Hello and welcome.
I'm Tanya and I'm so glad that you're here with me.
Let's begin.
Find yourself a position that's comfortable for you.
This meditation is for any time,
Whether you need a break during the day,
But especially when you're ready to drift off to a peaceful night's sleep.
Take a slow breath in,
Filling your lungs with air,
And then exhale slowly,
Softening into your body with some loving awareness.
Another deep breath in,
Slowly,
And exhaling out.
And one more deep breath at your own pace,
Filling your lungs completely,
Pausing for a moment,
And then releasing your breath gently and slowly.
Good.
Taking deep breaths like this is what we want to do whenever we are ready to rest.
Now focus on your right hand,
Allowing it to soften,
Slowly radiating out finger by finger,
Gently moving up your arm to your shoulder,
And then moving down through your torso to your right leg and down into your toes.
Now allowing every part of your right side to soften into the surface beneath you,
And just a little more with each breath you take,
Making it a little bit easier to fall asleep.
Now shifting our attention to the left hand,
To the left hand,
Allowing it to soften and letting the softness slowly radiate out into each finger,
Moving up through our arm into our shoulder,
And then moving down through the chest,
The belly,
Down your left leg into your toes.
And now every part of your left side softening a little more with each breath,
Making it easier for us to welcome some good and well-deserved rest.
Now focus on the back of your head,
Just feeling the weight of your head sinking into your pillow,
Letting your neck rest,
Your shoulders,
Your spine,
And just breathing into your back,
Allowing it to release a little bit more with every breath that you take,
And tell yourself silently,
It's okay to rest.
It's okay to rest.
Moving to the front of the body,
Just soften your forehead,
The space between your eyebrows,
And allow your eyes to rest,
Your tongue,
Your mouth,
Let your throat and chest open and expand with your breath,
Filling your chest,
Your belly,
You're here to rest,
And we can let go of everything else just for now.
Now we'll relax our body in a different way.
Make a fist with both of your hands and squeeze them tightly for a few seconds as hard as you can.
One more second and release,
Taking a full breath in and exhaling out.
Now tense your arms,
Your shoulders,
Your chest,
Your belly,
Tense,
Tense,
Tense,
Hold,
And now release them completely.
Full breath in and exhaling out slowly.
Now tense your hips,
Your legs,
Tense,
Tense,
Tense them up,
Hold,
And release.
Continuing to follow your breath.
We're tensing our muscles,
We're holding them tight,
But we're not holding our breath.
And finally,
We'll tense our feet,
Curl your toes in,
Hold,
Hold,
Hold,
Tense,
And let go.
Give me a nice deep breath in and exhale with a ah.
Making that sound,
Let's do that two more times.
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling with an ah sound.
Ah.
One more time,
Inhale and exhale.
Ah.
Good.
Good.
By tensing and then relaxing our muscles,
We activate a continuous state of relaxation through our body because we're engaging our parasympathetic nervous system.
And this triggers a relaxation response in our body and in our mind.
Now just release everything.
Let your body become heavy and we just want to let our physical body take charge.
If we're quiet and we listen carefully,
We can feel that our body knows what it needs.
We just need to listen.
And now we're allowing it to rest and heal as it needs to.
Allow your mind to step aside for a moment.
And when we do this,
We allow our body to do what it does best,
Rest and regenerate.
And this can become our body's natural state when we allow our thinking mind to take a little break.
When we allow our mind to take a little break,
Then we can get some good sleep,
Allowing our body to work its restorative magic.
In this moment here,
You are safe.
You are supported.
Your body and your mind are working in harmony.
And just allow some self-compassion to surround you like a cozy warm blanket and give yourself permission to let go of everything that's happened so far today.
You're here now.
You're here to rest,
Not to fix anything,
Not to try to change anything.
And by being here now,
You've given yourself the right to some good rest,
Being fully present in this moment.
So you can rest deeply with every breath,
Inhale compassion,
And exhale,
Soften a little more,
Continuing to breathe deeply and evenly,
Knowing that you deserve to rest and rejuvenate your body.
You're allowing your body and mind to be nourished and loved.
Trust in the process of sleep,
Allowing yourself to surrender to the loving care of your own body and mind.
You are safe.
You are supported.
And you are loved.
Rest now,
Knowing that you are exactly where you need to be.
As you drift off into sleep,
Feel the gentle presence of love and understanding guiding you towards a peaceful and restorative night's rest.
Your body knows how to rest and heal.
So let it do its work now.
Sweet dreams.
