Welcome to this meditation for sleep.
I'm Victoria and I'll be your guide tonight.
We'll begin by settling in and getting really comfortable in your bed.
Stop laying on your back or maybe rolling onto one side with a pillow between your legs.
Pulling the covers up over you,
Setting your phone down,
And when you feel ready,
Allowing your eyes to softly close.
As your eyes close,
You might notice that your mind becomes more active.
That is totally normal.
And in this meditation,
We're not trying to change our thoughts or our experience.
We're just inviting in the inevitable rest and rejuvenation that will come when we let go of doing and give ourselves permission to be human beings.
We'll begin our practice together by focusing on sound.
If you're lying in bed with a partner,
You might hear their breath or their snoring or their wiggling.
You might hear your children if they're nearby or the sounds of your neighbors talking or the TV.
You can listen for sounds close by,
Such as your own breathing or the hum of electricity.
And then begin to expand your awareness of sounds out even further.
Perhaps you hear dogs barking or cars going by,
Planes flying overhead,
People speaking far away.
Just letting yourself listen for a few minutes.
There's nowhere to go.
There's nothing to do.
You can just relax and hear whatever is there,
Not judging it,
Not getting caught up in the story of wishing it would stop,
But just being compassionate and recognizing that the sound comes and the sound goes.
Ah,
There's a dog.
Ah,
There's a car.
Whatever the sound is,
Letting it be there.
Now that you've spent some time focusing on these sounds around you,
I invite you to bring your awareness inward.
Noticing any sounds in your body,
Perhaps the gurgle of your stomach or the sound of your breath entering and leaving your nostrils,
Maybe even the sound of your own heartbeat.
In each moment,
We can hear new sounds as the world around us changes and as we change.
As we invite in ease and relaxation,
We begin to breathe with more depth,
With more compassion and awareness.
Taking a deep breath in through the nose and blowing out through the mouth like you're blowing out through a straw.
Deep breath in through the nose.
Slow breath out through the mouth.
Breathing in.
Letting go.
Breathing out.
Relaxing.
My teacher,
Thich Nhat Hanh,
Wrote a beautiful book called How to Relax and in that he talks about easing worry.
Worry often keeps us from falling asleep and resting peacefully because we think we need to figure it all out.
Here's what Thich Nhat Hanh says about easing worry.
Sometimes we think and worry nonstop.
It's like having a cassette tape continually turning in our minds.
When we leave the television set on for a long time,
It becomes hot.
Our head also gets hot from all our thinking.
When we can't stop,
We may be unable to sleep well.
Even if we take a sleeping pill,
We continue to run,
Think,
And worry in our dreams.
The alternative medicine is mindful breathing.
We practice mindful breathing for even five minutes,
Allowing our body to rest.
Then we stop thinking for that time.
We can use words like in and out to help us be aware of our breathing.
This is not thinking.
These words aren't concepts.
They're guides for mindfulness of breathing.
When we think too much,
The quality of our being is reduced.
Stopping the thinking,
We increase the quality of our being.
There's more peace,
Relaxation,
And rest.
We can find that peace,
Relaxation,
And rest in this moment as we practice mindful breathing.
Breathing in and silently saying the word in.
Breathing out and silently saying the word out.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Out.
In and out as you invite in more rest,
More ease into your body.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
In and out as you invite in more rest into your body.
Your eyebrows and your eyelids,
Your nose,
Your cheeks,
Your lips,
Your tongue,
And inviting in relaxation to your jaw unclenching.
And letting that relaxation trickle into your throat and into your neck and trickling down into your shoulders,
Down the length of your right arm.
Letting relaxation and ease flow gently out of the palm of your right hand.
Letting it flow gently down the length of your left arm and come out the palm of your left hand.
With every breath you take.
Letting yourself relax even further.
Letting that relaxation trickle down your chest,
Down your heart center,
Easing any worries,
Sending a sense of peace,
A sense of openness,
A sense of gratitude in your heart center.
And letting that ease wash down your abdomen and around into your back.
Relaxing your hips,
Your glutes,
And your pelvis.
And letting this stream of relaxation trickle from the top of your head down your whole torso,
Down the length of your right leg,
And out the bottom of your right foot.
Letting it trickle from the top of your head,
Down your torso,
And down the length of your left leg,
And out of your left foot.
From head to toe,
Letting ease,
Letting relaxation,
Letting gratitude flow effortlessly as you fall sweetly to sleep.
