
You can let go of what was and what will be.
And just focus on what is.
Letting your body get heavy and your head get light.
Maybe you start to drift like a rowboat on the sea.
Maybe your thoughts wander like mist or a cloud.
Maybe none of that happens.
You're just frustrated.
That's fine too.
Sleep is elusive.
Rest is hard to come by.
But at the very least,
You've given yourself this time to be with yourself.
To let down your guard.
To let gravity take over.
To stop doing and just be.
To get out of cognition and into the sensory.
And to chill out,
Man.
Chill out,
Man.
Maybe just rotate your generous awareness around your body.
See if there are any particular places of tightness or irritability.
Maybe you direct your inhale to those places so they give up too.
Maybe you just ask it all to quit.
Give in.
Make peace with yourself.
And all the little errors that crept in today and all the blunders and all the silliness and all the mistakes and jokes that didn't land.
None of it matters now.
And there were people who just drove you crazy.
Did things you couldn't stand.
Made mistakes in your way.
Got on your last nerve.
Jostled you in the parking lot.
Whatever.
You can let go.
I mean,
You could hold on to anger,
But it's not going to help you sleep.
So maybe tentatively forgive or experiment with forgiveness.
However small or experimental that might be.
Letting go.
And if they make mistakes,
We make mistakes.
Maybe you just prepare to ask for forgiveness.
Maybe you do ask forgiveness.
Maybe you forgive yourself.
And try not to do it again tomorrow.
Letting go of what was and what could be.
But just being with what is in this resting place.
Your body slowing down.
Your mind adrift.
May it be so.
Your eyes get heavy.
Your eyelids start to drift closed.
The light gets dim.
The sounds start to feel distant.
Or maybe the opposite.
That it's so quiet that sounds are very perceptible.
But pleasant.
And you're heading into a time of sweet dreams.
And lovely visions.
Your bed is secure.
And the whole world is filled with light and darkness.
And beauty.
Truth.
Let's take a moment just to acknowledge that all of this around us and within us shares a common story and a shared origin.
And a common destiny.
And that all of this began and is eternal.
And all of it is one.
And has a unity.
Pause on that unity.
You might feel love for the unity of the universe.
The coherence.
You might feel it when you fall asleep.
Maybe you notice it when you wake up.
Or if you study.
Or if you walk.
You sense that oneness.
That majesty.
And you have a refuge and a protection.
You're covered by great wings and a strong shield.
Nothing to fear this evening.
Nothing going on that threatens you.
No illness.
No ill will.
You are supported by great and good forces that lift you over challenges.
You're full.
Free and honored.
Delivered whole and carried forward through the night.
Maybe you breathe in deeply and exhale with the ancient breathing word,
SELA.
SELA.
It's all you need.
Just a syllable or two.
Your own breath.
Your own home in your body.
Everything is there for you.
Much more than you realize.
You lie down with this peace,
With this wholeness,
Completion.
Sheltered.
So that when you get up,
You will be whole and healed,
Strong and fortified.
And you go out of this waking time into the dream time and eventually back again,
Safe and restored,
Given wholeness and peace.
Everything is unified and everything is eternal and everything goes on and on with the you held in its bosom.
And great and good forces travel with you.
And they found those who preceded you and they will follow those who succeed you.
Here with you now.
And the universe is guarding you and blessing you,
Holding you tight.
Giving you gifts,
Protecting you.
And the universe is shining light upon you with grace.
Offering you all of the grace and all of the exception and unbounded love.
Without doing anything in return.
And the universe looks towards you.
It turns towards you,
Facing you,
Offering you a precious gift of peace and wholeness.
And you may sleep,
But the universe will keep watch over you.
With great and good forces all around.
Questions and doubts and wonderments all day.
And at night you deposit them on your right side with the great and good force responsible for questions.
And strength and vigor and lifting weights and exercising and carrying things emotionally too.
You put all that down on your left side with a great and good force who attends to strength.
Another wonderful magnanimous force holds out light before you like a nightlight through your dreams.
And while you sleep,
You can be healed.
The great and good force behind you that attends to you in healing.
And above you,
Everything.
Glory and majesty and mystery and galaxies without end.
Maybe you want to fidget.
Like any last adjustments,
Shuffle,
Breathe deep,
Exhale.
Maybe you exhale with the word SELA.
SELA.
Coming still.
And the universe goes on.
Universe extends.
And it was,
And it is,
And it will be with you riding mightily within it.
No beginning,
No end.
Protecting you and carrying you with your spirit and body entrusted.
You are in the hand of a loving universe with nothing to fear.
