Welcome to this meditation for sleep.
I'm Victoria and I'll be your guide tonight.
We'll begin by settling in and getting really comfortable.
Putting your phone down,
Turning off the lights,
Letting your body come to rest in a way that feels easy,
Effortless,
And relaxing.
Noticing your covers and tucking them around you so you feel so safe and secure,
So snuggled up in your bed.
And then letting your head move,
Wiggling around on your pillow until you find the perfect place and coming to rest.
As you settle in for the night,
You might notice that your body is resting but your mind is still active.
Don't worry,
There's nothing wrong with that.
It just means you're human.
We can help the mind find more ease by giving it something to do.
So for our first practice tonight,
We'll begin by counting the breath,
Breathing in,
Counting one,
Breathing out,
And counting two.
Breathing in,
One,
Out,
Two,
In,
One,
Out,
Two.
Breathing in for one and out for two.
In,
Out,
One,
Two,
One,
Two,
Two.
Continuing on at your own pace.
Noticing if your mind drifts away and you lose count,
And with compassion,
Just come back and start again.
And if you start to drift away to sleep,
Let the counting go.
If your thoughts are active,
Letting them be there,
Not making it a problem and allowing yourself to just count.
One,
Two.
One,
Two.
There's nowhere to go.
There's nothing to accomplish.
Letting the mind begin to rest as the body rests.
Letting the breath soothe you as you breathe in and feel yourself breathing in.
And as you breathe out and feel yourself breathing out.
One,
Two.
One,
Two.
One,
Two.
One,
Two.
One,
Two.
One,
Two.
And letting go of the counting,
Perhaps just to experience the feeling.
Becoming the observer of the breath.
And letting yourself feel the rise and the fall of the breath.
If it's helpful,
You can say in and out.
Or you can just allow your mind to relax as you focus simply on the sensation of the breath as it flows effortlessly through your body.
Inviting in a sense of gratitude for this breath.
Breathing you all day long during all of your activities.
The breath has faithfully carried you in all of your vitality and life force.
Feeling so grateful that you don't have to try to breathe.
You don't have to remember to breathe.
Feeling so much gratitude for the miracle of the breath as you feel it flow in and out of your body.
Noticing this breath.
And this breath.
And this one.
And noticing what gratitude feels like in your physical body.
Inviting any openness,
Any expansiveness,
Any tingling or warmth.
And inviting these sensations of gratitude to flow into each cell of your body.
Noticing how it feels to be enveloped in gratitude.
In gratitude to your toes and your ankles.
Your calves and your shins.
Your knees and your thighs.
All the way up.
And sending gratitude into your hips.
Your glutes.
Your pelvis and the entire reproductive area.
Gratitude for your whole lower body.
All the ways it supported you today and every day of your life so far.
And inviting that gratitude up into your abdomen.
Into all the internal organs.
Into your belly,
The breath causing your belly to rise and fall.
And drawing it upward into your chest.
Seeing the slight rise and fall of the chest as you breathe in and breathe out.
Or deep in the chest,
A little to the right,
Perhaps noticing gratitude flowing out from your emotional heart center.
And letting that gratitude wrap around into the entire back body.
Giving gratitude to your lower back,
Your mid back,
Your upper back.
Into your shoulders.
And sending that gratitude down the length of both of your arms.
And then into your neck.
Into your jaw.
To all the little muscles of your face.
Into your tongue,
Your ears,
Your nose,
Your eyes.
All the way up to the crown of your head.
And letting that gratitude trickle down.
Washing over every single cell in your body.
As you drift sweetly to sleep.
