Hello.
I'm so glad that you have decided to listen to this meditation and take some time to rest and to hopefully fall asleep.
As far as how you should situate yourself,
You do have a couple of options.
You can just lay however you're most comfortable,
Whether that's on your side,
On your back,
On your tummy,
It's up to you.
There are a couple of ways that I do recommend that help really allow the body to soften into a deep sleep.
One thing you could do is take a rolled up blanket,
Like a throw blanket,
Something smaller,
Not like a big down comforter or anything,
And roll it up and place it underneath your knees so that your knees can be naturally bent.
This allows for your low back to feel really connected to your mattress and allows you to feel really grounded wherever you are.
Beyond that,
If you'd like,
You can kind of snuggle your shoulder blades in towards each other if you're laying on your back,
And you can choose to place your hands on your torso.
I like to put my left hand over my heart and my right hand over my navel center,
And that can be a really wonderful hand placement for those days where you're feeling like you just need a little extra love,
A little extra snuggle,
A little extra self-care.
If you're feeling pretty good in that department,
You can choose to let your arms rest at your sides,
Maybe like six inches or so away from your sides,
With your palms facing up,
And that is a more receptive and open way for your body to be positioned.
If you're feeling extra vulnerable,
It might feel like a bit much,
So try both out here as you get started and situated and get to a place where you feel comfortable.
As soon as you feel ready,
You can bring your awareness to your breath.
You don't have to change it in any way.
You don't have to force it to be deeper.
Just bring your attention into that direction.
Notice the inhales and the exhales and how they feel.
Are they robust?
Are they short?
Are they long?
Do you feel like your inhale is longer than your exhale,
Or is it the other way around?
And as you watch and spend the time noticing,
Things will change.
Your breath will start to deepen on its own,
Or you might even do that really wonderful thing that feels really good where you kind of sigh or take a huge deep breath in and it just sort of cascades out of your body.
There's no need to force any of this trying to make it happen.
It sort of goes against just allowing your body to rest and take care of itself.
You can also begin to notice the space between your inhale and your exhale,
And then the space between your exhale and your inhale.
Sometimes there is this sort of surprisingly long space between when you actually need to breathe in after you've exhaled,
And I've often found myself spending time in that space wondering,
Am I gonna need a breath in anytime soon?
See if you can just notice that breathing in and breathing out,
And see your breath as a circle,
Like a little loop.
It's fun to think about a tiny little roller coaster car on that loop,
And when your breath is at the top when you've inhaled and just before you're exhaling,
It's right like when it's at the top of a roller coaster before it takes that deep dive down or that exhale and releases.
There's that hover that maybe second,
Maybe two seconds where things just sort of hang out there.
And then as you exhale at the bottom,
Just like it on the roller coaster,
You might coast for a little while just allowing things to hang out there,
Or you might feel the desire to whip right back up again and do an inhale.
Rather than trying to calculate or force it or make it into something it should or shouldn't be,
Take the seat of the observer and just watch your breath as it moves.
Let your body breathe itself.
From here,
I'd like you to bring your awareness to the soles of your feet.
Just notice that you don't have to wiggle or move at all,
But if you'd like you could wiggle your toes and scrunch your feet up,
Or you could just focus your awareness there.
As we pick each part of the body to soften,
See if you can notice a spreading out effect.
The soles of your feet getting longer and wider.
The same with the tops of your feet and your toes.
Every joint getting a little bit more spacious.
Each bone sliding a little bit away from each other to give,
You know,
Space to your whole body.
Feel your foot hang sort of heavy off of your lower leg bones.
Allow your shin bone to feel wide as it settles closer and closer to the earth.
Allow your knees to just hang out there.
Maybe they feel better when they're turned out or turned in.
Your thigh bones are heavy as well.
Feeling your femurs just sort of sink into the hip socket.
Allow your hips and your seat just to rest heavy wherever you're laying.
Allowing everything to feel wide and open.
Your belly is soft,
Gently rising and falling with your breath.
Feeling the sides of your body expand outward with each inhale and draw closer in towards the center line with each exhale.
Bring your attention to the front of your body,
Your chest primarily.
Notice the easeful rise and fall of the center of your chest.
You can view it as a maybe perhaps a little sort of wave like movement.
Really inhale your chest sort of cascades a little bit closer up towards your chin.
With your exhale it recedes back down.
Allow your breath to continue to grow and then recede in this manner as you bring your attention to your hands.
Become aware of how they feel where they're positioned.
If you'd like to you can make fists and squeeze your hands nice and tight and then open them really wide.
Separating all your fingers,
Feeling the tips of your fingers extend away from your palms and then relax your hands back to something neutral.
Feel your thumb widen away from your pinky and your middle finger widen away from your wrist.
As your hands get heavy let your wrists do the same.
Feel your forearms just sort of rest on whatever surface they're on whether they're on your body or on your bed somewhere.
Let your elbows bend naturally feeling that there's no effort applied to wherever your hands are positioned.
Your upper arms and your shoulders relax down and away from your neck and your ears.
The back of your neck is long but relaxed.
Bring your attention to your low back.
Start to send your breath there.
Big deep breaths into your low back like you wanted to press your low back into whatever surface is near.
And then move the breath up to your middle back.
Each breath pressing the middle of your back towards whatever it's facing.
Expanding your capacity for breath.
And then bring your awareness to the tops of your lungs so the space right underneath your shoulders so that with each breath you might feel your shoulders shrug up just a little bit.
And with each exhale they soften back down.
And bring your awareness to the features of your face.
Allow your teeth to separate.
Allow your tongue to fall from the roof of your mouth.
This may cause your lips to part slightly.
You can continue to breathe through your nose if that's more comfortable.
Feel your jaw get heavy.
Feel the backs of your ears grow heavy as well.
If you'd like you can roll your eyes around in your head a few times sort of to feel just those last little conscious dances that your eyeballs can do before sort of the sleep dance takes over as it were.
On furrow your brow relax your eyebrows and feel your eyes rest towards the back of your skull like they're in little hammocks.
Continue to rest here letting your body breathe.
Letting your body find more relaxation in places maybe you weren't aware that it existed or could exist.
Observing the sensations that come up.
Rather than questioning them pushing them aside or shaming them you can sort of just sort of tip your hat at those little thoughts and feelings like I see you I understand that you're there.
As though you were walking down a street passing your thoughts like passing people.
Maybe people you know maybe people you kind of recognize but you're not sure where you know them from.
All the same you'll be polite but you have headphones in so these people aren't gonna stop and talk to you.
They do want a bit of your attention you can give them just as much or as little as you'd like.
That sort of tipping your hat metaphor is an idea that you can carry with you beyond sleeping and beyond resting.
Should thoughts arise in your day-to-day life you could allow yourself to simply nod validate that it's there and continue along your way.
It'll come back up again time and time again.
That's how our brains work.
But the more you tip your hat and continue along your way the less the thoughts will demand your attention.
The more they'll realize okay well I'm seen but it's not my time to speak up right now.
If you'd like to you can bring your attention back to your breath.
More of the same from before just noticing how it feels where it goes in your body.
What it sounds like.
You can look at the space between your inhale and exhale.
Then your exhale and your inhale.
You can start to recall that roller coaster sort of sensation if that's a bit too lively for you.
Why not use the sound of the waves to support your breath?
Allowing the breath to flow up towards the shore on your inhale.
Retreat back to the ocean on the exhale.
Seeing your breath as this constant flowing thing lapping up on the shores of your life.
Allowing the sound of the ocean to be a comfort to you.
This life-giving source.
This container for life.
Soothing you.
Holding space for you.
This constant reminder that what goes up must come down.
What goes in must come out.
And while the waves and the breath may change shape over time it's always there for you.
Holding you here in the same way a loving parent holds a child.
In the same way a rocking chair creates a sweet relaxing sensation lulling a small baby to sleep in the arms of someone safe and warm and kind.
Allow your breath to be that for you as you continue to relax and release.
Soften and drop in.
And transcend from your waking life to your sleeping one.
Soften and drop in.
And transcend from your waking life to your sleeping one.
