Evening Wind Down Meditation

You deserve to take some time at the end of the day to wind down, release the cares of the day, and ease into blissful slumber. This restful mindfulness-style meditation uses the focus on the breath and body to help you release the tensions and worries of the day, calming your mind and relaxing your body. Sweet dreams!

Transcript

Hello,

Beautiful ones.

Welcome to this evening wind down meditation.

You can use this meditation as part of your bedtime routine,

Or you can use it when you're already in bed,

Snuggled down in the covers with your head on the pillow,

Whatever works best for you.

So now find a comfortable position,

Either sitting up or lying down,

Either way so that your body can be supportive comfortably.

And if it feels safe to do so,

Go ahead and close your eyes.

If you're not ready to close your eyes just yet,

Go ahead and soft focus someplace down away from you.

And then just take a nice deep breath in and let it out with a sigh.

And then take another deep breath in.

And as you exhale,

Just allow yourself to let go and to settle into whatever you're sitting or lying upon.

And then breathe in whatever way feels good to you.

And on the inhale,

Bring in peace and serenity.

And on the exhale,

Just allow yourself to release all the cares and the tensions of the day so that as you breathe,

You can become more and more comfortably relaxed.

Breathing in the peace and the comfort.

Breathing out the tightness,

The tension,

The stress.

If you've had a long busy day,

Your mind might have trouble settling.

And that's okay.

Minds like to think and problem solve and run through our day.

But just notice when your mind might be drifting toward that problem solving and just thank it and then bring it back to your breath.

So that with every breath you take,

You can release more and more of your day and settle further and further down into comfort and relaxation.

On the inhale,

Breathing in peace and tranquility.

And on the exhale,

Letting whatever you need to let go of,

Whatever is not serving you,

Let it out with the breath.

Seeing if you can really just focus in on the rhythm of your breath.

You might have to toggle back and forth between noticing the thinking and labeling it and then bringing it back to the breath.

And that's okay.

Do that without judgment or criticism as many times as you need to.

Having gentle compassion for your thinking mind.

And as you begin to settle in and perhaps the thoughts are less frequent and you're spending more time with your breath,

Shift your attention now to your body.

Our bodies store up all that tension and stress and tightness and emotion throughout the day.

Many times we're so busy,

We don't have time to check in and see how we're doing.

And the first time that we've slowed down all day is maybe when we're getting ready for bed or when we're laying our head on the pillow.

So now just check in with your feet,

The bottoms of your feet,

The arches,

The heels,

The toes,

Around to the top of your foot.

How are your feet feeling?

Do you have a job where you stand all day?

Are your feet sore or tired?

Maybe they're tingly or numb.

As you breathe,

Just imagine that you can send the warmth of your breath to your feet.

Then moving into your lower legs,

Your shins,

Your calves,

Up into your knees,

The backs of your thighs and the fronts of your thighs.

Just noticing how your legs feel.

Tired,

Strong and healthy,

Just noticing how they feel and sending the warm nourishment of your breath to any parts of your legs that need a little attention.

And then coming up into your hips and your bottom and up into your low belly and your lower back.

So many times we carry tension in our lower back.

If that's the case for you,

Just sending the warmth of your breath to that area and noticing how your hips and your bottom and your belly feel.

Moving up into your spine and your middle back and your upper back,

Your diaphragm and your chest and your rib cage.

Noticing how your torso feels.

Noticing your hands,

Your fingers,

The palms of your hands,

The backs of your hands,

Up into your wrists.

Hands are very busy during the day.

Send your hands some love for all of the things that they have done today.

And bringing your attention to your forearms and your elbows and up into your upper arms and your armpits and your shoulders.

That particular area,

Your upper back and your shoulders,

That's a place where a lot of people carry tension.

You might want to just move that part of your body around a little bit.

Make sure that your shoulders have a lot of space between them and your ears.

And just sending the warmth of your breath to that area if there's tension or tightness.

Coming up into your neck and your throat,

All the muscles in your jaw and around your ears.

Noticing what your tongue is doing,

Perhaps a gentle swallow and allow it to rest on the floor of your mouth.

Noticing if you're a person who clenches during the day,

Perhaps your jaw and your teeth are sore.

Sending the warmth of your breath to that area.

Coming into your face and the muscles around your nose and your eyes and your forehead.

Coming up into the top of your head,

Your scalp and down to the back of your head.

Just giving your body,

Your whole body a little bit of love and attention.

And now noticing as you quickly scan through if there are any more areas that are tense or tight or stressed.

Sometimes it's only when we pause and we pay attention that we can notice that we were stressed.

And so allowing the breath to soothe and comfort your body.

Releasing,

Unclenching,

Allowing your muscles to become loose and limp so that you can settle on down into whatever you're sitting or lying upon.

And really feeling the support of the chair or the bed underneath you.

And then bringing your attention to your emotional self.

So many emotions that we experience throughout the day.

Sometimes we're aware of them and sometimes we're not.

Sometimes we're so busy doing what it is we're doing,

We don't even notice.

See if you can check in right now.

We often think of carrying our emotions in the area around our heart.

In fact,

Our emotions are all through our body,

But that's kind of where we visualize that we carry our emotional self sometimes.

So just check in with that area.

Perhaps breathing and opening a little bit,

Allowing your chest to rise and your shoulders to fall back.

Opening up that area and seeing what you notice.

What emotions are rocking around in there?

What mood states are you experiencing?

And see if you can make the shift from thinking about the emotions and the feelings to actually feeling them in your body.

Instead of describing them in your mind,

Feel them in your body.

Make space for them.

No judgment or criticism.

Just be curious about how your body is experiencing these emotions.

How does your heart feel?

As you make space for these emotions,

You might notice that they intensify and that's okay.

Or you might notice that they move around in your body.

Or perhaps as you give them the space they need,

They dissipate.

Whatever your experience is the right experience for you.

And if you're new to experiencing emotions in this way,

It can take some getting used to.

So be gentle with yourself.

And now giving yourself permission to come on up to your mind and allow your mind for this one moment to think.

Let it think about whatever it needs to think about.

Try not to engage or get attached.

Just allow the thoughts to pass through your mind like a stream.

A stream of thoughts or images or pictures or sentences just moving through your mind.

Imagining that you can just be sitting on the bank of the stream just watching them all go by.

And maybe as you sit there,

The thoughts get fewer and fewer and you can let them go by and just be content.

And then bringing your attention back to your breathing.

Allowing the attention to the thoughts to just fade into the background and noticing your breathing once again.

You're released whatever is not serving you in this moment.

You've settled your mind and your body.

And if you haven't already crawled into bed and put your head on the pillow,

I encourage you to do that.

Snuggle on down in under the covers and just allow your breath to gently rock you.

The ebb and the fall,

The flow and the ease,

The up and the down.

The stillness and the peace,

The tranquility as you drift off into peaceful slumber.

Sweet dreams.

Namaste.

Reviews

I like meditation in the evening while my thoughts are flown away and is more focused and concentrated on the breath. I feel more relaxed and open in ways unimaginable. I’m glad I started meditating at the beginning of COVID-19.

Very relaxing 🛌