12 Simple Steps To Fall Asleep With A Relaxed Brain 5

A busy mind often prevents us from being able to fall asleep and get a good refreshing night's sleep. This mindfulness meditation of breath and thoughts will gently guide you into an experience of relaxing your brain. This commentary is accompanied by waves.

Transcript

If you're someone like me who's mainly mentally focused, A lot in their head, Then I find it useful reminder to think of being aware of my breath as actually really feeling the physical sensations of the breath in the body. So I'm not thinking or just thinking about the breath, Or being aware of the breath, But really feeling the sensations of the breath in the body. So how does your breath feel right now in your body? And throughout this meditation, The invitation is to keep your awareness open. There's a light and easy attention. So I don't like focusing or concentrating in meditation. That often brings in that conflict of trying to ignore some things so you can focus on other things. So the invitation here is to keep your awareness open and not try and block out anything else that's happening in this moment. So still aware of sounds, Thoughts, Sensations in the body, How you're feeling. So all I'm doing is just putting a slight emphasis on the breath amongst all those things, Not excluding anything. Gently holding the breath in the foreground or the centre of my awareness, Allowing everything else to happen around the breath. Now we're going to be using all these steps with the thoughts as well, But for now, We're just practicing them with the breath. And the second step is a very simple one. Second step is don't change your breath. Don't make any effort to breathe more slowly or more deeply or more calmly. So being aware of the breath just as it is and not having any intention or expectation for any change in the breath. That's step two. Now again, So that's not just a thought. So I might just think, Okay, I'm not going to change the breath, So I'm doing that. So nothing new. So for these few moments on this step, Feel what it's like to be aware of something that you could change, But you're actively deciding not to change. So as I breathe and I feel the breath in the body, I know I could choose, For example, To breathe more deeply, But instead, I'm going to allow the breath just to find its own rhythm and its own depth and its own time. So it is an active, Engaged step, Although it's a step of not changing. So how does it feel to not change the breath, Knowing that you could? The third step is just to break the breath down into the in-breath and the out-breath and have an intention or an attitude to wiggle to each part of the breath. So for the in-breath, I like to just have that word in mind of allow, To allow the breath in each time I breathe in. How does that feel to allow the breath into the body? So this helps me feel engaged and connected to the breath, Yet I'm still not making any effort to change the breath. I'm simply allowing the breath into the body and noticing how that feels. And for the out-breath part, The words or the intention to release or let go of the breath. How does it feel to consciously release and let go of each out-breath? So just checking I'm not getting in the way of the natural breath by holding onto the breath. I'm allowing the breath to release just as soon as it is ready to do so. How does that feel in the body to release the breath? So I'm allowing the breath in without restriction and letting go of the breath without holding on. This brings us naturally to the fourth step with the breath, Which is to get a feeling, Get a sense of the breath flowing through the body. So an effortless flow of breath rising and falling in the body. So experience and feel the breath as much as possible as this effortless flow through the body. So we're not getting in the way of the breath, Allowing it to flow freely. Remembering just to allow everything else to happen around the breath, Keeping an easy and open awareness. And the final step for the breath is a subtle change in how we can experience the breath, Again without changing the breath in any way at all. And you may be experiencing the breath as if you are being breathed, The body is being breathed by the breath rather than I am doing the breathing. So the breath is the same, But our experience is certainly different. I can feel that the body is being breathed by the breath. How does that feel? OK, So we've practiced everything we need to practice, So we're ready to move on for the next five steps, And we're going to become more mindful of our thoughts and our thinking. And the first step is to simply be aware that you are thinking. You may think, Well I'm always aware that I'm thinking, So what am I doing with you, What's different there? Well actually normally we're not very aware of our thinking, And it can actually feel very different, It can be a very different experience to think whilst being really attentive and alert and aware of our thoughts as we think, Really turning that light of awareness onto the thoughts. So we're allowing the breath to move to the background of our awareness along with all of the sounds, Sensations and experiences, And we're deciding to become more interested, Most interested in our thoughts, So bringing the thoughts into the foreground, Into the centre of our awareness, Allowing everything else to happen around the thoughts. So how does that feel to be thinking whilst being aware that you're thinking? Keeping that light, Open awareness, Still not focusing or concentrating. Our awareness is an open, Inviting space within which our thoughts can come. The second step is the same as the second step for the breath, And that is very simply don't change your thoughts. Don't make any effort to edit or redirect or quieten or stop any of your thoughts, Don't try and think more positively, Don't try and think less thoughts or quieter thoughts or good thoughts. The content of your thoughts for the whole of this meditation is completely irrelevant, And this step is about really not caring what the content of your thoughts are. Not being aware of them, But with a disinterest, I really don't care what the thoughts are about. And the third step with our thoughts is to see if we can get that sense of flow that we practice with the breath. So as the breath was flowing freely through the body, Can we experience our thoughts to flow freely through the mind? Sort of like clouds floating across the sky, Water flowing down a river, Thoughts flowing freely through the mind. How does that feel? So again we don't care what the content of the thoughts are, Whether the clouds are nice white fluff clouds or dark thunderous clouds, Whether the water is a gentle stream or a torrent down a river. Just seeing if we can get that sense of movement to flow, One thought after the next, That's all we're looking out for. And the fourth step with the thoughts is to notice that, Very similar to the breath, You don't have to make any effort to think, I don't have to remember to think, I don't have to choose my next thought, I don't have to make any effort at all to think. So the process of thoughts flowing through my mind can be as automatic, As natural and as spontaneous as the breath. The breath happens within the body, Noticing that the thoughts happen within the mind. I don't need to do anything at all to make that happen, It's going to happen anyway. So how does that feel? Lovely. Good. So remember that feeling we had with the breath where we know we could change the breath if we wanted to, But we were choosing not to. So it's the same with these thoughts that just arrive all on their own. I could try and change them, But I'm choosing not to. So how does it feel to set your thoughts free, Free from any attempt to change them? They can just be as they are. Comparing within that nice, Open, Easy awareness, That open space, Welcoming and receiving. This takes us on to the fifth and final step with the thoughts. And this is broken down into two parts, Like we did for the in-breath and out-breath in the first few steps. So the first part is the present thoughts and allowing them to leave the mind. The invitation here is to allow any thought in your mind to stay there as long as it wants to. So don't try and move along any thoughts. Don't try and push it away. So you're giving your thoughts complete freedom to stay in your mind as long as they want to. If they decide to fade away, Then you're not going to hold on to them. They can go, But we're not going to push them away either. So again, That idea of disinterest in those present thoughts. We don't care whether they stay or go. So what we're really interested in, And the final part of the final step, What we're really interested in and what we're going to turn our full attention to and our alertness towards them is to see if we can catch the arrival of the new thoughts. So at some point, Another thought is going to pop into your mind, Into your wellness. See if you can be so open, So welcoming, So alert that you can notice that thought as soon as it arrives. So an engaged patience, An alert waiting. Being open and catching that next thought, Whatever it might be. Once that thought has arrived, Then that's a present thought that we're disinterested in, We don't care whether it stays or goes, So immediately we want to be ready to catch the next new thought, The next thought that comes along, And the next one, And the next one. So I'll give you a few moments, Slightly longer pause at the end of this tenth step before we move on to the final part. So keeping that easy open awareness and noticing each thought as it arrives. Okay. So, Seeing if you can keep that relaxed attention and easy alertness. Just being in that space within which your thoughts will appear. Okay. So the final two steps are the relaxation part, And again the first part is a practice. I want you to practice relaxing parts of the body from the shoulders downwards. You could start with a hand or a foot, An arm or a leg for example. The idea is just to really pay attention to how it feels to relax a part of your body. So noticing what you do, If anything, And exactly how it feels when a part of your body relaxes. It may be quite a subtle change, You might already be quite relaxed. You may want to, For example, Clench and tighten your fists and then relax them to just exaggerate that change and to really feel that relaxation response in these parts of your body. So just a few moments, Relaxing and really feeling that relaxation response in a few parts of your body. Okay, So for the final part I'd like you to bring your attention to your face and you can work all those little muscles around the jaw and mouth, The eyes and forehead, And allow all those facial muscles to relax. And really notice how that feels, All these muscles across the face, To relax. And bringing your awareness to the top, Back and sides of the head, The scalp and the skull. Allow all these parts of your head to relax. How does that feel? And now treating your brain exactly the same as any other part of your body, Allow your brain to totally relax. And just allow your brain to relax. To the way of your whole head, Face, Top, Sides and the back of the head and the brain, Allow your whole head and brain to completely relax. Feel that relaxation response throughout the whole of your head and brain. Just like any other part of your body, Allow your brain to be totally relaxed. Allow your breath to flow freely through your relaxed body and allow your thoughts to flow freely through your relaxed brain. Free flowing thoughts, Free flowing breath. And the whole body and the brain completely relaxed. Office Hours, Dr. You