Hello,
I'm Rebecca Ryan.
The meditation practice I have for you today is one that can help you sleep.
I suggest you do this meditation lying in your bed.
I'm going to talk you through a body relaxation in an open position.
Then I'll give you a moment to find your comfortable sleeping position.
Once you're in that sleeping position,
I'm going to talk you through a counting practice that I'll guide you through first of all and then encourage you to try in your own time.
The meditation will end without any sound or words.
So take your time now to find yourself in your bed.
Any way you like to start,
Just get in your bed and notice what it feels like to be in your bed.
Noticing whether you have covers on,
What clothes are you wearing?
In yourself and your body in your bed.
And from this noticing,
Take your body wide as if you're lying sort of shaped a bit like a star.
With your legs out and your arms out to the side.
Adjust yourself if that's not possible for you.
But as much as possible,
Have your arms in a symmetrical open space and your legs too.
By that I mean,
Pretend that you've got a line drawn right down the centre of your body and your legs are the same distance either side of that line and your arms are roughly the same distance either side of that line.
You are taking up space.
Allow yourself now to take up that space.
And we're going to work through the body.
Starting on the right hand side,
Noticing your right hand,
Your right thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger and fourth finger.
Noticing the palm of your hand and the back of your right hand.
Noticing your whole right hand.
As you notice your body,
You may feel tingling or warmth in the area that you're noticing.
That part of your body may feel heavy or perhaps light.
You also may visualise that part of your body.
Whatever noticing feels like for you is just fine.
Continuing now to notice your lower arm and your upper arm and then your right shoulder.
Taking that awareness all the way down the right side of your torso to your right hip.
Noticing your right hip and buttock,
Your right thigh and knee.
Noticing your right calf,
Shin and ankle.
Noticing the top of your right foot and the bottom of your right foot.
Your right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and fifth toe.
The whole right side of your body is heavy and still in your bed.
And we'll do the same on the left side.
Noticing your left hand now,
Your left thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger and fourth finger.
The palm of your left hand and the back of your left hand.
Noticing your whole left hand.
Whatever that feels like for you is fine.
If it's warmth or tingling,
Heaviness,
Lightness,
Just noticing.
Continuing next,
Your left lower arm,
Elbow and upper arm and your left shoulder.
Taking that awareness down the left side of your body to your left hip and buttock,
Your left thigh.
Noticing your left kneecap,
Calf and shin and your left ankle.
The top of your left foot and the bottom of your left foot.
Your left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
And adding this together,
The whole left side of your body,
Heavy and still in your bed.
Next we're going to notice the back of our bodies.
Noticing where your head is supported on your bed.
Back of your neck,
Your shoulder blades,
The backs of your arms,
How they're supported on the bed.
Your middle back and your lower back and your buttocks.
Backs of your thighs,
Backs of your knees,
Calves and your heels.
Picturing once again that sort of star shape you've made with your body.
The whole back of your body is heavy and supported.
Taking that awareness now to the front of your body,
To your forehead,
To your right eyebrow and then your left eyebrow.
Allowing your focus to linger now at the space between your eyebrows.
Lingering with awareness of the space between your eyebrows.
And then noticing your right eye and your left eye.
Your right eyelid and your left eyelid.
Your right cheek and left cheek.
Your nose.
Taking your awareness all the way to the tip of your nose.
Your upper lip and your lower lip.
Noticing where your lips touch.
Seeing how your jaw feels now lying in your bed.
Can you relax your jaw a bit more?
Can the upper and lower rows of your teeth part slightly?
Yet your lips stay touching.
Try this now and see how it feels.
Softening your jaw but with your mouth still closed and your lips slightly touching.
Noticing how your chin and your neck feel.
Taking that awareness to your chest,
Abdomen,
Tops of your hips,
Tops of your thighs,
Your knees,
Calves and tops of your feet.
Taking that awareness back up to your chest and just noticing what parts of your arms are facing upwards on your bed.
Noticing that now if it's the inside of your arms facing upwards or the backs of your arms.
And then taking an awareness to the whole front side of your body.
Your face,
Chest,
Arms,
Torso and legs.
Taking an awareness that the whole front of your body is open and still.
Putting this body awareness all together.
Right side,
Left side of your body.
Your whole body.
Back of your body,
Front of your body.
Your whole body.
Your whole body.
Awareness of your whole body.
And as you notice your whole body.
See if starting again with your right hand thumb you can trace a line all the way around the outside of your body.
Up your arm,
Around your head,
Down your left arm,
Back to the side of your body,
Around your left leg,
Up to your groin,
Around your right leg,
Up the side of your body and back down to your right hand thumb.
And take this outline that you've drawn and give it a colour and a thickness.
If that's difficult to choose you can default to the colour green.
A beautiful,
Healing,
Fresh colour.
But with whatever colour you've chosen for yourself now.
Notice the outline of your body traced in that colour.
Surrounded by the colour that you've chosen.
And for a few moments just seeing how that feels.
Your open,
Relaxed body.
Surrounded by a colour that you've chosen to suit you today as you prepare for sleep.
Your whole body is preparing for sleep.
Just a few more moments with this colour awareness of your whole body preparing for sleep.
Take a little inhale and sigh through parted lips three times like this.
Two more.
Letting go of the colour you've chosen and coming to an awareness of your body and either staying in the position that you are or adjusting yourself now to the position where you'd like to sleep.
That's completely up to you,
One side or the other,
Back or front.
It's up to you.
Curled up tight or open like you've been for this body relaxation.
It's up to you.
Choosing the covers that you need.
Snuggling in.
Taking a few moments to get comfortable so you can be still while I guide you through the counting part of this meditation.
Great.
And when you're ready,
We're going to do a backwards counting exercise from twenty seven down to one.
Just listen and I'll show you what it's going to be like.
You say to yourself,
Now I'm breathing in twenty seven on your inhale breath and then you pause.
And then you say,
Now I'm breathing out twenty seven and then you pause again.
You can say those words as fast as you need to to get into the length of your breath or as slowly as you need to.
It's your breath that's the guide.
So it goes like this.
Now I'm breathing in twenty seven.
Now I'm breathing out twenty seven.
Now I'm breathing in twenty six.
Now I'm breathing out twenty six.
Now I'm breathing in twenty five.
Now I'm breathing out twenty five.
That's great.
Let's start together again at twenty seven and just keep going down to one.
I'll give you some quiet time to do that,
But I'll get you started.
Are you ready?
Now I'm breathing in twenty seven.
Now I'm breathing out twenty seven.
Now I'm breathing in twenty six.
Now I'm breathing out twenty six.
Keep going.
Breathing in and out.
When you mind wonders come back to the counting.
Now breathing in.
Now breathing out.
Keep going all the way down to one.
The goal of this meditation is to help with sleep so it's okay if you drift off.
If you lose count you can come back to twenty seven.
There's nothing to get right or wrong.
We're just focusing on the breath and the counting and when that focus wavers,
Which it does,
We come back.
The goal is not to never wander.
The goal is to keep returning.
And the goal of this meditation is to sleep.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Focusing on the counting.
And breathing in and breathing out.
Preparing for sleep.
And at any point that you want you can surrender to the sleep.
The sleep that's coming to you.
The sleep that you've prepared for.
The heavy stillness of sleep.
You don't have to look for it.
Just wait.
You've prepared.
You've relaxed.
You're breathing and sleep is coming for you.
Heavy still sleep.
Enjoy your sleep.
Enjoy your sleep.
Enjoy your sleep.
