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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 there.
If you're listening to this
meditation, you're most likely awake
in the middle of the night and I
know that this can be frustrating.
So we're going to use this meditation
as an opportunity to help settle
the mind and relax the body.
And it's important to first acknowledge
that, you know, trying to force
ourselves to fall asleep really
just ends up creating more tension.
And so notice your relationship
to being awake right now.
Is there any sense of frustration,
tension, stress, or maybe
rumination about tomorrow?
Or just rumination about sleep in general?
Let's start by noticing these thoughts
and just giving them space to move
through this sky of your mind,
recognizing that they're just thoughts.
They're not necessarily true
and not necessarily helpful.
And see if you can invite your
awareness away from those thoughts
and back into the breath in your body.
Just the simplicity of
one breath, one moment.
So not focusing on the breath for the
sake of falling asleep, but just meeting
the breath with a curious awareness.
Any sort of forcing or trying to
manipulate yourself into sleep,
will just create more tension.
So instead we meet this moment as we would
meet any other moment of wakefulness,
just giving it presence and allowing that
presence to be a little bit more relaxed.
And if we happen to fall asleep,
then we'll allow that to happen too.
So let's just take a few breaths
together here as a way to lower the
heart rate and relax more deeply.
So we'll just start by breathing
in slowly through the nose.
And then exhaling slowly
out through the mouth.
And breathing in again through the nose.
And breathing out again through the mouth.
And letting the whole
body relax on the exhale.
Just releasing all the air in your lungs.
And just inviting you now to take a few
more breaths like that at your own pace.
Each time you notice the mind wandering
off into thoughts, just try to
observe it with a spacious awareness.
Just meeting it with a complete ease,
just a soft acknowledgement, Oh, the mind
is thinking, as if you were watching the
mind dreaming and then just return that
attention gently back to this breath.
And you're welcome to continue the deep
breathing if you find it helpful or
you can now just let the breath just
settle back into its own natural rhythm.
So we'll do a body
relaxation practice now.
Just scanning our awareness from the
head all the way down to the toes.
And just remember, even though we might
have the 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 and trusting that maybe there's
some wisdom to the mind and the body
wanting to be awake in this moment.
And since we can't force
ourselves to sleep, we can
meet this moment with presence.
Just inviting the mind and body to relax a
little, inviting them to settle a little.
And maybe we fall asleep, and if
not, we're practicing relaxation,
presence and meditation.
And that in itself is restorative.
So see if you can bring that
sort of relationship into this
moment and into this practice.
So as we begin, just bringing all
of your awareness and inviting it
to the face, the head and the neck.
And just inviting all of the
muscles of the face to relax.
Allowing the forehead to relax.
And the eyebrows.
And then just bringing
awareness to the nose.
And the cheeks.
And the mouth.
Jaw.
Tongue.
And then really having a sense
of letting your whole head get
heavy as it rests on the pillow.
And sliding your awareness down into
the neck and shoulders and just notice
how the shoulders are right now.
Is there some tension?
And inviting the shoulders to relax.
If it's helpful, you can feel as if
you're breathing into and out from
these different parts of the body.
You might even like to visualize the
breath moving in and then touching any
tension that might be there, enveloping
it with presence, care and kindness.
And imagining that on the exhale,
just imagining that tension
softening and melting a bit.
And then sliding awareness
down into the arms.
The whole length of the arms,
including the hands and fingers.
And notice if there's any clenching
in the hands and fingers, and
invite the hands to be soft.
Sometimes when we're awake, it's
because there's a little bit of
excess energy in the body and we
can't always force that to relax.
Sometimes it just needs to run
its own course, but we can meet
it with a relaxed awareness.
We can give it a grounded,
peaceful container to move through
so that it can run its course.
And so that can feel really restorative.
It can really give us a sense
of ease, even when the body
has a lot of energy in it.
So let's just bring awareness
into the chest region now.
Maybe you can feel that gentle
rhythm of your heart beating here.
And then sliding awareness
down into the belly.
And feeling the breath here and
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 a gentle gratitude
that you're alive right now and that
you're awake to experience that aliveness.
And sliding the awareness
now to your back.
And feeling the breath as it
expands some of those muscles
on the back on the inhale.
And feeling the back relax
a little on the exhale.
So if you notice maybe any sense of
tightness or holding here, you can bring
your awareness there and invite those
parts of the body that are tense to gently
soften, even if it's just a little bit.
And then moving the focus of awareness
down to the pelvic region, and just
relaxing this part of the body And
sometimes when we're stressed, we can
get a lot of tension in this area.
And so we're just giving it
the invitation to be at ease.
And then beginning to
tune into the thighs.
And just feeling into the thighs,
the hamstrings and the quadriceps.
Maybe even just feeling the
coziness of your legs under
the blanket or in your pajamas.
So just noticing what it's like
to feel cozy in your body and to
feel the stillness of the night.
And then just continuing to slide your
awareness down, down through the knees
and into the calf muscles and the shins.
And each time your awareness touches
the body, it's like a soft hand
on the back saying, It's okay.
You can relax.
You're safe.
And then coming all the
way down into the feet.
And now as you take your next breath,
see if you can feel the breath moving
through the entire physical body.
Just being aware of the whole body
now, enveloping it with presence,
with compassion and with love.
Just seeing what that would feel like.
Holding the whole body
in a loving awareness.
And then on the next exhale,
feeling the whole body surrender
just a little bit more.
The body is always present.
So just tuning into the body
and letting the body and mind
settle and soften abd relax.
So as we come to the end of this
meditation now, just remember
that you can replay this or
listen to it again at any point.
And if you'd like to stay in the silence,
you can continue to practice being
with your breathing, scanning through
your body and inviting it to relax.
And at the very least just taking
this time to appreciate this moment of
stillness, of aliveness, remembering
that we can't fight being awake,
it'll just really create more tension.
So we might as well appreciate it.
If that leads to deeper
asleep and ease, that's great.
And if not, we've restored
ourself through presence.
So I wish you deep rest.
Thank you for your practice and take care.
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