Let's begin by finding a comfortable place to relax and unwind.
If you need to sit,
Find a comfortable seat to sit on,
Making sure you're comfortable first.
If you need to lay down,
And you're falling asleep,
Or just getting more comfortable,
Please do so now.
Begin by taking in some refreshing deep breaths.
Just breathing in and breathing out naturally.
When we begin to meditate,
We sometimes focus on our breathing a little too much,
Where it feels manufactured or not natural.
Just let go of that,
Knowing that breathing is natural and automatic for all of us.
Just let it find its correct rhythm now.
Good.
Now let your senses begin to feel out the room or space that you're in.
Just begin to hear all the sounds in the room,
Feel the temperature,
Is it hot,
Is it cold,
And if you still need to get comfortable,
Now is the time to do so.
Just understand that none of the sounds or temperatures in the room will deter you from your session today.
In fact,
Those sounds will only work to take you deeper into your practice.
So begin to notice your thoughts and feelings.
What do they feel like?
Are your thoughts rapid or slow?
Either way,
Just notice them.
Just notice your physical feelings and your emotional ones.
Understand that they do not control you and they do not rule you.
You are the master and they are the slave.
Just notice them and when you do,
Return your focus to the breath.
The simple breath of air coming in and out of the nose.
Notice the cool sensation around the nostrils when you breathe in and the warm sensation around the nostrils when you breathe out.
Good.
So just allow yourself now for a few more deep breaths.
Breathing in all that calm and exhaling,
All the tension and stress in the body.
Breathing in that calm and exhaling any stress or any tension in the body now.
Very good.
Now,
In your mind's eye or your imagination,
I'd like you to imagine yourself in an old cinema or a theater,
Whatever is your fancy.
You walk into the theater room and notice the large red curtain on the front facing wall and a series of empty red velvet seats for your comfort.
No one is in the seats and the theater is completely empty,
But it feels so inviting.
So find a seat that looks comfortable to you,
Maybe somewhere in the middle of the cinema or even a nook off to the side,
Whatever is comfortable for you.
Feel yourself sink into the plush seats and allow the sensation of the velvet seats to soothe you and allow yourself to go even deeper,
Deeper down into relaxation.
So take a deep breath in through the nose and let it out nice and slow and smooth.
And as you do so,
You notice that you go even deeper.
So one more big breath and allow the exhale to take you even deeper.
Good.
Now,
As you look up towards the screen,
You notice the curtains begin to open revealing a large white screen.
And as the screen is revealed,
The lights dim even more,
Providing you with more comfort and more ease.
The unseen projector in the back of the cinema begins to light up producing in large black letters,
The number 10,
The number 10.
See the one in the zero,
The number 10.
In a moment,
The number is going to count down from 10 to one.
And when it does,
You'll notice something amazing begin to happen.
As the numbers count down,
You'll notice that you go even deeper into that beautiful relaxation you've created even deeper than you were before.
Each time the number counts down,
You'll go 10 times deeper than before.
So let's begin.
10.
Feeling sleepy and tired now.
9.
Letting your muscles relax and unwind.
8.
Letting your jaw relax and hang open if you need to.
7.
Relaxing your shoulders,
Letting them droop by your sides.
6.
Relaxing 10 times deeper than before.
5.
And 4.
3.
Feeling even more tired and even more relaxed.
2.
Listening to only the sound of my voice now.
And 1.
All the way relaxed now.
Falling even further asleep now.
Fully relaxed.
Good.
Now notice the large white screen of the cinema.
It's perfect color of white that seems to soothe you even more.
Now,
On the screen is the word sleep.
The word sleep.
See the S in the L and the two E's in the P.
The word sleep on the screen.
And when you see the word sleep,
And only when you see the word sleep,
You find yourself becoming even more sleepy and even more drowsy than you were before.
Sinking deeper and deeper now into that warm,
Comfortable feeling.
That natural way of falling asleep.
Good.
Experiencing the sense of the body as a whole,
Simply lying here,
Extended and breathing.
When you feel ready,
Picture in your mind's eye the image of a lake.
Perhaps a lake that you know well and frequent,
Or one that you've seen in a photograph,
Or an imaginary lake for that matter.
Just seeing if you can bring that image into vivid focus in your mind's eye.
Noticing how it's an extended body of water held in a depression in the Earth's surface,
And perhaps fed by a spring or a stream.
If you watch and observe the lake carefully,
You'll notice that it's always changing,
And yet,
It's also always itself.
It changes as the sun moves across the sky.
The light is reflected off the water in different ways.
It changes depending on the weather.
Sometimes on very calm days,
The surface might be like glass,
And reflect virtually everything with great precision that comes by.
Clouds,
Birds,
The trees that might surround the lake,
The sun as it makes its journey across the sky,
And for that matter,
The moon and the stars at night.
So there are times when the lake is extremely reflective,
And contains,
In a certain way,
Everything that comes by or over it.
In different periods of time,
The surface might be choppy or royal,
And sometimes quite pronounced in the waves,
In which times the light might sparkle off the waves in different ways,
Like a myriad of jewels.
Of course,
The lake changes through the seasons.
In the winter,
Depending on its location,
It might actually be frozen over,
At least on the surface.
Through the day and night,
And through the seasons,
And through the years,
The lake is constantly changing,
But always its own essential nature.
Let's see if we can't invite the lake to become co-existent with our own body lying here,
So that our body becomes the lake itself.
We also feel held and embraced as we lie here,
Aware of the many ways in which our own mind is like the surface of the lake,
Sometimes highly reflective,
And sometimes choppy.
Getting in touch with the sense of the entirety of the lake,
The full body of water,
Not only in the surface,
But down below.
As we lie here,
Just experiencing the fullness of our own being,
So that even at times when our mind is choppy and upset,
Or reactive,
Or dealing with difficult things,
We can drop down beneath the surface of our own mind's waves,
And find a stillness,
And a calmness,
That's always here,
And always available to us,
With each moment,
With each breath,
And certainly when we come to lie down in this way.
Lying here under the canopy of our vast awareness,
Experiencing the moment to moment changes in the body,
And sensations,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Impulses,
Sounds,
And all the while,
Lake-like,
Just simply lying here,
Watching the play of the weather of the mind and body.
Allowing the awareness to hold it all,
Moment by moment,
Breath by breath,
In our own fullness,
In our own completeness,
Moment by moment.
So allow that beautiful calmness of the mind to reflect what the water is in the lake,
And allow that deep fulfilling relaxation to guide you off to sleep,
To sit and reflect like the lake.
Good night,
And namaste.
