Hello and welcome to this guided meditation.
My name is Laya and I'm very glad that you have chosen to take a few minutes out of your evening to set a clear demarcation of where your workday ends and the winding down toward rest and sleep begins.
Take a few moments to find a place where you can sit down or lie down and for a few moments make yourself as comfortable as you possibly can.
Whether you're seated or reclined,
Are there any pillows that you can grab that will allow you to make yourself more comfortable?
You want to make yourself warmer or cooler and eventually you want to have found the ideal place for this meditation.
Take a moment to wiggle any stickiness in your body and eventually come to stillness.
Soften your gaze or close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose,
Into your belly,
Your ribcage,
Your chest,
Perhaps hold at the top,
Open your mouth and let it all the way out.
Notice how it is that you arrive into this space this evening.
Let's take a moment to recap the day.
Take it all the way back to the beginning of your day.
Notice you can recall the moment where your alarm rang or your eyes naturally opened.
And as you bring yourself back to the beginning of your day and start to move through it as if it was a movie,
You can pay attention to the events that happened,
The things that you did,
Places you went,
People you interacted with.
But see if you can shift your attention a little bit more toward how you felt through your day.
Perhaps you recall a few relevant moments where you felt scattered or distracted or perhaps you were angry or things did not go exactly how you wanted them to go.
And again,
Just focus on the feelings and the emotions more than on the actions and the events themselves.
Recall as well the parts of your day or the moments of your day where you felt grounded or present.
Perhaps you felt joy or gratitude.
Maybe there were moments where things went exactly to plan or you felt like the universe had your back.
Very slowly start to arrive to the present moment.
Inhale through your nose.
Fill up your belly,
Your rib cage,
Your chest.
Let it out through your nose or your mouth.
Observe your physical body as it is in this moment.
Recognizing that the physical sensations that you are able to observe now perhaps are related to how you felt through your day,
The amount of movement versus stillness that you found in your day.
Do you notice any tension anywhere in particular?
Can you notice any spaces where you find a bit more openness?
Inhale through your nose.
Exhale through your nose or mouth as your body perhaps softens just a bit.
Inhale deeply.
Let it go.
Begin to attune to the cadence and the rhythm of your breath.
And consider if perhaps allowing your inhale to be a little bit longer,
A little bit deeper,
A little more expansive serves you.
And maybe allow your exhale to also be a little bit longer,
A little bit deeper until there's no more air left within.
Inhale to expand.
Exhale to soften.
Noticing your body.
Noticing your breath.
Starting to pay attention to how you feel.
Begin to shift your attention toward your thinking mind.
Perhaps there's a little bit of space for you to take a step back and instead of fully engaging with what is going on in your mind,
You begin to pay attention to how you speak to yourself.
What kind of words show up in your mind when you recall the experiences and the occurrences of the day?
Do you find yourself speaking to yourself and about yourself harshly with anger,
With discontent?
Negatively perhaps?
Or do you find the thoughts to be nurturing,
Loving,
Compassionate,
Uplifting?
There is nothing that you need to do here to change what is going on in your mind.
The invitation is to recognize that the mind does what the mind does and that every moment with every breath you have a choice to engage or to let that thought pass by.
So notice your capacity for letting your thoughts simply pass by without having any judgment or opinions about the thought,
Without giving hierarchy to one thought over another,
Focusing more on the space between one thought and the next where stillness and presence truly happen.
Inhale deeply through your nose.
Let it go.
Deep breath in.
Sigh it out.
Breathe in and breathe out.
And as you notice for a few more moments how it is that you have arrived to the end of your day,
What the effects of the happenings and the choices in your body,
Your mind,
Your energy,
The way in which you feel.
And from this place of awareness whether you are ready for bed or you still have a few things to do before the rest that comes with night time,
Perhaps you take a moment to ask yourself how it is that you want to feel.
Setting an intention for your evening,
Perhaps starting to create an intention for tomorrow.
It can be as vague or as specific as you'd like.
Just consider how it is that you would like to feel.
What kind of energy would you like to embody?
Inhale deeply.
Let it go.
Bring your palms together in front of your heart.
Gently bow your head and take a moment of gratitude for your day,
For everything that happened that brought you joy,
For everything that happened that brought you pain or discomfort,
Gratitude for your ability to move through life with awareness,
With intention,
Gratitude for the time of rest right before you,
An opportunity to let go of it,
To start anew with a new day.
Deep breath in through your nose.
Let it go.
I hope that you have a calm,
Restful,
Restoring evening.
Thank you.
Be well.
