Drifting To Sleep

As you settle in for either a mid day nap or for your evening's rest, prepare your body and mind for deep sleep. Follow through a whole body scan to soften your body and rest in the natural rhythm of your breath.

Transcript

As you settle into sleep,

Start to lengthen your breath,

Especially focusing on the breath out.

With each exhalation,

Allow your body to become heavier,

To soften into whatever it's resting on.

Use each breath out to release everything that came before,

All the tension,

The fatigue,

All the holding,

And instead,

Allowing yourself to be held.

Start to notice the breath enter your nose and go to the space between your eyebrows.

As you exhale,

Soften your whole face as you sense the breath leaving the space between the eyebrows and exiting the nose.

Imagine the weight of a warm washcloth resting on your face,

Releasing any tension in the eyes,

The space behind the ears,

And your jaw.

Allow your tongue to rest naturally as the corners of your mouth widen.

Again,

Imagine that warm washcloth as you soften once again and a little more deeply.

Now allow that softening to ripple into the rest of the body.

Sense your throat widening and filling up the whole space of your neck.

Rest your shoulders,

Your arms,

Your hands and fingers.

Find a resting in your toes and your feet.

Relax your ankles all the way up to your thighs and glutes.

Release any tension in the back and invite a softness into your belly and an openness into your heart.

Rest the whole right side of your body and rest the whole left side of your body.

Rest the top half of your body.

Rest the bottom half of your body.

Soften the front plane of your body and soften the back plane of your body.

With each breath in,

Sense your body become more expansive.

With each breath out,

Sense your body become more heavy.

Continue to rest in this softness as you allow yourself to drift to sleep.