It's coming in.
If you're walking,
Stand still.
If you're standing,
Sit down.
If you're sitting,
Lie down.
And if you're lying down,
Close your eyes.
Let's bring your energy level lower and lower.
Yawning is always nice.
Stretching is helpful.
You can exhale with the word selah.
An ancient Hebrew statement that was some sort of breathing mantra,
Perhaps its origins mysterious and unknown.
Don't let yourself fall asleep.
That's the crucial part to falling asleep is try not to.
The more you make effort to fall asleep,
The harder it will become.
So maybe try not to fall asleep and see what happens.
Whatever you do,
Don't fall asleep.
Stay awake.
Play that game,
See if it helps.
In the meantime,
We're slowing down.
We're enjoying quiet and becoming more quiet.
Getting heavy,
Letting gravity take over as your body sinks in.
Enjoying the moment,
Grateful that you are taking the time to relax,
To make time and space for yourself and your meditation.
We're not doing anything,
We're just getting out of the way of tiredness.
Seeing where it goes.
Letting your body collapse,
Letting all the tension melt away bit by bit.
Maybe you help that melting by drawing in breath to all the sore and tight spots.
Letting your breath expand your spine and bones and loosen your muscles.
Letting gravity take over so you feel heavy and your thoughts feel light and begin to drift.
Slower and slower,
Quieter and quieter,
Heavier and heavier.
And of course you'll get distracted.
Of course you'll have flits of daydream or anxiety or disappointment.
That's how your brain works.
You can't stop thoughts,
You can only let them go.
They come up,
You let them go.
Observe your thoughts like someone visiting on a train,
Like you're watching a crowd of people go by.
They don't own you,
But they're curious.
And you're a watcher,
You're a people watcher.
You're a watcher,
A thought watcher.
You just come back.
Follow my voice back,
Follow your breath back.
Notice your body.
Might even be able to attune to your pulse or your digestion or just the weight of self,
Literally and figuratively.
Slowly,
In deeply,
Out slowly.
Pausing to say something very kind to yourself.
A gratitude,
A pride,
A passion.
Just notice something about yourself before you go to bed that you like.
Maybe even something about you that surprises you,
That you're just beginning to realize.
And breathing in,
Maybe exhale with salah,
Salah.
A word with no certain meaning.
Diving into the mystery of the universe and also the mysteries of sleep and dreams.
Just tasting the edge of fantasy and weirdness that is night and sleep and dreams.
And letting go.
Letting go of self,
Letting go of what was and what will be.
And even to an extent,
What is,
The conscious mind.
And welcoming in the unconscious and the unconscious.
And the subconscious,
The boulevard of dreams.
Feeling your body grateful for the weariness you might experience.
Grateful for the hard work and the diligence of the day or the week or the weekend.
And how that work leads you to fulfilling rest.
The completion of the work.
Breathing in deeply,
Exhaling slowly.
Maybe you wanna forgive.
Just begin with a little forgiveness.
People screw up,
People trip you,
People cut you off.
You can hold onto it.
I don't think it'll help you sleep better,
But you can hold onto it or you can tentatively commit to forgiving.
Just letting go.
Whether people hurt you on purpose or by accident,
It doesn't matter now.
We're gonna move forward with sleep.
And keep breathing,
Stretching,
And relaxing,
And sinking in.
Giving up,
Quitting.
And since other people frustrate or injure or upset us,
It's pretty clear we do the same thing to other people.
Maybe you wanna apologize,
Maybe you're not ready.
Maybe you're ready to think about maybe one day perhaps apologizing.
Having regret and just letting it go.
Eventually we'll make amends,
May it be so.
Now we're just breathing,
Lying down,
Getting heavy,
Falling in,
Falling out.
Falling in.
Your eyes get heavy.
And things get a little bit dark and distant.
Your pupils change.
Your psychros dim and little bits of dream creep in at the edges.
Odd imaginations,
The unreal,
The silly,
The absurd.
Visits from vampires and prime ministers and your third grade teacher.
Colors that make sounds and sounds that have smells and all the special things that can only happen in dreams.
Start to find their way in good dreams,
Sweet dreams.
And the light fades from your eye.
Before you go,
Take a moment just to acknowledge how blessed the world is and how unique and mysterious and vast and comprehensive it is that it all joins out of the same material,
In the same history,
In the same experience.
You,
Me,
Them,
Us,
The planets,
The stars,
The galaxies,
All formed of the same stuff,
The same instance.
When you think of that amazing mystery,
Even if you understood the physics,
You'd still feel a sense of awe and love.
Every daily experience.
We're just breathing,
We're just letting go,
We're just quitting on all the demands,
Clocking out,
Clocking out.
And you're protected.
You have a refuge and you are saved,
Covered with great wings and a massive,
Strong,
Powerful shield.
Nothing to fear,
Bad dreams,
Pestilence,
Not your enemies,
Not your friends,
Just time inward,
Moving away.
And great and good forces guard you and carry you.
And support you and sate you,
Giving you strength and fullness.
Taking a deep breath,
Exhaling with a Salah.
And continually slowing down,
Drawing more quiet,
Going inward,
And returning again and again to the drowsiness,
The weariness,
Even when thoughts mystify you,
Maybe you worry about something,
Regret something.
That's the far future and the distant past,
But right now,
Right now you're resting.
And you lie down peacefully so that when the time comes,
You'll wake up peacefully.
Nothing to fear,
Wholeness and peace.
And great and good forces preceded you,
Looked over those before us,
And they will follow us and look over those after us,
Just as they look over you and care for you right now as you sleep.
Because you will sleep.
And in sleeping,
You will be healed.
And the world blesses you and guards you.
Take it in,
Breathe it deep.
The world looks upon you with grace.
Take that in and breathe it oh so deep,
Let go.
And the world looks toward you to offer you peace.
Breathe it in deep,
Take it all as a gift.
As I mentioned,
Great and good forces are with you.
All day,
You have questions,
And wrestle with ideas and doubts,
Concerns.
But at night,
You can just put all that down at your right side with the great and mysterious and good force responsible for questions.
During the day,
You jockey for position,
You wrestle,
Grapple,
You lift heavy things.
And at night,
You just put all of that vigor and energy down at your left side.
With the great and good force responsible for heroism and endeavor.
And ahead of you,
A great good force holds a night light.
And behind you,
Healing.
A great force offers healing into your body as you sleep.
And above you,
Indescribable mystery in which you float through dreams.
You can be fruitful.
Stretch and fidget.
Adjust any last concerns.
Maybe you breathe in deeply and exhale with.
Fella.
Ah.
And the universe was,
And it is,
And it continues to be.
Without beginning,
Without end.
Providing for you.
You can rest your spirit in the hand of a loving universe and go to sleep.
And in spirit and in body,
You have nothing to fear.
And so you drift.
Going in and out and far away,
And when it's time,
You'll come back.
And for now,
Just breathe and relax.
You don't have to sleep.
You can just enjoy the quiet or the darkness or the stillness.
Being with yourself.
You are safe.
