Nighttime meditation.
Just making sure that everything is settled for the night.
And you can take this time now to focus on this meditation and preparing your body and mind to sleep.
Perhaps making sure the lights are off,
All the screens are turned away so that no light is reaching you.
Once you find a comfortable position,
You may like to gently close your eyes and take a few long deep breaths in and out.
This meditation is designed to help you sleep,
Relaxing the body and mind and entering into your natural sleep rhythm.
On the exhale,
See if you can release any tension present in the body as we begin this nighttime meditation.
If you find the mind wanders off onto thoughts about your day,
Today,
Thoughts about tomorrow,
Just gently guiding back to the focus of the breath and giving yourself the time and space to return your attention to the body and breath.
With a lovely big exhale,
Let your body be taken by the gravity and sink deeper and deeper into your bed.
Nowhere to go,
Nothing to change,
Nothing to be achieved,
But allowing the body to rest,
Opening up the senses,
Tasting in the mouth,
Smell the aroma of the room you're in,
And listening to the sounds in your environment,
Noticing where the sheets touch your skin and savoring the softness of your pillow.
Bed sheets and the softness of your body.
The touch of the skin,
The warmth,
The touch of your clothes,
Noticing how it feels to be in the moment,
The touch of your clothes,
Noticing how it feels,
And simply just paying attention to those sensations,
Whose feelings in the body.
Perhaps setting your intention for this practice,
What is your deepest heartfelt desire?
Perhaps even thinking about it like it's a seed that you're planting into your sleep and dreams deep in your subconscious mind.
Bringing your focus to the breath and allowing it to be a light,
Gentle and not too controlled,
Allowing yourself to just be breathed,
Relaxing into being breathed,
Noticing the waves of respiration ebbing and flowing through your body,
Feeling the awareness of your tide of breathing,
And notice how it can mirror the awareness of your day and how the day flows into night.
Bringing your attention to your toes,
Wiggle each toe and let it come into stillness and rest.
Let your legs be stretched out and feel into the muscles,
The flesh and the bones.
Perhaps noticing the sensations that are there,
They might be prickly or soft,
They might be aching or relaxed,
Just allowing whatever's there to be there.
And perhaps even using the breath as a way to release any tensions that might be present.
If the mind gets caught up in thoughts about your day,
Notice it and gently guiding back to the felt sense in the legs,
Knowing that there will be more time for thinking tomorrow.
But right now,
You're relaxing the body,
Calming the mind and preparing for sleep.
Bringing a sense of gratitude to the body,
On the inhale breathing that gratitude into each part of the body and allowing it to exhale,
Soften and release.
Expanding the attention to the groin,
The pelvic bowl,
All the organs encased in the pelvic bowl,
Breathing into and allowing them to be relaxed on the exhale.
Expanding the awareness of the stomach region and softening the stomach muscles,
Letting go and allowing them to relax.
And at the same time,
Noticing the body sinking deeper and deeper into the bed.
Perhaps seeing the breath is almost like a massage on the inside.
Gently and kindly massaging out all the tensions from the day.
Expanding through to the stomach region,
Noticing any gut feelings that might be there and just allowing them.
Nothing to do differently.
Just allowing the body to relax and relax.
Moving your attention up to the chest,
The heart and lung region,
Breathing more deeply into the chest and noticing the gentle expansion of the chest cavity as you inhale and exhale.
Noticing each body part in turn,
Letting any thoughts just float away while remaining present with the body.
Relaxing and letting all tensions go,
Sinking deeper and deeper into the bed or wherever you're resting.
Being grateful for the heart and all the work it does pumping blood throughout your body.
Letting it soften,
Opening like a flower,
Be gentle and rhythmic with the breath.
Noticing the tone around the heart muscle,
Any feelings that might be present.
And if you can just allowing whatever's there to be there with a gentleness and a kindness and just a light holding,
A holding of your attention in the heart region.
Scanning through the back,
Feeling into the stretch,
Feeling into the stretch and strength of the back,
The spine,
And coming around,
Noticing the rib cage and letting the lungs breathe into the full chest area,
Releasing the tensions on the exhale.
Moving through the arms now and just allowing them to fall into the mattress,
Letting the weight of gravity take them,
Allowing them to be relaxed,
Letting the mind be still and the awareness to be within the body,
Resting and preparing for sleep.
All thoughts floating like clouds in the sky of awareness.
Noticing the head getting heavier,
The face softening with the breath,
The eyes becoming still and the mind settling.
Allowing this sensation of heaviness in the body and allowing the mind to become light,
Like you're letting go,
Letting the mind slowly dissolve.
Noticing the experience of the body now as it settles and just allowing being to be your state.
Nothing more to do,
Nothing more to get and nowhere to go.
Having let go of any time or space and just noticing what's here remaining in the body.
Letting yourself fall back into the heart and body and just staying with a steady breath,
Allowing yourself to fall deeper and deeper into rest.
