Meditation to prepare the body for sleep.
We'll start this meditation with a little relaxation practice.
So lying back onto your mattress,
Resting onto your back,
And just feel the weight of your body sink a little more deeply into your mattress.
The back of the head relaxes a little bit more into your pillow,
Feeling the weight of your body onto your bed and the pull of gravity.
We'll add a few small movements as a way of feeling a little more grounded,
A little more rested in the body.
And we'll begin by raising the right arm just a centimeter or two off of your bed,
Just enough so that you feel the activity in that right arm with this simple movement.
So as you keep that right arm just slightly suspended up off of your bed,
You feel the heaviness perhaps,
A sense of activity inside of the arm.
And then gently lower the right arm,
Your right shoulder back onto your bed and feel the sense of release,
A sense of letting go.
We'll continue with the same movement with the left arm.
So just raising your left arm maybe a centimeter or two off of your bed so you feel an activity,
A sense of movement in that left arm,
Sense of effort.
And then gently lower your left arm back to the floor and feel the release,
A sense of letting go.
And we'll continue with the right leg.
So just raising your right leg,
Maybe just a centimeter off of your bed enough so that you feel the effort of the simple movement,
All the muscles perhaps in the hips,
The leg activated and then gently lower that right leg back to your bed and feel the release,
A sense of letting go.
Same movement with the left leg,
Just raising your left leg slightly off of the mattress or bed,
Noticing the activity,
The effort with the simple movement and then gently lower the entire left leg to your bed and feel the sense of letting go.
Final movement,
Bring the back of the head just slightly off of your pillow,
Raising the back of the head just a centimeter up off of the pillow so you feel the activity,
The effort with the simple movement and then gently lower the back of the head back to your pillow and feel the release,
A sense of letting go.
And now just feeling the weight of your body onto your bed,
Again the pull of gravity.
We'll use an image of a strong sturdy tree rooted in the ground to help us feel a little more rooted in being.
So as you rest here,
Just allowing the earth to hold you and support you,
Feeling a little more rooted onto your mattress.
Now you can bring to mind an image of a great tree,
One that you've perhaps seen in nature or one that you can imagine.
Noticing the roots of the tree reaching into the earth,
The sturdy stable trunk of the tree and the branches moving skyward.
This great tree can handle many weather patterns,
Harsh winters,
Beautiful summer days,
Wind,
Thunderstorms and the great tree stays rooted and steady in the midst of it all.
And now imagine this great tree can merge with your own body as you rest here.
Imagine the backside of your body can take roots into the earth below you and feeling a sense of support by the earth below you.
And now breathe in a little more deeply and imagine roots of this great tree that is the backside of your body can reach a little further below you into your mattress.
With your inhalation,
The roots dig deeper into your mattress and with your exhalation,
You relax a little bit more.
Your next inhalation,
The roots move even deeper into the foundation below you.
And with your exhalation,
You feel a little more ease in the body.
And imagine with your next inhalation,
These roots can reach even deeper through the soil below you and deeper into the earth itself,
Allowing the earth to hold and support you and rest deeply here.
And keeping your attention on to your body,
We'll add a little practice of compassion and kindness.
This body that's carried you through life,
The highs and lows for so long.
And offering your body a healing sense of compassion and thanking the body for carrying you this far.
You can simply offer a silent thank you as a sense of gratitude for your body's innate ability to heal and to forge ahead.
And now breathing a little more deeply,
Bring your attention to the entire body resting here.
Feeling the variety of sensations in the body,
Internal sensations,
External sensations.
And very simply,
Just offering your body a silent thank you.
Thank you for your body's ability to heal.
Offering a silent thank you and a sense of gratitude for your body's state of health and wellbeing.
And now breathe a little more deeply.
And relax a little bit more into your exhalation.
Now bring your attention to the area of your heart.
You might just start with the simple awareness of your own heart beating.
Thinking in mind that your heart beats for you without you asking it to do so.
And just noticing any sensations in the heart area,
Any areas of tension or flow,
Lightness or heaviness,
Any emotion,
Or perhaps there's feelings in the heart space.
And just allowing any emotion to be there and be known,
Just as it is.
And now let's bring a sense of gratitude for the heart that has cared so much over the years.
This area of emotional intelligence that is loved,
Perhaps grieved,
Ached and cared.
And bringing a tender sense of compassion to the heart area.
And taking a moment to say thank you.
Thank you to your heart for caring so much.
Rest here for a few moments with gratitude for the courage and boundlessness of your own heart.
And now let's bring the awareness to the mind,
Your mind that does so much for you to problem solve,
To plan,
Organize,
Review and learn.
And just noticing the quality of the mind here.
Is the mind busy or quiet?
Or somewhere in between?
And as you start to settle towards sleep,
Sometimes the mind jumps to far away places.
Nothing to resist.
Just allowing your mind to wander as you rest here.
And let's just bring a sense of compassion and care to the mind.
A sense of gratitude for the mind that has worked so hard to problem solve and to keep you safe and protected.
Perhaps just adding a simple thank you,
A silent thank you to your mind.
Thank you for being concerned for myself and for others.
And just staying here with a moment of gratitude for the mind and the mind's capacity with difficult and wonderful situations.
And now open your attention to include these three areas of intelligence.
Your mind,
Heart and body.
And just resting in a state of gratitude for these three areas of intelligence.
Perhaps adding a silent thank you.
And as your body continues to rest here and the mind might start to wander off to far away places.
I'll finish with a reading by Nikita Gill called You Have Become a Forest.
One day when you wake up,
You will find that you have become a forest.
You have grown roots and found strength in them that no one thought you had.
You have become stronger and more beautiful,
Full of life giving qualities.
You have learned to take all the negativity around you and turn it into oxygen for easy breathing.
A host of wild creatures live inside you and you call them stories.
A variety of beautiful birds rest inside your mind and you call them memories.
You have become an incredible self-sustaining thing of epic proportions.
And you should be so proud of yourself,
Of how far you have come from the seeds of who you used to be.
This is how I feel badly.
