Progressive Relaxation For Deep Sleep

Progressive relaxation for deep sleep.

Welcome to this guided meditation for sleep.

We're going to slowly,

Gently relax the body layer by layer so that you can let go and fall asleep.

Take a moment to get as comfortable as you can for your sleep.

You may like to cover your eyes for added darkness with a scarf or eye bag.

Before we begin,

Take a moment to consider your relationship with sleep.

Sometimes when we've got a lot on our minds,

It can feel difficult to surrender to sleep,

As if holding on to consciousness would help us somehow.

Let me reassure you,

It doesn't.

We can think more clearly when we've spent time in rest,

Stillness,

And unconsciousness.

If you are worrying at a problem,

Your mind will continue to work at it in your dreams,

An unconscious mind,

Probably better than you could if you stayed awake to think about it.

Trust in that internal process.

So if there is something in particular on your mind,

Imagine placing it on a small,

Soft pillow.

Offer it to your unconscious mind and allow yourself to tuck it away in a drawer inside of you,

Trusting that you will continue to work with it just in a different way while you're asleep.

Some days,

Sleep is tougher than other days.

Remember that if you do not fall asleep during this meditation,

You will still get all the benefits of rest and relaxation,

Which is pretty close to the benefits of sleep.

Let yourself have that rest and relaxation,

Even if you do not meet unconsciousness easily.

Now,

Take a deep breath if you like and imagine your body sinking into the support beneath you.

Imagine your whole body getting heavier and softer.

Feel your jaw softening,

Your shoulders dropping their weight,

Hips heavy,

Legs soft and relaxed.

Feel your belly soft and spacious,

Your breath moving low down into your abdomen.

Relax the muscles in your belly right down to your pelvic floor.

Feel the way the belly expands like a soft balloon on the inhale and gently deflates as it relaxes on the exhale.

Notice all the parts of that soft balloon,

The front of your belly expanding forward on the inhale and then deflating as it relaxes inward on the exhale.

The bottom of the balloon,

The pelvic floor,

Expanding gently downward towards your feet as you inhale and deflating inward and up toward your heart on the exhale.

The back of the balloon,

Your lower back,

Is not as soft as the front or the bottom of the balloon.

See if you can still feel that gentle expansion on the inhale into your back body and that deflating quality,

That deeper relaxation on the exhale.

Feel the soft,

Relaxed,

Natural rhythm of your breath without changing anything or using any of your muscles.

Simply imagine this breath slowing down and relaxing.

Feel the soft,

Relaxed,

Natural rhythm of your breath without changing anything or using any of your muscles.

Just a little bit.

Listen for your heartbeat,

The steady rhythm of the heart in your ears in your chest,

Perhaps in your belly or even down into your legs.

Imagine that steady beat,

Your body working without any effort on your part at all.

Simply listen and feel for the beat of your heart.

It doesn't matter if you can actually detect it or not.

Imagine feeling the beat of your own heart.

And without changing anything,

Imagine this beat slowing down just a little bit.

Receiving the slowness and rest of relaxation and eventually sleep.

Your body working less as it receives the gift of this rest.

A gentle,

Slow,

Steady,

Healthy heartbeat.

Relax the muscles of your face.

Soften the space between your eyebrows.

Feel your forehead widening and relaxing.

The tiny muscles around your eyes softening and letting go.

Your cheeks relaxing,

Your jaw slightly opening into a simple,

Easeful resting position.

Your tongue soft in your mouth right to its root.

Your ears,

The space around your ears relaxing.

Your entire head,

Your skull right to the ends of your hair,

Everything softening.

Your brain inside your head is relaxing as well.

Soothing its electrical pulses,

Calming the rhythms of thinking.

Your brain receiving the rest and stillness.

Acknowledging that now is the time for a different kind of thinking.

A different kind of work that does not need consciousness.

All effort has the permission to leave your brain.

Your brain choosing to shift into the rhythms of rest and sleep.

Your nervous system extending down from the base of the brain along the spine,

Embracing your whole body,

Receiving the signal of rest.

Soothing your spine,

Your arms,

Your legs,

Your organs.

Everything shifting into a state of rest and digest.

A state of safety and calm.

A state where everything is okay right now.

Where we have all the time in the world.

Now is not the time for thinking.

It's a time for rest,

Sleep,

Recovery,

Feeling and dreaming.

Your entire body getting the message that now is the time for sleep and rest.

Relax your shoulders.

Feel your right shoulder dropping away from your ear.

Your shoulder blades sliding down your back.

The muscles between your right ear and the top of your right shoulder lengthening,

Softening,

Releasing.

Your left shoulder drops away from your left ear,

Softening from the center of your body.

Your left shoulder blade slides down your back,

Releasing so the shoulder can rest.

The muscles between the left ear and the top of the shoulder lengthening and releasing.

There is nothing to hold on to right now.

Everything is okay right now.

Feel the bends along the right and left side of your spine softening and relaxing.

Feel your breath beginning to move into these muscle groups,

Softening them,

Offering them the nourishment of energy and breath.

Nothing to hold on to here.

Feel your right arm dropping completely heavy into the earth,

The elbow soft,

The palm of the hand completely relaxed.

The left arm drops heavy and relaxed,

Soft at the elbow.

Left palm completely soft and spacious.

Nothing to hold on to now.

Feel the center of your chest,

Your heart,

Your sternum bone,

Muscles of the chest.

Imagine there was a knot here in the center of your chest that is loosening.

Fresh air and breath and energy can enter the space where the knot is beginning to untie itself,

To let go.

The center of the chest relaxes and it reverberates that relaxation into the entire upper body and down into the stomach.

The stomach and diaphragm are also relaxing.

The bend under your ribs gently letting go,

Softly rising and falling with your ribs.

No resistance to the breath at all.

Your belly is relaxed.

Your organs,

Each one of them,

Soft and moving with the rhythm of your breath.

Each organ shifting into the healing,

Resting mode of nighttime and sleep time.

Everything in a state of health and ease,

Detoxifying what is not nourishing and transforming what is healthful and nourishing into what becomes your body.

Your organs performing miracles with no effort on your part at all.

Your hips are heavy and relaxed.

The entire bowl of your pelvis,

Soft and easeful.

Genitals relaxed.

The pelvic floor muscles surrounding them moving softly with the easeful breath.

Your hips and glutes,

Soft and easeful.

Nothing to hold onto here.

Right leg heavy and soft.

Left leg heavy and soft.

Right thigh letting go.

Left thigh letting go.

Right knee easeful and relaxed.

Entire joint letting go.

Left knee relaxed.

Entire joint spacious and soft.

Right calf and shin heavy and relaxed.

Left calf and shin heavy and soft.

Right foot,

Each toe,

No resistance,

Soft and easeful.

Left foot,

Each toe on the left foot,

Soft and relaxed.

Entire body heavy.

Everything breathing with no effort,

No resistance to the breath.

Easing into gravity.

Everything soft,

At rest,

Heavy,

Spacious.

Every part of your body,

Mind and energy unwinding into rest.

Welcoming and inviting the medicine of sleep,

The healing process already underway.