Karen KiskeZ

Missouri

April

the beach, Southern California

Neil J

Auckland, New Zealand

Surrender to a soothing body scan and gentle breath awareness to drift into a deep, restorative sleep.

English

This gentle sleep meditation will lull you into a restorative slumber. Allow yourself to be guided through a body scan and relaxed breath awareness as you put aside the thoughts of the day, and be comforted. There's nothing to do - simply allow sleep to arrive, like a caring hug at the end of your day.

A Restful Surrender To Sleep

Welcome to your sleep meditation. Let this be a time to be lulled into slumber. During this meditation, feel free to use my voice as just another background sound or allow your attention to be guided through a body scan and an invitation to fall asleep. So let's begin by lying down, finding a comfy position in your bed, a couch, wherever you are, and close your eyes. Allow your body to be fully supported by your bed. How comforting and soft. There's nothing to do, no effort to make, there are no demands being made upon you right here. Simply rest into stillness and quiet and let it wrap around you like a warm hug. And as you settle in, you may notice thoughts, just notice those remnants, perhaps bubbling up in your mindscape, that's ok. See what it's like to softly acknowledge them and let them fall to the edges of awareness. You have permission to be complete for this day. Relax in the knowing that anything important can be attended to in the daytime. Trust that the intuitive solutions to any problem will come to you after this restorative rest. And your subconscious will remember what needs to be stored away for now. So we let go of urgency and of doing anything more today. Feel the weight of your body sinking and settling as gravity does its work. Surrender your body, your mind and heart to calm and let yourself be held in silence and safety, just like this. Relax the jaw and let the tongue be soft as well. Feel the throat opening wide and clear and soft. Notice the collarbones, shoulders, shoulder blades, and both arms, everything soft and open, ready for rest. Let's take a moment to gather awareness in the hands and notice where you've placed them. See if you want to change anything, the position of them. It may feel good to rest one hand on the chest or both hands on the belly, or hands can be at your sides with palms up or palms down, making simple and careful adjustments. Now feel the sensations come forth in the palms of the hands, thumbs, fingers, whole hands. With your curiosity, sense any tingling, buzzing, or warmth come forth and show itself. In this stillness and quiet, notice if sensations want to show themselves in other places in your body and with a friendly attention, allow your attention to move where it's being called to move through the body. Sensation sparkling and tingling like a starry night sky with the moon and the night clouds floating above. Gently turn attention to your breath, not to control it, only to notice. The breath is already breathing, breathing you, breathing itself. And exhale, being with the breath as it fills the body and empties out, no beginning, no end. Simply moving and breathing and being. Notice that awareness holds it all, this wider love holding you. Your breath, your body, the sounds in the space around you, near and far, and the thoughts that move through the mind, coming and going like shooting stars across a vast sky. Allow yourself this rest, this being held and comforted. Rest as the spacious moonlit night surrounds everything. There is no boundary between where you end and the world begins. Spacious inside the heart, spacious outside the body, and breathing it out, no borders. The sensation of the body, the movement of the breath, the deeper quiet within the silence, the vast field of loving soft rest. Let your breath lull and rock you, softly, gently. Ride the caring nature of your breath, feel the movement of your belly, the rise and fall around the heart space, the chest. You may even sense the slight movement in and out around the upper arms. Let it soothe you, let it calm and cleanse you for sweet slumber. A deserved rest. This presence, the inner quiet, this simple, aware being, is always here. Beneath emotions, beneath even the concept of sleep or wakefulness. Let everything dissolve into this open, wide, loving spaciousness of sleep. Thoughts drift by like clouds, like stars, and dreams like mist. And you, as awareness, remain still and silent as we welcome sleep. No separation, no time. Just this. And as sleep gently arrives, there is no need to resist it or grasp for it. You are already resting in the deepest peace. The peace of your own being. Nothing but this warm hug of surrender. You are held in the silence beyond words. You are the silence. You are the dream. You are the stillness and calm in which it all unfolds. Sleep now, as the infinite being you are.