Hello and welcome to tonight's practice.
I invite you to come and sit on the edge of your bed,
Finding a comfy position,
Your feet flat to the floor,
Shoulders back and down.
I'm starting to tune in to how you're feeling right now.
How are you feeling physically?
Are there any areas of tension or tightness in your body right now?
Are there any areas of lightness?
Of softness?
What energy is present for you?
What sensations?
Not doing anything to change how you feel or to analyse,
Find reasons why or tell yourself stories.
Just noticing what is there and being with it as it is.
And then bringing your awareness to your breath.
Again,
Not doing anything to change your breath.
Just noticing the presence of each inhale and each exhale.
Maybe noticing the frequency of your breath,
The depth.
If you've had a really busy day,
This might be the first chance you've had to tune in with your breath to bring your awareness to it.
So enjoying that moment,
That connection.
And then we'll gently start to make inhales a little bit deeper and exhales a little bit longer.
Building up the breath till we're taking full,
Deep breaths in and out.
So no rush to get there,
Take your time.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath out.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath out.
And now feel your feet on the floor.
Maybe you lift your toes and give them a little wiggle and release them back down.
And if there were any areas of tension,
Tightness,
Any pockets of stagnant energy from the day,
Can you feel those areas start to move down towards your feet?
A flow of energy down towards your feet and out into the floor,
The ground,
The earth.
A few rounds of breath releasing off the day,
Letting anything that needs to be let go of release down through the feet.
And in this place,
Maybe you feel yourself drawing up grounding,
Steadying energies from the earth.
Releasing down any stagnant,
Tension,
Tightness and drawing up a loving,
Grounding,
Steadying energy from the earth.
Now bringing your awareness to your shoulders,
Your neck.
On the next inhale,
Squeeze your shoulders up towards your ears,
Take a deep breath in.
And then as you exhale,
Sigh out,
Let your shoulders drop right down.
Repeat that a few more times.
So squeezing the shoulders up towards the ears on the inhale,
This may also make your face squeeze a little too,
And then release,
Drop down on your exhale.
Feel any weight or tension in the shoulders,
Let go as you drop them.
One more time,
Squeezing in,
Big inhale.
And then exhale,
Release,
Sigh down,
Let them release,
Let them drop.
Feeling any tension,
Any weight from the day,
Any thoughts still lingering,
Drop from your shoulders while you continue to draw that steadying,
Loving,
Calming energy from the earth through your feet.
You are here now.
And however the day has been for you,
Whether it's been a great day or not so great day,
It's time to let it go and let yourself get ready for a peaceful night's sleep.
When you feel ready to do so,
Lie back on your bed and get comfortable.
Feel the points of contact between you and your mattress.
Feel your head supported by your pillow.
Bring your awareness to your feet again.
Feeling your heels supported by your comfortable bed.
Does your awareness bring any other sensation with it?
Now start to switch on all the muscles in your feet.
Taking a deep breath in,
Curl your toes in,
Feel your ankles lock with energy,
And then exhale,
Let go,
Release,
Let your feet relax.
Inhale,
Switch on,
Curl the toes in,
Activate into the feet,
And then exhale,
Soften,
Let your feet go and relax.
Now your calf muscles.
Squeeze and activate just the calf muscles.
Feel them tighten with tension,
And then exhale,
Let them soften,
Let them release.
Inhale,
Squeeze the calf muscles.
Exhale,
Release,
And let go.
Now bring your awareness to your thighs.
Inhale and squeeze and grip into the thigh muscles,
Activating into the glutes as well.
Feel them clench,
And then exhale and soften.
Let all the tension dissolve.
Inhale and squeeze and tighten and grip,
And then exhale,
Soften and dissolve.
Now both your legs from the toes to the hips.
Inhale and squeeze and activate and tighten,
And then exhale and release.
One more time,
Tightening on your inhale,
Squeezing,
And then exhale,
Release,
And soften.
Again,
Feeling any trapped energy.
Release and let go on each exhale.
Now bring your awareness to your tummy.
Notice any sensations in your tummy right now.
Any gurgling,
Grumbling,
Rumblings,
All those natural noises that we make.
On your next inhale,
Starting to activate your abdominals,
Pull your tummy in towards your spine,
Tense and squeeze and hold,
And then exhale,
Release.
Let your tummy soften,
Let it relax.
One more time,
Inhale,
Hold your tummy in,
And then exhale,
Let your tummy soften.
Letting it just be.
Bring your awareness to your fingers.
Curling each finger in towards the palm,
Wrapping the thumbs around.
Inhale and start to tense into the hands,
The forearms up towards triceps and biceps.
Squeezing that energy,
And then exhale,
Release and soften the arms and hands.
And again,
Squeezing into fingers and arms.
Exhale,
Release,
And soften.
Now the shoulders.
Inhale,
Either squeeze the shoulders up to the ears like before or bringing the shoulder blades together.
Exhale,
Release and soften.
Inhale,
Squeezing in loads of tension in the shoulders,
And then exhale,
Release and soften.
Now bringing your awareness to your face.
Start to squeeze your eyelids together,
Push your lips,
Make a funny face as you pull everything in,
Squeeze everything tightly,
And then exhale,
Let go.
Inhale,
Squeezing in,
And then exhale,
Release and soften all the muscles in the face and the jaw.
We're going to inhale,
Switching on every single muscle in the body,
Everywhere we've already touched on,
Squeeze and tense and hold it in,
And then exhale,
Feel everything melt and dissolve.
Inhale,
Engage and switch everything on last time,
And then exhale,
Release,
Feel everything release and let go.
Bring your awareness back towards your breath.
Smooth,
Easy breath.
Deep breath in,
And deep breath out.
Deep breath in,
And deep breath out.
However today was for you.
It's now over,
And it's time to get a peaceful night's sleep.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
