Hey,
It's Doug.
Let's get you ready for a good night's sleep,
Shall we?
Take these initial moments to get comfortable and set up for sweet sleep success.
What I mean by this is get yourself into an ideal sleeping position,
Please.
Grab those pillows,
Get the perfect amount of duvet over you,
And once you've done all that,
Close your eyes and begin to focus on your belly.
I want you to have this direct connection between you and your belly button.
So begin breathing straight into your belly button.
As you inhale,
I want you to feel your belly button go up,
And as you exhale,
I want you to feel it go back down.
This lovely sweetness of breath and just connecting to how each breath causes this movement.
Inhale up,
Exhale down.
Inhale up,
And exhale down.
Just establishing this connection with your breath and your body.
Nothing else to do right now.
Just you,
That lovely bed,
And your breathing.
Okay,
Great job.
I want you now to imagine that there is a balloon in your belly,
And your inhale is going to fill up that balloon,
And your exhale is going to deflate it.
Now to activate the imagination part of your brain that is useful for sleep,
I'm going to give you ascending sizes of fruits to imagine you're breathing into.
So when I say the name of the fruit,
I want you to imagine that that's the approximate size you need to breathe.
So you breathe as deeply as it would take to fill that area.
You get the idea?
Okay,
Good.
Let's do it together now.
The first fruit you're going to imagine is a peach.
So imagine this peach-sized balloon in your belly,
And on your next inhale,
Just inhale enough to fill up that size.
When you reach that size,
Take a slight pause,
And exhale and empty.
All right,
The next is going to be a large orange.
Inhale the adequate amount of air to fill up an orange-sized balloon,
And with the next exhale,
Release that same amount of air.
Imagining now a grapefruit-sized balloon,
Inhale,
Fill up that size,
Breathe in the adequate amount,
And then as you exhale,
Release that amount.
Moving up in size now,
Imagining a melon as a balloon,
Inhale and fill that melon up.
Now exhale,
Empty that melon balloon up.
Now moving up in size once again,
Breathing into a water melon-sized balloon now,
Inhale and fill.
The biggest one yet.
And then exhale,
When you're ready,
The same amount.
We're going to descend the same way.
So inhale back into that melon-sized balloon,
And exhale that same size.
Inhale now into the grapefruit,
And exhale that grapefruit.
Now inhale into that orange,
And exhale out that orange.
Last time on our way down,
Inhale into that peach-sized balloon,
Exhale out that peach-sized balloon.
Back up one more time.
Inhale into that orange-sized balloon,
And exhale.
Connect with that grapefruit-sized balloon,
Inhale in,
And exhale.
Inhale into that melon-sized balloon,
And exhale that melon-sized balloon.
Last one together,
Inhale into that watermelon,
Biggest yet,
And exhale that watermelon.
Go back to your normal breathing for a moment.
Now I want you to choose the size and the fruit that worked best for you.
Choose the one that is right for you,
Or I guess I could say the one that is ripe for you.
Decide whichever fruit you like the most,
And begin to breathe in and out at that approximate size.
As you practice breathing into this distinct shape and size of whatever fruit you chose,
Begin to just fall into a rhythm that you can do without thinking too much about.
With your breath now in a cadence that feels right to you,
I want you to start now imagining that fruit you chose in detail.
Begin by thinking about it,
How that fruit smells.
See if you can initiate that smell in your nose right now just through imagination.
Is it a heavy citrus,
Or is it more subtle?
Then think about the texture on the outside of this fruit.
What does it look like?
And then how does it feel?
Is it smooth,
Or does it have bumps?
Does it have small dimples?
Now let's imagine the texture of the flesh.
What is this color like?
What is this texture like?
What is the level of juiciness to this fruit?
On the next inhale,
Imagine the taste of this fruit,
How it feels in your mouth.
How easy does it break open?
How easy does it melt?
How easy is it to chew?
How does it feel as it gets crushed by your teeth and your mouth?
How does it feel when it releases its flavor?
The next few breaths,
Can you imagine filling not just the size of that fruit,
But also thinking about how that fruit feels?
Think about all the ways we've just covered.
Texture,
Look,
Smell,
And taste.
Using just our breaths,
Now imagination.
Just you and your fruit.
Breathing in,
And breathing out.
