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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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In this meditation, we'll use breathing strategies and body relaxation to rest deeply and settle back into sleep.
Hi, if you're listening to this
meditation, you're most likely
awake in the middle of the night.
I know this can be frustrating.
So we'll use this meditation as
an opportunity to help settle
the mind and relax the body.
It's important to first acknowledge
that and trying to force
ourselves to fall asleep, just
ends up creating more tension.
And so notice your relationship
to being awake right now.
Is there frustration, tension,
stress, or rumination about tomorrow?
Or just about sleep, in general?
Let's start by noticing those thoughts.
Just giving them space to move
through the sky of your mind.
Recognizing that they're just thoughts.
They're not necessarily true.
And see if you can invite your
awareness back to this breath, just the
simplicity of one moment of breathing.
Not focusing on the breath for
the sake of falling asleep.
But just meeting the breath
with curious awareness.
Any sort of forcing or trying to
manipulate yourself into sleep
or just create more tension.
So we meet this moment as we would
any other moment of wakefulness.
Giving it presence, and allowing that
presence to be a little more relaxed.
And if we happen to fall asleep,
then we can allow that to happen.
Let's take a few deep breaths together
as a way to lower the heart rate and
relax more deeply on each exhale.
So we'll start by breathing
in slowly through the nose.
And exhaling everything out
slowly through the mouth.
Breathing in again through the nose.
And out through the mouth.
Letting the body relax on the exhale,
releasing all the air in your lungs.
And just take a few more breaths
like that at your own pace.
Each time you notice the mind
wandering off into thoughts, try to
observe it with spacious awareness,
meeting it with complete ease.
Just a soft acknowledgement, oh,
the mind is thinking, as if you
were watching the mind dreaming.
And then return that
attention back to this breath.
You're welcome to continue the deep
breathing if you find it helpful
or you can let the breath settle
back into its natural rhythm.
We'll do a body relaxation practice.
Scanning our awareness from the
head all the way down to the toes.
Remember, even though we might have that
desire to fall back to sleep, any sort
of strong intention to fall asleep can
often create more tension in the body.
And so we approach this moment with
the recognition that we're awake
right now, trusting that maybe there's
some wisdom to the mind and the body
wanting to be awake in this moment.
Since we can't force ourselves to sleep,
we can meet this moment with presence.
Inviting the mind to relax,
inviting the body, to relax.
It's a win-win.
Maybe we fall asleep.
And if not, we're practicing
relaxation, presence, meditation.
And that in itself is restorative.
So see if you can bring that sort
of relationship to our practice.
As we start by inviting all the
muscles in the face to relax.
The forehead, the eyebrows.
Feeling the eyelids, like
little blankets on the eyeballs.
Sliding down the nose,
the cheeks, the mouth.
Relaxing, the jaw, the
tongue, the throat region.
And really letting your head get
heavy as it rests on the pillow.
Sliding your awareness down to
the neck and into the shoulders.
Notice how the shoulders are right now.
If there's some tension,
inviting the shoulders to relax.
If it's helpful, you can feel
as though you're breathing into
these different parts of the body.
Even visualizing the breath, moving
in and then touching any tension
that might be there, enveloping with
presence care, kindness and ease.
And then on that exhale, imagine
the tension softening just a bit.
Sliding down through the arms, the biceps,
the triceps, forearms, and the hands.
Notice if there's any
clenching in the fingers.
Invote the hands to be soft and feel
any energy moving through your body.
Sometimes when we're awake, it's because
there's excess energy in the body.
We can't always force that to relax.
Sometimes it needs to run its own course.
But we can meet it with relaxed awareness.
We can give it a grounded, peaceful
container to move through us
so that it can run its course.
And so that we can feel some
restoration and ease, even when
that energy is in the body.
Well, bring the awareness
up to the chest region.
Maybe feeling your heart beating.
You're precious heart, taking care of you.
Sliding down to the belly.
Letting each exhale soften your body
deeper into the mattress beneath you.
And letting each breath that you feel
through the belly and through the body be
an invitation for gentle gratitude that
you're alive right now and that you're
awake to experience that aliveness.
Sliding the awareness now to your back.
Feeling the breath as it expands some
of those back muscles on an inhale.
And then feeling the
back relax on an exhale.
Scanning these regions of the body.
Noticing maybe the most
subtle areas of tightness.
You can bring your awareness there,
invite those areas to soften.
Sliding down to the pelvic region.
Relaxing this area of the body.
Sometimes when we're stressed, we can
get a lot of tension in this area.
And so we just give it the
invitation to be at ease.
Feeling into the thighs,
hamstrings, the quadriceps.
Maybe even feeling the coziness of your
likes under a blanket or in your pajamas.
What's it like to feel cozy in your body?
To feel the stillness of the night?
As you continue to slide your
awareness down through your knees.
Into the calves, the shins.
Each time, your awareness touches
the body it's like a soft hand
on our back saying, it's okay.
You can relax here.
You're safe.
I'm here for you.
Finally coming down to the feet.
Feeling the feet, maybe tucked
into the covers all the way at
the other side of you're bedding.
And now as you take your next breath, see
if you can feel the breath moving through
the entire body, enveloping it with
presence, with compassion and with love.
See what that would feel like.
And then on that exhale, feel the
body surrender just a little bit more.
Each time the mind wanders off, we
just bring it back into the body.
Body is always present.
And so as we come to the end of
this meditation, remember you can
replay this or listen at any point.
And if you'd like to stay in the
silence, you can continue to practice
being with your breathing, scanning
through the body and biting it to relax.
And at the very least, just
taking this time to appreciate
this moment of aliveness.
We can't fight it,
it will just create more tension.
So we might as well appreciate it.
And if that leads to deeper
sleep and ease, great.
If not, we've restored
ourself through presence.
I wish you deep rest.
Thank you for your practice and take care.
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