Welcome to your sleep meditation.
As always,
I invite you to find a really cozy position,
Maybe on your side,
Maybe you lie on your back.
Feel free to wiggle around and tuck the blankets underneath your feet.
Maybe there's a little bend of your knees,
And dimming the lights and closing your eyes.
And then to feel a little bit more grounded,
I invite you to take a big breath with me.
So inhaling through the nose,
Filling up the ribcage,
Imagining your belly swelling with air,
And then open your mouth wide and let it go.
Doing that another time,
Big inhale,
Fill up,
Expand,
And then open your mouth,
Let it go.
Doing this one more time,
Big inhale,
Stretch open through the breath,
Through your lungs,
Through your belly,
Hold slightly,
And then let it go.
Sinking down,
Letting effort just slide from your muscles,
Your tendons and your joints.
All the effort that is spent keeping you up and agile throughout your day,
Whether that be sitting,
Whether that be running around after kids,
Being active,
Just let that effort go.
And as you start to find more awareness of your body,
Kind of shedding everything that's happened today and in your week,
Starting to draw your awareness closer towards the inner world,
Maybe noticing your breath,
The movement of your chest,
And then you might notice your heartbeat.
Leaning in closer still,
Maybe you start to feel the blood pulse through your fingertips and your toes,
The inner workings of your body working oh so hard,
So consistently.
And if you're anything like me and your mind has wandered away already and you're thinking of something else that's not to do with the present,
Bring yourself back here,
Watching the rise and fall of your chest,
Maybe in this stillness,
Your breath starts to even out.
And letting any expression that's on your face just wash away.
So there's a little bit of slack in the jaw,
A smoothing out of the forehead,
A softening of the eyes.
And then we're going to enter into a progressive muscle relaxation practice.
And this is something that you can do whenever you're feeling anxious,
If you have excess energy,
Or to help you fall asleep.
And sometimes it might be helpful to do this from your back,
But you're also welcome to stay exactly as you are.
And we'll start down at the feet,
Starting to activate your toes,
Scrunching them in.
You might find a little bit of curling through the arch of your foot,
Find tension there.
Both feet,
Activate,
Curl in,
And then inhale.
And on your exhale,
Let that go.
All tensions released.
Good,
And then we'll work our way up the legs.
So squeezing the calves and your knees.
So this takes a little bit of effort to imagine your calves and your knees kind of activating,
Pulling energy into that area of the body.
Take an inhale,
And then soften and let that go.
And then working our way up to the thighs.
You can clench your glutes at the same time,
Activate,
Feel the muscles pull in,
Big breath in,
And soften,
Let that go.
Take a couple breaths here,
Noticing how your legs feel,
The lower body.
And then we'll work our way to the abdomen.
So starting to kind of activate through the low belly.
Your low belly draws in towards the spine,
Kind of squeezing around the pelvis,
Your mula bandha,
If that is something you are aware of,
That lock,
That energy lock,
And then let it go.
And then we'll work our way up towards the chest.
So there's a clenching in of the shoulders,
A rolling forward of the shoulders,
Feeling the shoulder blades wrap around your back body.
Clench here,
Draw even your upper arms in close to you,
Take a breath,
And exhale,
Let it go.
Soften.
Nice,
And then we will take our awareness to our arms.
So you can bend at your elbows,
Squeeze the upper arms,
Your triceps,
Your biceps,
And then bend the elbows,
You might squeeze your forearms in.
Take a breath,
And then soften,
Let it go.
Yeah,
Release all the tension.
And then we'll curl the fingers in towards the palms.
The thumbs can clench on top.
Make those fists clench,
Clench,
Clench,
Activate.
Take a breath,
And then let it go.
Yeah,
Soften,
Let that all release.
Notice your arms.
And then we'll pull our awareness up towards our shoulders.
You can push the shoulders up towards the ears,
Activate through your neck,
Your collarbones.
So whatever that means to you,
You can again bring some activity into the arms.
Take a breath,
Soften,
Shoulders slide down,
Let it go.
And then bringing the awareness to the palms,
Shoulders slide down,
Let it go.
And then bringing the awareness to the face,
Closing those eyes if they were slightly open.
Scrunch your cheeks,
You can clench your jaw.
Push the tongue to the top of the mouth,
Clench,
Take a breath in,
And let it go.
Soften,
Nice.
Feeling the body lying here.
Bigger parts of the body this time.
Taking the awareness to both of your legs,
Clenching from glutes,
Thighs,
Calves,
Feet.
Take a breath in.
Soften,
Let it go.
Bring your awareness to your torso,
Your shoulders,
Your belly.
Clench it all in,
Contract,
Squeeze.
Take a breath,
And let it go.
Yeah,
Let it go,
Get heavy.
And then both your arms,
You can bend at your elbows,
Activate through the upper arms,
The forearms,
And then clench your hands.
Take a breath,
Clench,
Clench,
Clench.
And then release.
Good,
And then we'll work with the shoulders and the face at the same time so the shoulders can rise up.
Fence your jaw,
Tongue to the top of your mouth.
Squeeze the eyes,
Take a breath here.
Let it go.
Good,
Your whole body released of all that tension.
Notice how you feel.
Notice your breath.
Notice the stillness of your body,
The beautiful weight sinking down further as you are supported by the earth,
Fully and completely.
And keep breathing here,
In and out of the nose.
Keep softening in,
And keep letting go.
