This is a guided meditation to help you sleep at night.
You can do it as a formal practice sitting in an erect and dignified posture,
Or you can do it when you're trying to go to sleep lying flat on your back with your eyes closed and just do this technique before you go to sleep.
If you're sitting,
Sit in an erect and dignified posture if that feels comfortable to you.
If not,
Whatever posture is comfortable.
If you're sitting in an erect and dignified posture,
Feet flat on the ground,
Hands on your knees or thighs,
Back straight,
Head slightly tilted down and eyes closed.
And now just begin to breathe normally,
Counting to three.
And breathe out counting to three.
And now count out to the count of six while still breathing in to the count of three.
Now,
Increase the in count to four and continue with the out count double and make it eight.
Breathing in for four,
Breathing out for eight.
And now count out to the count of nine.
Now,
Breathe in to the count of five and breathe out to the count of ten.
And if this makes you feel uncomfortable,
Go down to whatever number you're still feeling comfortable at.
Five breaths in,
Ten breaths out.
And if you'd like to experiment with increasing the count,
Breathe in to six,
Breathe out to twelve and keep adjusting to see how deeply you can breathe in and breathe out without it being a stress to you.
And now count out to the count of ten.
And now just breathe naturally.
This is an excellent exercise to use at night before you're going to sleep to help relax your body,
Decrease your heart rate.
And now we'll do another technique you can try to help you sleep called the body scan.
Continue to breathe naturally and I'm going to go through parts of the body one by one.
When I say a part of the body,
Focus on it and then try and relax it.
Focus on the thumb of your right hand.
Relax the thumb of your right hand.
Focus on the second finger of your right hand.
Relax the second finger.
Third finger,
Right hand.
Fourth finger,
Right hand.
Fifth finger,
Right hand.
Palm,
Right hand.
Top of the hand,
Right hand.
Right wrist,
Right forearm,
Right elbow,
Right bicep,
Right side of the upper torso,
Right hip,
Right thigh,
Right knee,
Right calf,
Right ankle,
Bottom of the right foot,
Top of the right foot,
Left side of the body,
Left hand,
Thumb,
Second finger,
Left hand,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the left hand,
Top of the left hand,
Left wrist,
Left forearm,
Elbow,
Bicep,
Left side of the upper torso,
Left thigh,
Left knee,
Left calf,
Left ankle,
Top of the left foot,
Bottom of the left foot,
Whole right foot,
Whole left foot,
Whole right leg,
Whole left leg,
Whole torso,
Both arms,
Back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Top of the head.
Eyelids,
Jaw,
Cheeks,
Whole face,
Whole head.
Relax the whole head and the whole torso and both arms and both legs and both feet.
Relax your whole body.
Feel yourself relaxed.
Feeling light like you're floating.
And now think about the things that you are grateful for.
It could be for a higher power,
A spiritual guide,
A mentor.
It could be for family.
Could be for friends.
It could be for the beauty of Mother Nature.
It could be for the shelter and food.
What does it feel like to be grateful?
Notice how you're feeling right now.
May you have happiness,
Peace,
Contentment and joy.
May the world and everyone you know have peace,
Happiness,
Contentment and joy.
Thank you.
