Short Sleep Meditation

Do you struggle to sleep?

This short sleep meditation will help you to relax and unwind after a busy day. Every day is different and with ongoing events happening, there's always something on the horizon about to happen, something to dwell on or think about when you know you need to sleep. This guided meditation will help you to empty your mind and drift off to sleep.

https://www.horizonplymouth.co.uk

Transcript

You are listening to The Therapy Guy talking

about all things mental health, informing and supporting

you when you need it most.

Contact us for more information or with

any comments and please leave a review

if you enjoy what you hear.

Thanks for listening Horizon Counselling for all

your mental health and wellbeing needs.

Contact us today for the support you need.

Find us at horizonplymouth.co.uk. Hi,

welcome back to The Therapy Guy.

I hope you are staying safe and

keeping well and looking after yourselves.

Thanks for listening.

As always, I really appreciate the

feedback that you give me.

I appreciate the requests for

different things that you want.

And today I've received a request for some

meditation, some mindfulness techniques that can help you

feel refreshed, relaxed and energised, all at the

same time and very short, very brief.

Something that they can do regularly for themselves

what I'm going to do is just

allow you really to find somewhere comfortable.

That's what I'd like you to start with, somewhere where

you may not be disturbed for, say, ten minutes.

That's all very brief, where we're just going to be

able to switch off for a short period of time.

So once you find someone that's comfortable for yourself,

I want you to remember that while doing this,

you will always be in control of you.

You'll be able to hear different things outside the

building or inside the room that you're in.

You'll be able to feel and move around to

whatever way that makes you comfortable and feel relaxed.

So I just want you to rest

where you are, find that comfortable spot.

If it feels okay for yourself, I would like you to

just close your eyes, just because it helps take away some

of the external stimulus that you can see sometimes.

Now, this is just a very brief time just for you.

Nobody wants anything from you, nobody needs anything.

This is just allowing time for you to spend on

yourself, for you just to relax and switch off and

let your cares go, let your worries go.

At this moment in time, nothing matters.

We're going to allow you just to switch off some

of those thoughts and allow this time for you, so

you can begin just to feel more and more relaxed.

And the more we practise this, the easier it becomes.

In a minute, we're going to focus on our

breathing, allow our thoughts to come and go.

We don't have to stop anything,

we don't have to do anything.

Those thoughts will come in and they leave us

just as simply and easily as your breath does.

Your breath is really important.

Just for a short period of time, I'd

like you to focus on your breathing.

You don't need to change anything,

you don't have to do anything.

I'd just like you to focus on

breathing in and out normally and naturally.

Begin to recognise that when we breathe

in, we're breathing in this fresh oxygen,

this fresh air that our body needs.

And when we're breathing out, we're letting

go of everything we no longer need,

everything our body no longer wants.

We can let go on that out breath of

all the stress and tension that's in your body.

We can naturally just begin to slow our breathing

down, to ease, to let it switch off.

As you begin to feel more and more

relaxed, you can allow yourself to feel comfortable.

Maybe you can begin to feel yourself just sinking into

whatever it is that you're resting on at this moment.

In a moment, what I'm going to do is

we're almost going to go through a routine of

like a mental massage where we work down through

your body, allowing you just to feel that tension

draining away, allow you to experience that feeling of

just relaxing and feeling totally and utterly tension free.

And it's almost like a mental

massage that you're giving yourself.

You're teaching yourself this fantastic

skill of just letting go.

So if we start at the top of your head or face,

we can hold a lot of tension, stress in our face.

I want you just for a moment on that outbreath,

every time you breathe out, see if

you can notice your face relaxing, your

jaw, the attention, everything drained away.

You can allow that face to become easy.

You can rest your jaw, you can lower

your mouth to fall upon if you want.

You can recognise that your tongue is resting

gently on the bottom of your mouth.

Everything's as it should be.

You can just allow things to drift, allowing

thoughts to come and go with every breath.

You breathe in and you breathe out easily,

naturally, slowly and steadily, feeling more and more

relaxed with every word that I speak, every

breath that you take out.

As we allow this relaxation, this sensation

is spread down from our face.

We're going down through the

neck and into the shoulders.

We can hold a lot of tension and stress here.

When you take a few deep breaths, breathing all

the way in and then all the way out.

And every time you breathe out, I

would like you just to let go.

Some of that stress and tension that you're

feeling there in your shoulders and your neck.

Will you allow it to drain away?

If you then begin just to move

down through your arms gently and naturally?

I'm feeling heavier.

You can feel your hands becoming easier.

Your fingers may begin to tingle.

That's okay.

We're allowing you just to become as relaxed as

you want to be at this moment in time.

We can move down through your back, allowing

those large muscles that surround our back, in

our spine, just to ease, to loosen.

You can begin just to drift deeper and deeper,

allowing that wave of relaxation spread through you as

that tension drains away on every breath out.

Every time your chest in your stomach sinks down.

You can let go.

That tension.

Every time you let out a breath, you're letting go.

The tension, the stress that

you're feeling in yourself.

We move down through our legs, everything becoming heavier, easier,

all the way down to the tips of your toes.

You're breathing now just slowly and deeply, letting go

of those negative thoughts and feelings and those sounds

that you hear around you, sounds that are inside

the building or outside traffic, passing by.

Normal day to day sound.

Nothing's going to disturb you,

nothing's going to matter.

You'll be able to find that your mind begins to wander.

Begins to drift.

Because the only sound that matter to you

will be the sound of my voice.

Which will enable you just to

breathe even more slowly and steadily.

To breathe out.

To drift where you drift.

My voice is going to drift with you.

Allowing you to let go of even more

of that nervous tension that you're holding onto.

Your body can just continue to sink down,

becoming more relaxed as you find yourself becoming

more comfortable where you are, your breathing slowing

down, the thoughts just slowing down, becoming easier.

As you focus on my voice, on your chest

rising and falling easy, feel yourself sinking down into

the bed, the chair, wherever it is that you're

resting right now, becoming more comfortable, calm and contented,

allowing that feeling of comfort just to grow inside.

Recognising that you don't have to do anything else.

Just simply pay attention to your breathing.

And now, as you do, take a deep breath.

Hold it for a moment.

That's right.

And just as you let it go, as you release

that breath, allow your body just to relax even more.

When you relax on an out

breath, your comfort can increase.

You don't have to do anything at all.

You got nowhere to go, nothing to

do apart from enjoy this relaxation, enjoy

the control that you have over yourself.

All you need to do is allow certain

things to happen in response to these words.

Recognise the reaction in your body

to the response to these words.

As you really feel that growing comfort of just

letting go, of all of your muscles becoming softer,

as you notice any sounds that you hear, any

words that I say, anything just allows your good

feelings to increase, allowing you just to drift off.

My voice drifting with you, pleasant thoughts

and images, wondering what's going to change

and shift first for yourself.

You can easily use all of your powers or imagination,

your intelligence and your focus to allow you just to

relax in whatever way is right for you.

At this moment in time, you notice words.

And noticing these words, the deeper you

go, the more wonderful relaxed you feel.

And the more wonderful and relaxed you

feel, the deeper you can go.

Now, that's right.

Just breathe slowly and naturally.

And as we continue, you can hear my voice and

other times it may seem quite or distant, and other

times you may not hear it at all.

But you will hear all you need to

hear, here, here and now, because you're the

one who is in control and you can

really enjoy this wonderful feeling of complete relaxation.

And there may be times when you're not aware of

your body and you won't be aware of your body

at all, as you just continue to go deeper and

deeper, relaxed, enjoying that, completing not a feeling of feeling

in control, just breathing normally and naturally, slowly and deeply,

whatever way is right for you.

Comforting to know.

You can give yourself permission to feel safe, to

enjoy these things that are important to you.

Knowing that as you go deeper now, just listening to the

sound of my voice, you can be aware of that comfortable,

heavy feeling of legs, of arms, your entire body.

I wonder if you can allow those

feelings to continue, those comfortable, relaxed sensations

of mind and body as you drift.

And my voice just rushed with you, allowing you

to breathe slowly, naturally, happy and secure with each

and every breath that you make, realising that you're

in control over how you think and feel.

And every day you can become so deeply

interested in whatever it is that you're doing,

whatever it is that's going on around you.

Your mind can be distracted away from yourself,

no longer thinking about yourself so much, no

longer dwelling upon the negative aspects and difficulties

in your life, because you're much less preoccupied

with yourself, your own feelings.

You're able to breathe slowly and naturally,

knowing that you're in control of you,

and you can become that confident, comfortable,

relaxed person that you want to be.

You will be able to remain calm and confident

in situations which provoke different reactions in the past.

But now you can enjoy these new experiences just

by breathing slowly and easily, deeply, in and out.

Every outbreak allows you just to let

go of more tension, no matter where

you are, no matter what you're doing.

As soon as you focus on your breathing, as

soon as you allow your breathing to slow, you

can take more control, become more relaxed, and have

this new ability to see things in a true

perspective, no longer amplifying any difficulties.

You will have this new, wonderful level of self

control just by breathing easily and naturally as you

are right now, knowing you're in control of you,

and allow yourself just to drift easily and naturally,

listening to the sound of my voice.

Knowing every breath out matters,

every breath out relaxes you.

Every breath in brings more confidence, calmness, filling you

as you feel that relaxation spreading through your body,

enjoying every moment and each and every time you

allow yourself to relax in this way, each and

every time you allow yourself to listen, you'll find

it easier, you'll find that you'll be able to

relax more deeply you're going to find.

Your breathing becomes more and more steady, more and

more relaxed in whatever way is right for you.

Now, as you drift, as you allow yourself just to focus

on the words that I'm saying, I'm going to allow you,

in a moment, just to begin to reenergize and recharge.

We're going to allow ourselves to begin to

wake up and feel the benefit of this

period of relaxation that you've undertaken.

You'll be able to recognise how well you've done today, how

easy it was for you just to experience something new, just

to drift for a short period of time and allowing your

breath just to control how you think and feel.

So I want to count up from five all the way up to one.

Just allowing you to feel this energy returning in

you and allowing you to be able to open

your eyes when we get to the number one.

Five.

Four, you can feel this energy returning.

You can feel different things happening as

the energy starts to come back.

Three, you can hear different sounds, you can

feel different experiences as you start to feel

more and more this energy searching through you.

Two, recognising how well you've done today, how easy

it was for you to slow your breathing, to

take control of how you think and feel.

And one, ready to open your eyes and carry on with

your day, carry on with whatever it is that you want

to do in whatever way is right for you.

Recognising that.

You can just slowly breathe.

Listen to this podcast whenever you want and take

control for yourself just by breathing slowly and steadily.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

I hope you feel the benefit of practising this and

take it with you in whatever you do and use

it in whatever of ways right for you.

Thanks for listening.

Stay safe and look after each other.

Bye for now. Bye.