Sleep meditation

Recently I recorded a guided meditation for my sister to help with getting to sleep. Meditation is actually about staying awake, but have you noticed that when you want to stay awake you find it hard not to fall asleep, and when you really want to go back to sleep you can't help staying awake? Whenever I do a meditation lying down I find it very difficult not to fall asleep. Haha!

This is a really good example of how when we are clinging to wanting something it gets in the way of getting it. We get in our own way by being too attached to the outcome.

And it's really interesting, when you are clinging to something you can feel it in the body as resistance or tightness or pressure. Maybe in the jaw or the forehead, or the shoulders, maybe the whole body feels full of resistance. And you can meditate on the sensations of these and give them some space. Just be curious, choose an area and see if you can feel the sensations and allow them. Allow them to open up. It normally leads to a shift into letting go and after a few minutes more of focusing on sensations in the body, you will very likely be sound asleep. You can also use the breath to breathe into these sensations in the body, or breathe with them and feel the lovely sense of softening and letting go that comes with the out breath.

When we let go in the body, the mind begins to calm of its own accord. We get out of our own way.

Here is the meditation if you would like to try it out. Do let me know how it is for you.