Restful Sleep - Release Sense Doors

As you prepare for sleep, this meditation will gently guide you through a body scan with your breath to the Earth. Then you will release the five sense doors through the body and finish in two-minute concentration practice. This practice invites your heart and mind to sleep deeply by bringing embodiment to the present moment. This happens through a deep release and wind-down and connection to the right timing of your awareness and your breath supporting you in the present moment.

Transcript

This meditation is for evening time before bed. So whatever that looks like for you 30 to 60 minutes before you go to sleep. I recommend you find a comfortable seat at the edge of your seat where your hips are elevated above your knees and your feet are flat on the floor and resting your hands either in your lap or hands on your thighs and rocking from sit bone to sit bone feeling the weight of the left sit bone below your seat the bony part of your seat. Feel your right sit bone and sway into them side to side and then find the curvature of the sit bones sway forward and back and find a neutral place side to side and forward back where you can be upright with ease and stability and once you found your neutral place upright with ease and stability close your eyes or gaze down in front of you a few feet in front of you notice the space your body takes up in the room that you're in notice how the energy feels on your skin bring awareness to the bottoms of your feet feel the texture there and as you exhale breathe anything you feel into the earth feel the big toe mound the front of your big toes the sides the toenail exhale anything you feel into the earth any tightness any pulling any wanting to escape the feeling exhale that into the earth without effort or force just a simple drawing attention down away from your big toes bring awareness to your second toe on both your feet exhale into the earth third fourth and fifth toes feel the toenails the sides the charge the energy the texture below exhale into the earth aware of the connections of each toe to the pads of the feet exhale what you feel into the earth feeling the entire soul the bottom of your feet outside edges as they pull up the stirrup at your heels it pulls up to the Achilles and calf muscle exhale what you feel on the edges into the earth on the center of your this big arching tension of the arch of your feet exhale everything on the soles of your feet into the earth feeling the weight there bring awareness to the tops of your feet the ankles exhale down feeling the knees the calf muscles shin muscles and bones ankle muscles and bones into the feet muscles and bones into the earth so that breath is a an effortless doorway through the lower legs down below you breathe into the hips down through the upper legs lower legs into the earth aware of any other sensation from awareness in your lower body in your upper body do you feel anything in your jaw your neck your shoulders release that down anything you feel if it's warm quiet soft subtle loud anxious restless curious boring exhale it down into your seat into your legs into the earth just as it falls with your attention with your breath out become aware of the five sense doors starting with the back of your eyes exhale that down through your body through your legs through the earth so the back of the eyes exhaling down through the torso legs and feet and all the way down three more breaths there as you watch the energy fall through any sense store around the eyes any of the muscles the twitching the glassy watery feeling of the lids blinking of the lids anything around the nerves anything inside the eyes back of the eyes around the eyes exhale it down into the body into the next come to your ears your sinuses in your ears together and through these two sense stores exhaling what you feel bring them to the center of your body down through your legs through to the earth so you might feel that your canal as it goes all the way to the center of your skull down the back of your throat in your neck down the central channel of your spine in through your hips in through your legs down to the earth the nose cavity all the way up to the top of the nasal cavity and then down through the central channel down through the body into the earth fourth feel the back of your palate your tongue exhale that down into the body into the earth and we'll do three more breaths with the taste and the feelings of taste around the jaw muscles cheek muscles the mouth and the teeth and the gums in through the body central channel down through to the earth releasing any added thoughts adding compression to your skull from the gray matter of the thinking brain softening the gray matter the thoughts and just slow for this moment and exhale what you feel in the slowing down through the body into the earth and the sense of touch your last sense store that will play with this dance of your meditation being aware of the body its connection to going to sleep going into the belly of the earth we begin this journey into a dream world the sense of touches on every surface of your skin I invite you to start just with the forehead and the hairline and feeling your hair exhale down the entirety of your head your jaw back of your head base of the skull down the neck through the tops of the shoulders through the breast and upper back down through the torso and the arms to the elbows and the belly through the hips and the lower arms and the thighs to the wrists and hands and fingers and knees down to the lower legs to the feet exhale what do you feel where is your awareness choose a point to focus your awareness for the next two minutes of silence if you'd like to pick the same place where I go we'll go to Dante and halfway between belly button and pubic bone back to the spine pausing awareness there for two minutes of silence or picking another sense store or sensation to focus your attention for this silence. You. . . . . . . . .