Welcome to the insomnia meditation.
I created this meditation for those moments when you are struggling to sleep,
Whether you are struggling to fall asleep or have found yourself awake in the middle of the night.
If you are laying awake in bed and find that your mind has been so busy that you can't yet fall asleep or fall back to sleep,
I first recommend that you take a moment and get up from your bed,
Walk into another room,
Grab a drink of water and return back to your bed.
The reason for doing this is to ensure that you aren't training your brain that the bed is where you start thinking or worrying or planning for tomorrow.
It's important to train the brain that the bed is for rest only.
So once you've returned back to the room and back to bed,
I invite you to get comfortable and close your eyes.
The intention of this meditation is to let go of your busy mind,
Your worries and your thoughts.
The intention is to enter the present moment and know that you're only focused right now.
The only thing that needs to be done is to rest and to sleep.
Everything else can wait.
Throughout the meditation,
I invite you to have an attitude of letting go and acceptance.
Letting go of everything that happened today.
Letting go of everything that's happened in the past.
Letting go of future plans.
Accepting that there is nothing to be done in this moment but just be present.
Even accepting that you're awake.
Accepting that you might be frustrated in this moment.
That you wish you were asleep.
Letting go of the struggle and accept that you will simply fall asleep when you fall asleep.
Any emotions or feelings or frustrations that are coming up,
Simply just accept everything as it is in this moment.
Accepting that it is simply a small moment in the bigger scheme of things.
Everything passes by.
I invite you now to take some slow grounding breaths.
And with every inhale and exhale,
Envision your grounding into the body.
If visualizations are possible for you,
You may wish to envision you're a large tree.
And the roots of the tree are holding you into the bed.
You may feel the body getting heavier and heavier with every breath.
You may wish to see if you can imagine the breath is traveling all the way to your feet and then all the way to the top of your head.
Feeling the breath filling your whole body.
Continuing to breathe without trying to force or change anything.
Just fall into a natural breathing pattern that is right for you in this moment.
I've mentioned already that you might have a busy mind,
Which is very common.
It might be the very reason you've been laying awake in bed.
And in this meditation and all meditations,
It's important to remember that it's very normal to have thoughts.
It's very normal for your mind to wander.
In this meditation,
We're just trying to slow down our thoughts and let them go and let them pass by.
And so every time you feel your mind wandering,
Gently and simply return your attention back to your breath.
Simply moving your focus away from your thoughts and back to your breath.
And again,
Imagining that the breath is circulating all the way to your toes and all the way back to the top of your head.
Right now you might notice some soft sounds in the distance or hear sounds loud and close to you.
And like mind wandering,
Just acknowledge any sounds that you hear.
Let them pass by.
Let them float into the distance and away from you.
So I invite you now to turn your attention back to your breath and continuing to breathe in a natural breathing pattern that is right for you in this moment.
Imagining the breath is circulating throughout your whole body,
Down to your toes and all the way up to the top of your head.
And if you notice that the mind has begun to wander,
Just gently returning your attention back to the breath.
You might also like to practice letting the thoughts go.
So I invite you to imagine you're standing at the top of a river and the water is beneath you,
Flowing away from you downstream.
Watch the water as it runs past your ankles and away from you,
Far into the distance.
The end of the river is so far away you can't even see it.
Just standing at the top of the river and continuing to breathe.
If you notice you have a thought drop into your head,
Envision you're taking that thought and placing it in the river in front of you and watch as the thought drifts away from you and leaves your mind.
Maybe at first you find you have a few thoughts to place in the river,
So go ahead and let them all drop into the water and drift away.
All you need to do in this moment is continue to breathe and all your thoughts drift away from you down the river.
This meditation will finish on its own and you will have long fallen asleep.
All that matters in this moment is your breathing.
There's nothing on your list to do,
No thoughts need to be taken care of.
You just need to be present in this moment.
Just continuing this practice for as long as you need.
Continuing to breathe and taking as long as you need to fall asleep.
Express gratitude to yourself for doing your best,
For letting go of your thoughts and entering in the present moment as you drift off to sleep.
