Welcome to the Be Awake series of CDs geared to help you with living a more full,
Healthy and happy life.
This CD aims to help those who have sleep difficulties.
Although the heart of mindfulness practice is about waking up and being present to the moment,
Mindfulness practice can also be useful for those who are struggling with insomnia.
In this busy world,
Many of us may find times when it's difficult to fall asleep.
Often we may become used to bypassing our feelings of tiredness and losing touch with our capacity to fall asleep with ease.
Luckily,
Mindfulness meditation can help us to be more in touch with ourselves and can help us to either fall asleep or to get the rest we need.
Although there may be physical reasons why we might struggle to sleep,
Often sleep problems occur when our minds are busy with thoughts.
At night,
When we've slowed down,
We might become more present to anxiety or concerns that we might have about the past or the future.
As the mind becomes agitated,
The body often tenses up.
We try to fall asleep but we cannot.
So I invite you to use your time at night in a different way.
Rather than turning away from the feelings and thoughts that might be keeping you up,
We will direct our attention towards what is happening in the territory of mind and body.
Once we have spent time in this way,
We can go to sleep more easily and get more of the rest we need.
Or we might find that we fall asleep sometime during the body scan and if that's the case for you,
Enjoy.
The body scan.
The body scan is a practice of exploring the mind and body as it is.
So treat this as precious time with yourself,
Bringing kind awareness to you just as you are.
You can do the body scan either sitting up or lying down.
Make yourself comfortable.
Make sure your body is warm and welcome yourself into this special time.
As you settle in,
Take a few moments to feel your body.
Are you holding tightly or are you relaxed?
Can you just observe and let whatever you find be?
Suggest to yourself that this is time to slow down and to attune to the world of sensations and experiences that arise in your body.
Get an intention to just allow your experience to unfold without making anything happen.
And now bring awareness to your belly.
Notice if you can feel the movement of your belly as it expands with your in-breath and deflates with your out-breath.
Become present to each breath,
Taking life one breath at a time.
If you find your mind is wandering,
You can gently bring your attention back to the belly,
Following the waves of your breath as best you can.
Now when you are ready,
In whatever way feels right for you,
Bringing your attention to the soles of your feet.
Notice any sensations that are there to be felt.
Because of temperature,
Texture,
Tingling or even numbness,
There is no need to judge or analyze what you might find.
Just taking this time to be present to the soles of your feet as they are.
Feel and notice with curiosity.
Moving that attention now into the heels and the tops of the feet.
Again just sensing what is there to be felt.
Now seldom we have the time to just feel our way into our own bodies.
Take time now to sense the toes as they are.
Can you feel the individual toes?
Notice spaces between the toes?
Feeling the feet as a whole,
Notice how heavy your feet are as you release them to the ground.
Are your feet the same temperature?
Do you notice any pulsing or tingling sensations?
Moving your attention now into an awareness of your ankles.
Feeling into these precious joints of the body,
Perhaps valuing the work that they have done for you during the day today.
You don't have to go into a whole big story about this in the mind,
But rather just feeling that sense of appreciation and kindness for the ankles.
Bringing your awareness now into the lower legs.
Breathing with and feeling the waves of sensations in the calves and the shins.
Can you let this moment be as it is?
And now bringing your attention into the region of your knees,
Another incredible joint of the body.
You might find in particular parts of the body pockets of tension.
And that's fine,
We can either just soften into those sensations or just let them be as they are,
Learning to breathe with things as they unfold.
And now shifting your attention into the region from the knees up to the hips.
And now,
Being mindful of sensations in this part of the body as they arise and pass.
We can notice the nature of how things change as we bring deep inquiry into the sensations of our body.
Are they solid?
Do they shift and change?
And now noticing the entirety of your legs.
As you hold the entirety of your legs in your awareness,
You might sense your capacity to soften,
To just be.
Moving now into the region of the hips and the pelvic girdle.
Perhaps aware of the systems of elimination and reproduction.
Moving into the central point of the body.
If you notice from time to time that your mind has wandered off,
No need to worry about this phenomenon.
The nature of the mind is to wander and with mindfulness,
Whenever we can,
We notice this and return our attention to the present moment.
Feeling into the region of the back now.
Fear of the structure of your spine that keeps you upright during the day.
Notice the places where the spine meets the support beneath you.
Notice how the undulations of the spine give shape and support to your whole structure.
Can you feel the muscles surrounding the spine?
And now expanding your awareness outwards from the spine to include the whole of the lower back,
The mid-back and the upper back.
You might like to allow those muscles of the spine and the back to relax.
Bringing the attention now into the abdominal region.
What is happening in the region of your belly and you feel the movement of the breath?
Imagine someone placing a round smooth stone on your belly.
How does that change the speed and depth of your breath?
Can you sense perhaps how your breath bathes the organs,
Tissues and cells of this part of your body?
Moving your attention now to the upper chest.
You might like to imagine a warm smooth stone now at the region of your chest.
Seeing,
Sensing the rhythm of your breath in this part of the body.
You might notice the region of your ribs and how they move with your breath.
And as you allow your attention to rest in the region of the chest,
You might like to bring a sense of appreciation to the organs of the lungs and the heart.
You might notice how the chambers of your lungs are constantly helping you as they absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide.
And you might notice how your heart pumps nutrients into your whole body.
Feeling into your shoulders now,
Are they tight or relaxed?
Is one heavier than the other?
Simply bringing that awareness down both arms into the hands and the fingers.
Being open to and receiving sensations of tingling,
Temperature,
Pulsation in the region of the arms and the hands.
And now embracing the region of the neck and the throat with your awareness.
Can you hear your breath as it moves through the throat?
Are the muscles of the neck soft and relaxed?
And as your awareness moves now into the region of your face,
Take some time to feel into the jawbone.
Is it hanging freely?
Can you soften into this area?
Moving attention now into the region of the cheekbones and then feeling and sensing the area of the temples.
You don't have to worry if your mind has wandered from time to time.
Being gentle with yourself as you return your attention.
This time being aware of the eyes,
The space between the eyes,
The eyebrows,
The forehead.
Suggest to yourself that you can just allow the whole of your face to be as it is.
Allow the eyeballs to just rest into their sockets.
Let the eyes be heavy.
Imagine if you like your eyes relaxing like two stones dropping into a calm,
Clear lake.
And now feeling the back of the head,
Feeling the weight of your head.
As you do so,
Can you sense the miraculous organ of your brain?
You might like to spend some time now noticing the mind and the thoughts that arise and fall.
So allow thoughts to come and go as you notice them,
Not getting caught up into the stream of thinking,
But observing the territory of thoughts as one might observe clouds passing in the vast blue skies.
Now,
Become aware of your whole body once again,
Staying open to all thoughts,
Sensations,
And emotions.
You have spent time cultivating kindness and friendliness towards your mind and body.
Trust that you have honored yourself in a special way,
That there are many ways to restore and nourish our bodies.
Spending time in mindful meditation as you have just done is deeply restoring for mind and body.
So allow yourself to hold yourself in the special and replenishing way and to thank yourself for doing so.
If you like,
You can send kindness and compassion to yourself,
To all others in your life,
And perhaps to all those struggling to sleep tonight.
Trust that you are being held now by the heart of the world.
You are being held now by the heart of the world.
You you you you you Here are some suggestions for self-care from time to time check in with yourself during the day notice if you're feeling your breath Remember that life is not a journey of being perfect it's a journey of just experiencing the moments of our lives as they unfold the richness of all the moments Practice coming to your breath or feeling your body in all moments like when you're driving or standing in the bank queue.
Communication with others is often a source of stress or anxiety Treat your interactions as you would a meditation be mindful of breath body and thoughts Be present to those around you give the gift of your presence as you listen See if you can be mindful on a daily basis of what you take into your body caffeine,
Noise,
Media,
Negativity,
Pollution.
How do these affect you?
Above all practice compassion kindness and non-judgment to yourself Life is a learning curve not a race Make sure you take time on a daily basis to nourish yourself in this way So So So So So So So So So So So So So So So So
