Hey, welcome to our sleep meditation. Let's start by getting cozy. Maybe you're already in bed or the place where you want to fall asleep, or maybe you're just starting to settle in. So wherever you are, just see if you can find a way to make yourself just a little more relaxed. Maybe your head is resting on the pillow.

You feel the covers around your body. And there's just this sense that, ah, there's nothing I need to do right now. I'm going to give my body the chance to restore itself and recharge while I fall asleep. It's a nice gift to give yourself. So if you haven't already done so, you can let your eyes close.

And know that at any point throughout this meditation, it's okay to just fall asleep. You don't need to finish it. This meditation is designed to help you get really calm and really sleepy. So if that starts to happen, then great. And in this meditation, we'll be practicing letting our thoughts come and go without creating extra stress.

I'm sure you've noticed how sometimes the thinking mind can make us scared, fearful, anxious. And so in our meditation here, we're going to practice how we can change that a bit so that the thoughts feel a little bit more calm. But let's begin by first relaxing our body even more. One of my favorite ways to do this is just by taking a deep breath. So let's take a deep breath in together through the nose.

Breathing in. And slowly out through the mouth, exhale. Doesn't that feel good? Let's try it again. We'll take a deep breath in together through the nose. Breathing in.

And then letting it all out on an exhale, breathing out. Letting the body relax more and more each time you exhale. Let's try it again. One more. Breathing in.

And all the way out. Great job. And anytime you feel tense or stressed, or like your mind is kind of jumping from one thing to another, like a frog jumping on lily pads, just take a deep breath. Bring all of your focus there. Ah, and you should find that it helps to calm your mind, helps to center your mind.

So you can let the breath just be at its normal rhythm right now. Feeling the coziness of being in your sleep space. Can you feel the warmth or the coolness of your pillow? Or maybe the soft, soft fabric beneath you. Almost squishy. You can even imagine that you're sleeping on a cloud right now.

How fun would that be? And feeling the covers around you. Keeping you safe, warm, protected. I sometimes like to feel like my covers are, are hugging me. Almost like someone who cares about me might hug me. The covers are just saying, you're okay.

I'm here for you. Maybe they're even saying, I love you. How does that feel to think about that? That your covers are keeping you nice and safe and they care about you. They want you to sleep well. And they want you to know that you're loved.

Now, as you're lying here in our meditation, starting to get cozy and relaxed and maybe a little sleepy, you may notice that there are different thoughts that can arise in the mind. Sometimes these thoughts are peaceful, loving, calm. And other times these thoughts can be about things that are scary or worries that you might have. When am I going to be okay? And all of this is normal. We all have these thoughts.

I have these thoughts too. So one way that we can be with these thoughts is we can watch them move through our mind. We can watch ourselves think these thoughts. But almost as if they were just clouds passing through the sky. Maybe think to a time that you've laid down on the grass, looked up at the sky and just saw all those clouds.

Oh, there's a cloud. There's another cloud. Another cloud. And one of those clouds too. Oh, they come and go.

They pass through the sky. Well, the sky is like your mind and your thoughts are like the clouds. So if you see any thoughts coming through your mind, see if you can imagine that thought just sitting on a cloud and then passing through your mind. Just a thought. Just a cloud.

Maybe it's a thought about something that's going to happen tomorrow, something that feels a little scary or makes you nervous. And so just see that thought sitting on the cloud. And it's just going through, passing by. You just say, hi thought. And notice how the thought can be there, but you can still be calm in your body.

Letting the body relax. Letting all your tension melt away. The thoughts coming and going like clouds. But you're at ease. You know that you're safe.

And you know that it's just a thought. It's just a thought. It will come. It will go. And if it scares, you can just watch it pass.

And then bring your focus just back to feeling your body breathing. Your body taking care of you. So at any point in the night, if your mind starts to think, you don't have to get worried. Just watch the thoughts like clouds. Feel the coziness of your bed, the covers, your pillow.

And just focus on your breathing until the mind falls back asleep. I hope you have pleasant dreams. Sleep well and take care.