Welcome to this meditation.
I'm Victoria and I'll be your guide tonight.
Let's begin by settling into your bed and getting really comfortable.
Allowing your head to move on the pillow until you find the place that feels most easeful.
And then letting your hands rest gently by your side or maybe on your belly.
We'll begin this practice by feeling the weight of the body lying on the bed and inviting yourself to feel more heavy and weighted.
Knowing that you are held up.
You are supported by gravity.
There's nowhere to go.
There's nothing to do.
There's no rush to fall asleep now.
Only an invitation to invite relaxation into each cell of the body and invite that relaxation into the mind as well.
Putting down your worries,
Your plans for tomorrow,
The ways you might be judging yourself.
No problems are going to be solved in the course of this meditation.
And still some freedom can be found.
That freedom comes in the present moment.
The only place we can ever really be is right here.
Right now.
And our anchor to the present moment is the breath.
Life is always breathing us.
We don't have to try.
We don't have to force.
The breath naturally comes and naturally goes.
Drawing your awareness into your breath,
Perhaps by letting one hand rest on your belly.
And as you breathe in,
Feeling the breath expand your belly.
And as you breathe out,
Noticing it contract and fall.
Breathing in,
Feeling the rise of the belly.
Breathing out,
Feeling the fall.
Rise,
Fall.
Rise,
Fall.
Rise,
Fall.
Rise,
Fall.
Rise,
Fall.
Practicing at your own pace,
Letting your breath deepen and slow as much as it would like.
As you invite in,
Rest and relaxation into body,
Mind,
And spirit.
Expanding your awareness out from your belly.
Across your whole body.
As we invite in relaxation,
Part by part.
Beginning at the top of the head,
Allowing it to be heavy,
Weighted,
And relaxed.
And drawing that relaxation into all the muscles of the face,
To the ears,
The tongue,
And letting the jaw be open and soft.
Inviting relaxation down the length of your neck,
Into your shoulders.
Down the length of your right arm,
And down the length of your left arm.
Letting both arms be heavy,
Weighted,
Relaxed.
And inviting those sensations of relaxation into the chest,
Into the physical heart,
And into the emotional heart.
Expanding,
Opening,
Relaxing.
Drawing those feelings of relaxation into the abdomen,
Inviting an ease to all the internal organs,
To your diaphragm.
To the entirety of your torso.
And letting that relaxation wash across into your back body,
Relaxing the upper,
The mid,
And the lower back.
Drawing this relaxation down into the hips,
The glutes,
And the pelvis.
And inviting ease down the length of your left leg,
And down the length of your right leg.
From head to toe,
Letting your entire body relax as you drift peacefully to sleep.
