Stress Release Before Sleep

This Embodied practice combines gentle yoga, breathing relaxation practices, and guided imagery to help you release stress and tension on a physical level and then invite your mind and nervous system to follow along, so your whole being is calm and ready for rest.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Paige.

This week's embodied meditation helps you release stress and tension on a physical level and then to invite your mind and your nervous system to follow along so your whole being is calm and ready for rest.

We'll do this practice on our backs.

You can rest on the earth,

On a yoga mat,

On a rug,

Or if you'd like it,

Should work fine to do this practice right in bed.

So get yourself comfortable and settled right on your back.

Draw your knees in towards your chest and then see how it feels to stretch both your hands and your feet up toward the sky so your arms and your legs are extended.

No striving or reaching,

Just a suspension of the arms and the legs,

Hands and the feet reaching toward the sky.

And then simply give your wrists and your ankles a stir around,

Swirling the joints of the wrists and the ankles,

Almost as if you're releasing any parts of your day that have lodged themselves down in the extremities.

You can stir your wrists and your ankles around the opposite direction a few times.

And then let that stirring action become still and begin to give your hands and your feet a shake.

Maybe that shaking action extends down the arms and the legs a bit.

Again,

It doesn't have to be vigorous,

Just a gentle casting off of any tension,

Stress,

Just bound up energy from the day that you would like to release.

Nice,

Easy shake of the hands and the feet,

Maybe the arms and the legs,

And then allow that movement to become still when you're ready.

Wrists and legs can still be suspended.

Another moment or so here,

Allowing any remaining parts of your day that you would like to release to simply drain out,

Draining all the way back down to the earth.

Maybe you can feel that happening,

Even visualize it happening.

Tension,

Stress,

Energy you're ready to release draining from the body,

Seeping into the earth,

And being absorbed,

The earth ready to recycle that energy.

From here,

You can simply stretch your arms up alongside your ears,

Stretch your legs out long so the whole body is just resting on your back,

Arms stretching up alongside the ears,

Legs stretching out long.

Feel your body draw in a long lingering inhale that feels as if it could stretch through the whole length of the body.

When you're ready to exhale,

Scoop your knees in towards your chest and open your mouth,

Release that exhale as a sigh,

A release of the energy and tension of the day.

Repeat that as you're ready to inhale,

The whole body can unwrap again,

It just lengthens out arms alongside the ears,

Legs stretching out long.

As you're ready to exhale,

Maybe the arms circle around,

Scoop the knees in toward the chest,

Open your mouth and sigh out your exhale.

Let's do that once more.

Inhale,

Lengthening the whole body out,

Just a nice full open body stretch.

As you're ready to exhale,

Soft,

Gentle sigh,

Scooping the knees in,

Maybe even lifting the forehead toward the knees.

Then resting the head back down,

You can keep scooping the knees in,

Perhaps gently rock your body from side to side.

Let's move into a reclining twist from here.

Simply guide your knees over to the left,

Both knees moving over to the left,

That right arm can stretch out wide like a wing,

Maybe the palm faces up.

Perhaps your gaze even drifts over to the right with the knees gently floating to the left.

Let your body simply breathe here.

The inhales again,

Ever so gently stretching through the whole body and the exhales almost a ringing out,

A releasing of any part of the day you're ready to let go of.

Inhale filling up the body gently,

Exhale a release,

A letting go,

Softening.

One more breath right here.

Inhale,

Stretching through the whole shape of the body,

Again,

Maybe a sigh of an exhale as the whole body releases a bit more.

Bring yourself back through center.

You might hug your knees in again,

Might allow yourself to gently rock.

Then that twist to the other side,

So you can guide your knees both over to the right,

Left arm can open out like a wing,

Maybe the left palm faces up.

Perhaps your gaze even drifts to the left.

Feel your next inhale wind its way through the whole shape of this twist in the body.

As you exhale,

Feel any lingering tension simply release,

Drift out.

Inhale,

Feel the inhale stretch through the physical shape of the body.

Exhale,

Let the body ring out any lingering tension,

Soften and release.

One more inhale through the whole body and maybe a gentle open mouth sigh of a release ringing out the day.

Bring your body back through center.

Once more,

Knees just hugging in.

Perhaps the body gently rocking and then see how it feels to simply stretch out long so the legs will extend out resting against the earth,

Arms opening at a comfortable distance beside the body,

Palms facing up.

Take an inhale,

Shrug your shoulders up to your ears.

And as you exhale,

Feel the shoulders gently roll around back and down sides of the neck release,

Shoulder blades soften down the back.

Twice more like that as you inhale,

Shrug the shoulders way up toward the ears.

And as you exhale,

Feel anything you're holding on to in the neck,

The shoulders,

The throat,

The jaw release as the shoulders roll around back and down.

Once more like that,

Inhale shoulders up to the ears.

Exhale,

Feel the shoulders release around back and down.

And we'll finish the physical movement of this practice with a few rounds of squeezing and releasing the whole body.

So as you're ready to inhale next,

See if you can just hug the muscles of the body to the bones of the body,

Maybe make gentle fists,

Maybe scrunch your toes in,

You might even scrunch the muscles of your face.

And as you're ready to exhale,

Release every bit of that squeezing of the body,

Everything releasing.

And again,

As you inhale,

You might hug the muscles of the body to the bones,

Maybe the shoulders squeeze up by the ears.

Maybe you scrunch the muscles of the face,

Make gentle fists,

Shrug your toes in.

And then a full body release as you let go.

One more like that as you inhale,

Everything engages a little bit of a squeeze of the whole body.

And again,

Perhaps an open mouth sigh this time as you release every bit of the physical body.

Feel your body simply resting.

From this new physical state,

Allow a gentle intention to settle over you,

An intention to drop into restfulness and into deeply nourishing sleep.

Nothing at all forced about inviting this in,

Almost as if you're watching this intention cover you like a blanket,

As if you're gently soaking it in.

A class conscious thinking mind,

More an undercurrent of feeling state,

Dropping toward restful and nourishing sleep.

Go back to the draining image we began with.

Working through the whole body bit by bit,

I'll talk you through visualizing any vestiges of stress,

Tension,

Gripping or holding,

Draining from your body.

As we do this,

Watch these remnants of the day drain all the way to the ground and begin to seep into the earth.

You don't have to work to create this visualization,

Just allow it to naturally emerge.

Begin with feeling and even watching stress and tension draining from the head,

The neck and the shoulders.

Feel,

Maybe envision,

Stress and tension,

Any holding drain from the chest,

Simply seep into the earth.

Feel any stress,

Any gripping,

Any residue from the day drain from the arms,

The wrists and the hands.

Watch it seep all the way down into the earth.

Anything you're holding,

The torso,

The belly,

See if you can feel it,

Maybe even visualize it draining,

Any stress,

Any holding draining from the torso and the belly seeping right back into the earth.

Move to your hips,

Any gripping,

Any tension,

Any holding patterns from the day draining from the hips,

Seeping into the earth,

Releasing completely.

Move to your legs,

Watch anything that you're holding there,

Any tension patterns,

Any stress draining from the legs,

Upper legs,

Knees,

Shins and calves,

Watch tension drain from the body to the earth.

Finally your feet,

Ankles,

Tops of the feet,

Soles of the feet,

All the way to the toes,

Any holding,

Any gripping,

Any stress or tension draining from the feet seeping into the earth.

Finally watch the residue of the day draining from your whole body,

Physical,

Mental,

Emotional holding all seeping into the earth.

Stress and tension draining from your body all the way to the ground,

Seeping into the earth as you begin to drift toward complete rest on the rise and fall of your breath.

Let's take five more breaths here together,

Placing the gentlest focus on your exhales as a slow and easy release.

Feel your body inhale when you're ready.

Just rest into the exhale,

Slow and easy release.

Your body effortlessly inhale,

Gentle,

Quiet release on the exhale.

Just inhale,

Quiet,

Restful attention on the exhale.

Inhale just happening naturally,

Easiest,

Slowest release of an exhale.

Let's more effortless inhale,

Gentlest focus on the slow,

Easy release of an exhale.

Thank you so much for making this time for yourself and I'll be with you again soon.

Reviews

Thanks, this is a perfect bedtime 🌙 supplement. I really enjoyed this meditation. I will add it to my night time routines. Blessings to you. Cheryl J 💫

Great voice. Relaxing sequence to release stress from the whole body . I really enjoyed it.

Great physical release before drifting off to sleep! Thank you Paige 😴💕

Thank you so much for this lovely practice. I’ve done many sleep meditations before that were more focused on the breath. I really enjoyed the body movement with this session it actually made me chuckle a bit. Before the practice I was very stressed out and anxious about being able to sleep but now I feel loads better and looking forward to some peaceful rest. Thank you very much 🙏

I found this very relaxing and I enjoyed the part of putting my legs in the air and all the movement of the body. Thank you.
Your voice is very calming.

Lovely soothing voice while I was awake but trying to calm doe. 🙏

Beautiful! Really supported my day to night transition after a highly stimulated day.

Very interesting practice! The body exercises followed by visualizations helped me have a good night's sleep. Thank you, Paige! Namaste 🕉️

Outstanding. Exactly what was missing from my bedtime routine. Greatly appreciate it

Really great. Loved the combination of physical and mental.

Just as nourishing as Paige’s morning movement meditations which have become a staple in my routine.

I enjoyed the visualization of stress leaving my body and light stretching this meditation provided. It was exactly what I needed after a long day of work. Thanks you!

So soothing. Loving your voice and I really became quiet. Thank you so much.

Great meditation. The stretching at the beginning was really useful to release tension. Thank you

Greatly appreciated and thanks. Slept well with this 😌

I needed to get rid of stress before sleeping. Thank you.

Exactly my type of 'exercise'. Gentle voice, very soft music, perfect guidance.
Namaste

Beautiful, Everything Paige does is totally beautiful.

This is a good practice. I would do it when preparing for bed

Worked very well to relax my body and mind. As I lay in bed it was useful before falling asleep. 🙏❤️😴