Welcome to this bedtime gratitude guided meditation.
In this practice we'll acknowledge the ups and downs of the day before cultivating feelings of gratitude for what we've encountered that will help us settle in to a restful night of sleep.
I recommend doing this practice sitting up in bed as the last thing you do before settling into sleep.
So make your way please into a seated position and feel upright but not tense.
Sip in a slow and deep breath and exhale with a sigh.
Take another breath in that fills up from belly to ribs to chest and exhale through your mouth again.
Take another full breath in and see if you can take twice as long to release your next exhale.
Return to breathing naturally and release any tension you're holding in your hips or your legs.
Soften your shoulders and relax all of the tiny muscles in your face and around your eyes.
Can you bring a small lift to the corners of your mouth?
Rest your hands with your palms facing down on your thighs and notice the calming grounding nature of this position.
Review your day in your mind from the moment you woke up this morning through to this moment right now and allow yourself to acknowledge any difficulties you had,
Any moments,
Experiences or emotions that were challenging.
Allow yourself to acknowledge these moments without judgment or getting into the story of them.
Rather than dwelling on the negative aspect of these challenges can you consider what you have already learned or might learn from these difficulties?
Can you orientate towards the strength,
Resilience,
Insight or wisdom you may gain from each situation?
Take a deep breath in and sigh out all of those difficult moments of your day.
Let them go.
Soften your hips and your shoulders and your jaw if any tension has crept in.
Turn your palms up now so the backs of your hands rest on your thighs and feel how this gesture invites you to an open and receptive space.
Now assess your day again acknowledging moments of contentment.
Reflect on moments that brought joy or peace today no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.
With your next breath in you begin to feel the swell of gratitude in your heart and exhale naturally,
Easily.
Think now of three things that you're grateful for today.
These things could come from your difficult experiences,
They can come from your positive experiences,
They could come from interactions with people,
From nature or from moments of self-awareness.
I invite you to take one of these things you're grateful for and go into detail about why you're thankful,
Why you're grateful for this experience,
This insight or person or emotion.
And this may be done by way of description to yourself or you may just picture the object of your gratitude and feel the intensity of your feelings increase.
Now there's one more important element of gratitude to explore.
Please take your hands and place them one over the other on the center of your chest over your energetic heart space and thank yourself for your strength,
For your wisdom,
For your ability to learn and grow,
For your capacity for compassion and love and of course for taking this time to reflect and orientate towards gratitude.
Feel gratitude for yourself in your heart.
Still with a heart full of gratitude,
Place your hands together in a prayer position in front of your heart and take three easy breaths just watching your inhale and your exhale.
You can release your hands and with as much ease as possible turn everything off and settle down into your bed.
Wishing you a deeply restorative night's sleep.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you feel safe and may you sleep peacefully.
Good night.
