Release muscle tension through progressive relaxation and body scanning to prepare for restorative sleep.

English

This meditation is intended to be practiced in the evening before going to sleep (preferably lying down) to prepare the body and mind to wind down and release tension. Using progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing, and a gentle body scan, you will be guided to progressively relax the body and calm the mind before bed. 

This meditation is accompanied by delta brain wave binaural beats to support the mind and body with relaxation and sleep. 

Music credit: Chris Collins

Prepare The Body For Sleep

Hello, and welcome to your guided meditation for restful and restorative sleep. Beginning here by lying down on your bed, positioning your body in a way that feels most comfortable and nourishing to you and your body. Allowing yourself to feel the weight and the heaviness of your body as it sinks down into the support beneath you. Allowing yourself to feel held by your bed, held by the earth, held by spirit, your angels, guides, and ancestors, and held by your higher self. Allowing yourself to feel and receive the support that is physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually holding you. And we'll move now into progressive muscle relaxation. This practice releases muscle tension in the body and sends a safety signal to your brain. And I want you to feel and sense and see as you squeeze these muscles and release them, that anything that you've been holding on to from your day to day just effortlessly gets released, given to the earth, released from you. Beginning here with your feet and squeezing your feet muscles as much as you can, squeezing them and fully releasing them, letting all tension go. And now squeezing your calf muscles, squeeze, squeeze, squeezing all the tension. And now letting it go, fully releasing. And now squeezing the thighs, squeeze, squeeze, squeezing the thighs. And now releasing all tension from the thighs, letting it go. Next, squeezing your butt, squeeze, squeeze all the muscles in your butt, squeezing your sphincter, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and release. Let it go. Next, squeezing your stomach, bringing the belly button in towards the spine and just squeezing, tensing all muscles in the stomach area that you can, and release that. Let it go. Next, squeezing the hands, making fists with the hand and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, tension, and exhale, release, let it go. Next, squeezing all the arm muscles and bringing the shoulders up towards the ears, squeezing the shoulders all the way up into the neck, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, holding it here, and now release, letting all muscle tension go. And next, moving to the face, squinting your eyes, squeezing your nose, making a face as if you were sucking on a sour lemon, just squeezing all of the muscles in the face, the jaw, the nose, the lips, squeeze, and release, let it go. Allowing yourself to feel lighter, more relaxed, more at ease here. And from here, just beginning to gently deepen your breath just 5% more, inhaling through your nose, allowing the belly to expand and take up space, exhaling, just allowing the belly to naturally fall, and you can feel the belly expand as you breathe in through the nose, and you can feel the belly fall as you breathe out of your nose, allowing the breath to feel easy and fluid and natural. And from here, moving into gentle body scanning, bringing your awareness to your forehead, releasing any tension in the forehead, letting it go, bringing awareness to the jaw, releasing all tension in the jaw, letting it go, bringing your awareness and attention to your neck and shoulders, allowing all tension to melt, bringing awareness to your shoulder blades, allowing them to melt down your back and into the surface beneath you, and moving to the pelvis, allowing your pelvis to sink down to release into the surface beneath you, into the earth, allowing yourself to release tension in your sphincter, allowing the sits bones to melt down into the surface beneath you and into the earth, bringing your awareness to your calves, allowing all tension to release from your calves, and your ankles and feet, allowing all tension to release from the ankles, the feet, allowing yourself to feel grounded, peaceful, and restful, prepared for a restful and restorative sleep. And together we call forward a divine white healing light from the highest realms of light and sound, asking it to descend down upon you, moving through every part of you, of your mind, your psyche, your body, assisting you with feeling light, grounded, held, and ready for nourishing, restful, and restorative sleep. Your mind, body, psyche, and spirit are now prepared to enter into a deep and nourishing sleep, sending you so much love, blessings, miracles, and nourishing sweet dreams. Until next time, take great care.