Preparing For Sleep

If you have a busy mind and experience difficulty settling into sleep, try this meditation. It is designed to de-stress your mind, settle you, and make you feel calmer and more peaceful allowing you to drift off to sleep. You'll be guided to balance your body and awaken your mindful awareness of your body. You also can practice this meditation anytime you need to drastically reduce your stress or if you struggle with insomnia.

Transcript

You Welcome to this body focus meditation by Gabriella D'Amore.

This is designed to heighten your awareness of your body and to cultivate a deeper appreciation of every part of your body in this moment on this day.

This meditation will help your busy mind to slow down and learn to focus on exactly where we tell our mind to become aware of.

It trains our mind to follow our instruction rather than distracting us when it wants to.

When your mind does distract you as it naturally will,

Simply return your awareness to your body and continue the meditation.

As we get started,

Find yourself a comfortable place where you can be as relaxed as you possibly can be.

Start to make sure that your shoulders are relaxed,

Your hands are relaxed,

Unlocking the jaw and the rose of your teeth.

Finding a comfortable position for your head and neck to rest and just readjusting yourself if you could possibly be a little bit more comfortable.

Starting now to focus your awareness on your breath,

Deeply inhale through the nose,

Exhaling through the nose or the mouth.

As you continue to extend the breath,

Be conscious of your belly,

Inviting it to expand out like a balloon as you breathe in,

Doing your best to drop the shoulders and the chest and when you exhale fully,

Very gently,

Squeeze the belly and bring it in towards the spine.

This helps you fully expel all of the air in your body.

Continue to breathe deeply and allow each exhalation to drop the shoulders a little more.

Make your body a little heavier,

Make your mind a little quieter.

Just continue these long breaths in your own time for a few moments.

As you breathe in,

The belly comes out and as you breathe out,

The belly comes in.

Let your breath settle into a natural rhythm,

But do make sure that the breath is a little bit longer than usual.

Breathe at a pace that feels comfortable and relaxing for you and in this meditation,

I'm going to invite you to simply focus on one part of your beautiful body at once,

Just one at a time,

Bringing your awareness back time and time again.

Continuing to tell the mind to take a back seat,

Return your awareness to one simple body part.

Doing nothing and being nothing for the next little while,

I'm going to invite you to send your awareness now as we begin to your big toe on your right foot and we'll continue to be here for a few moments.

Just focusing on your right big toe,

Breathing deeply and smoothly.

And as you settle into this,

You notice that the toe and as you settle into this,

You notice that intelligence and awareness comes to the big toe that we're focusing on.

You start to become more in tune and more aware of any sensations,

Pain,

Tension or numbness surrounding the toe.

Become curious,

Interested,

Start to sense and feel the energy around the toe.

When you become distracted,

Return your awareness simply to the toe,

Continuing to breathe deeply and calmly.

Now,

Moving your awareness to your second toe on the right foot,

Breathing here for a moment.

Moving now to the third toe of the right foot,

Breathing slowly,

Continually bringing your awareness back to the body.

Moving now to the fourth toe of the right foot,

Staying here,

Resisting the urge to rush forward onto the next part of the body.

And now lastly,

Moving to the pinky toe of the right foot,

Resting here for a moment,

Making sure you're breathing slowly and calmly.

Continue to breathe and settle further and now move up to the right ankle.

Just letting your awareness be here at the right ankle,

Becoming more in tune and aware of everything that's going on for the ankle.

We're becoming more aware and more interested in the parts of the body that we so often ignore or pay no attention to.

Resisting the urge to move faster or to do more or to think more.

Simply return to the right ankle and explore.

Now very slowly moving up the right shin and the right calf,

Centimeter by centimeter,

Heading towards the right knee but doing so ever so slowly,

Ever so gently,

Taking your time to scan and become more aware of each part of the shin,

Each part of the calf.

Very slowly and very gently.

And as you slowly move up,

Arrive at the right knee and stay here for a few moments,

Exploring,

Investigating the knee,

Pain,

Numbness,

Tension,

Emotion,

Any sensations.

Become in tune with the knee and the energy around it.

Very slowly now moving up the right thigh,

Centimeter by centimeter.

And as this is a large part of the body,

Take your time.

Explore the front,

Sides and back of the thigh.

Moving ever so slowly from the right knee,

Moving gently towards the right hip,

Taking your time and becoming in tune and curious with the right thigh.

Rest at your right hip for a moment and tune in here.

Take a deep breath.

Now slowly start to move up the right side of your body from the hip.

Very,

Very slowly towards your right underarm.

Taking your time,

There's no need to rush.

Investigate the side of the body and enjoy the simplicity of simply being here in this moment.

Slowly arriving at the right underarm.

Slowly start to move down towards the right inner elbow,

Exploring the inside of the upper arm,

Resisting the urge to move faster as we do in life.

Instead training ourselves to be here in this moment,

Enjoying this moment.

There's no need to go anywhere or to do anything other than simply be here.

Resting now at the inner part of the right elbow.

Thinking of these parts of the body,

We often forget or pay no attention to.

Slowly now moving down the right forearm from the elbow,

Very,

Very slowly towards your right wrist.

Move slowly down the forearm,

Noticing any tension or tightness or pain.

Come to your right wrist and circulate your awareness around the wrist,

Top and bottom,

Left and right.

Then move your awareness to your right thumb.

Stay here for a moment.

Tune in.

Moving now to the right pointer finger,

The right middle finger,

The right ring finger,

And lastly the right pinky finger.

Rest and relax each of the fingers and send your awareness now to the inner palm of the right hand.

Rest and relax the palm of the hand.

Coming to the top of the right hand and slowly,

Very gently moving from the top of the right hand up the outer part of the right forearm.

Gently move towards the right elbow,

Exploring and becoming curious each part of the right outer forearm.

There's no rush,

There's nowhere to be.

Just enjoy the simplicity.

When you're ready,

Moving very slowly up your right arm to the tip of your right shoulder.

And as you make your way to the tip of the right shoulder,

Now all of your right arm should be a little heavier,

A little more relaxed,

And a little more alive in your mind's eye.

Move across from the top of the right shoulder of the right hand side of your neck,

Spending time here to tune into the neck,

Often where we hold pain,

Tension,

Many sensations,

Tightness.

Explore here,

Send your beautiful long breath to the side of the neck,

Dedicating the breath here to relax and loosen the right hand side of the neck.

Making your way up to the right ear,

Tuning into your sense of sound.

Moving across now to the center of your forehead,

Arriving here in the center of our body for the first time.

Relax and unwind the forehead.

Take a moment now in the center of the forehead to notice any differences you feel to your left and right hand side of your body.

And now I'm going to invite you to continue with the right side of the face,

Coming to the right eyebrow on your brow bone,

Resting here.

Resting now on the right closed eyelid,

Right nostril,

Right cheekbone,

Coming to the center of your upper lip,

The center of your lower lip,

Coming down now to the center of the chin.

Make sure you're still breathing deeply and calmly.

Come back up now to the center of the lower lip,

Center of the upper lip.

And now we're going to move to the left side of the body,

Starting with the left nostril.

Tune in,

Become aware,

Become curious,

Giving the left side of the body as much attention and dedication as the right side of the body.

Left cheekbone,

Left eyelid,

Tune in to all that you can see with your eye closed,

Resting here at the left eyelid,

Left eyebrow,

Coming across now to your left ear,

Tuning in to your sense of sound and your ability to hear in the left ear.

No need to rush,

No need to preempt where we are going next.

Come down to the left hand side of your neck,

Dedicating time to relax and become aware of the tension in the left side of the neck.

Send your breath here to relax the muscles.

Moving across now to the top of the left shoulder,

Becoming in tune with any pain,

Tightness or tenderness.

Breathing gently at the top of the left shoulder.

Moving now over the top of the left shoulder to the outer part of the upper arm,

Relaxing and nourishing every centimeter as you move gently towards the left elbow,

The outside of the left elbow.

Move down ever so gently from the left outer elbow to the left outer forearm,

Taking your time to explore the pain,

Tension or numbness in the forearm.

Make your way towards the outside of the left wrist,

Melting and relaxing every part of the left forearm.

Sending your awareness now to your left pinky finger,

Your left ring finger.

Breathing here and then moving to the left middle finger,

Left pointer finger,

Left thumb.

Resting your awareness now on the inner palm of your left hand,

Tuning into the energy,

The left palm.

Now the top of your left hand,

The inner part of your left wrist.

The hand now should be fully relaxed.

Gently moving up from the inner part of the left wrist,

Very slowly up the inner forearm,

Towards the inside of your elbow.

Very slowly moving from the elbow up towards your left underarm.

When you arrive at your left underarm,

Very slowly start to move down the left side of your body towards your left hip,

Breathing and moving very slowly towards the left hip.

Take time to notice the shape and curve of your body.

Resting at the left hip,

Breathing and unlocking any tension in this area.

Breathe space and calmness into the whole left hip.

Then moving very slowly centimeter by centimeter down from the left hip,

Very slowly towards the left knee,

Exploring the full capacity of the thigh.

Taking your time,

Front and back of the thigh,

The outside and the inside.

Slowly unlock each muscle of the left thigh,

Moving ever so slowly towards the left knee.

Resting at the left knee for a moment,

Exploring here the inner knee,

The kneecap and then ever so slowly and lazily move over the left knee,

Down the left shin,

Very very slowly arriving in due time at the left ankle.

Fully exploring the shin and the calf,

Melting and nourishing the muscle and the bone.

Arrive at the left ankle,

Send your awareness now to your left pinky toe,

Breathing slowly.

Move to the fourth toe of your left foot,

The left middle toe,

Left second toe,

Arriving at your left big toe.

And lastly we're going to integrate the left and right side of the body,

Focusing on your whole left foot now,

Moving to your whole right foot,

Left lower leg,

Right lower leg,

Left knee,

Right knee,

Left thigh,

Right thigh,

Left hip,

Right hip,

Left underarm,

Right underarm,

Left hand,

Right hand,

Left wrist,

Right wrist,

Left lower arm,

Right lower arm,

Left elbow,

Right elbow,

Left upper arm,

Right upper arm,

Left shoulder,

Right shoulder,

Left neck,

Right neck,

Left ear,

Right ear,

Left eyebrow,

Right eyebrow,

Left eye,

Right eye,

Left cheekbone,

Right cheekbone,

Left nostril,

Right nostril,

Centre of the upper lip,

Centre of the lower lip,

Centre of the chin,

And lastly coming into the centre of the body where we breathe,

Into the chest,

Into the heart space,

Back into our belly,

Fully integrating the left and right side of the body as we arrive once again at the centre of the body and focus on your beautiful breath,

Both sides of the body now left and right,

Relaxed,

Heavier and yet more aware of each of the sensations in every part of the body.

Return your awareness to your breath and take a few final moments here to breathe in deeply through the nose,

Exhaling deeply through the nose or the mouth,

Noticing how the breath moves through the centre of our body,

Breathing in allowing the belly to come out,

Breathing out allowing the belly to come in,

Feel your whole body now,

Become aware of your whole body in this moment with your breath at the centre,

Feeling no left or right but simply becoming aware of every part of your full physical body.

Notice how you feel now at the end of the meditation with your intelligence,

Your awareness,

Your knowledge of the body as opposed to when we started the meditation and when you're ready to come back to your life and come back to this moment fully,

Remember where you are in this room,

In this place,

Perhaps wriggle your toes and your fingers and come back to the room or perhaps drift off to sleep whenever you're ready.

Thank you for listening to this meditation.

Reviews

This meditation was amazing, it was so good that I didn't hear the majority of it as it sent me to sleep.

It worked! I became relaxed and fell asleep before it was over. Thank you. 🙏❤️😴