This guided meditation will help to settle you.
Into a deep and peaceful healing sleep.
It's particularly helpful if you've had a busy day,
Or if you're finding it difficult to fall asleep,
Or fall back to sleep after waking in the middle of the night.
And when we can't sleep,
There is the tendency to get frustrated.
Tossing and turning,
Watching the clock,
Trying hard to fall asleep but finding it so elusive.
And this can actually make matters worse.
So to help us settle into sleep now,
We're going to work with the body and the mind.
So taking a few moments to make sure that you're really comfortable.
Adjusting any clothing that might disrupt your breathing.
Making sure you're warm but not too hot.
And lying in whatever position is most comfortable for you.
And taking three long deep breaths now.
Really breathing in on the inhale.
And letting out a loud sigh on the exhale.
And taking another two deep breaths now.
Breathing in,
Nourishing air on the in-breath.
Breathing out,
A sense of letting go.
And when you're ready,
Allowing the breath to return to a natural breath.
Not trying to change or alter the breath in any way now.
Just watching the natural breath as it moves in and out of the body.
And as you lie here,
Remembering that in this moment you're perfectly safe.
There's nowhere else to be right now and nothing else to do.
This is your time for you to simply get some rest.
So we're not trying to force or will sleep to come.
We're not even trying to relax.
In fact,
You don't need to make any special effort at all.
All you need to do is focus your attention as best you can on the sound of my voice.
So letting go of the day that has gone before you now as best you can.
Settling into the bed.
And bringing your awareness down into the body.
Becoming curious about what it feels like to be lying here.
Tuning into the sensations where your body makes contact with the bed.
And maybe feeling the softness or firmness of the mattress.
And noticing what that feels like as an experience.
Can you feel your heels?
The backs of your calves?
Your pelvis?
Your lower back?
Your upper and mid back?
Paying particular attention to the area of the back.
And seeing if there's any pain or tension in this part of the body.
Where we so often carry the stresses and strains from the day.
And perhaps shifting a little if that'll make you more comfortable.
And maybe you can bring a little more ease into the muscles here.
Having a conscious sense of letting go.
And sometimes this can be challenging for us.
To consciously relax these muscles that are so used to being locked and tense.
And if that's the case.
Just seeing if you can relax these muscles even 5% more.
Feeling your shoulders melt into the bed beneath you.
And now moving to the front of the body.
Can you feel the duvet?
Warm and cosy against your skin?
Or perhaps you're enjoying the coolness of a crisp white sheet in hot weather.
Tuning in now to the toes and how these feel.
And the shins,
The knees,
The thighs.
Can you feel where the covers touch your belly?
Your chest?
And your neck?
Coming into awareness now of your whole body lying here.
From head to toe.
Fully supported by the surface beneath you.
Allowing gravity to pull you down.
So you don't need to hold as much in the muscles.
And allowing a sense of letting go.
And as we let go in the body.
Checking in to see if we have let go of our worries and our projects.
Are we still present with our experience?
Or has the mind wandered off to some storyline that seems to need urgent attention?
And if it has,
That's okay.
Just noticing that the mind has wandered and then gently returning your attention back to the present.
And remembering that this is not the time for mental rehearsal,
Creating to-do lists or composing emails.
Letting go of the planning mode of the mind now and just being present here.
Coming back again and again to the sound of my voice.
And directing the spotlight of your awareness now to the belly.
Watching the belly rise and fall as you breathe.
And seeing if you can lengthen the breath a little.
Taking a slightly longer breath on the in-breath.
And an even longer breath on the out-breath.
Repeating this a few times.
And allowing the breath to be deep and slow.
Beautiful music.
Music playing.
And if you're still awake,
It's important to know that the act of just lying here,
Being present with your breath,
Is still helping your body to restore and recover from the day.
So seeing if we can drop any force,
Or trying,
Or even desire to sleep now.
And seeing if we can instead accept the sleepnessness in this moment.
For now,
We are still awake.
And while we may not fire on all cylinders tomorrow,
We have survived in the past with less sleep than we'd like.
And we'll do so again in the future.
And we can trust our body's natural inbuilt sleep mechanism to sleep more deeply tomorrow night,
To make up for any sleepless that we experienced tonight.
And coming back to the breath again now.
Feeling the breath,
All the way to the end of the in-breath,
And all the way to the end of the out-breath.
Perhaps noticing the pause that marks the transition period between in-breath and out-breath.
Out-breath.
Out-breath.
Out-breath.
Out-breath.
Thank you.
