Hello,
My name is Maya Raine.
Thank you for joining me for this sleep meditation.
Tonight we will go through the process of relaxing and easing the mind in order to gain deeper,
Better quality,
And more easeful sleep.
Go ahead and settle into your bed,
Maybe using pillows to support under your knees or to curl around,
Finding as much support in your bed as you can to feel comfortable,
To feel nurtured and caressed.
Once you're there,
Begin to melt,
Melt into the bed,
Into your mattress deeper,
Breathing slower,
Finding places of tension and with loving awareness allow them to become heavy on your body.
As they become heavy,
They slowly melt and shift with your exhales.
As you inhale,
Find centering and peace somewhere inside yourself,
Maybe resting your awareness at your heart space or in between your eyebrows at your third eye point or somewhere else that feels spacious and welcoming.
We will do a body scan.
Find any places of ease and any places of tension.
As we do this,
Imagine that your inhale is a beautiful soft light traveling to whichever place you are putting your awareness in that moment.
As you exhale,
Imagine a dark,
Heavier light releasing,
Exhaling from your body and dissipating into neutrality in the room around you.
As this dark light leaves your body,
The place where it was stored becomes lighter and replenished with the light of your inhale.
Breathing in now and imagining your awareness starting at the tip of your toes,
Inhaling radiant light into your toes and exhaling out any tension that might be stored there.
Moving up to your feet,
Your ankles,
Your calves and shins,
Your knees,
Your thighs,
Around your hips,
Your pelvis,
And your tailbone,
Into your lower abdomen and lower back,
Up into your solar plexus and your mid-back,
Your chest,
Upper back,
Shoulders,
Down into your upper arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Wrists,
Hands,
Fingers,
Back to your shoulders,
Your throat and neck,
Jaw,
Back of your head,
Ears,
Mouth,
Nose,
Eyes,
Forehead,
And entire.
Breathing into this space of full body awareness without grasping onto any of it.
Continue this flow of light and light on your inhale and this easeful release on your exhale.
If your mind is still feeling active,
The remainder of this meditation is going to be relaxing music that you can listen to.
I encourage a practice that I use for myself quite often when my mind is not as ready for sleep as I'd like it to be.
Similar to counting sheep,
It's a task for your mind to do that doesn't take any real effort,
But just a refocusing whenever your mind begins to drift.
So if this feels like something you need,
I invite you to begin at zero and count your way up to 100,
Slowly counting with your breath.
If at any point you lose count,
You forget what number you're on,
Simply restart from the beginning,
Not allowing it to be frustration,
But realizing that if you lost count,
It means that you are getting closer to sleep.
If you make it all the way to 100,
Go ahead and restart again at zero,
Doing this as many times as you need.
For me,
Sometimes I lose count by 30 and drift off,
Sometimes I count through 100 three times.
Wherever you are,
Continuing to use the counting as a way of measuring your breathing and a way of refocusing your thoughts when they wander,
Bringing you closer and closer to the depth of sleep.
I will leave you here now with this practice and this ease.
Thank you and I hope you come back and join me again soon.
