Sleep with Ease

Welcome to this Shine meditation. Alicia here. Thank you for joining me. Let's start by getting grounded. Take a deep, soothing breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Allow your body to find ease. We're going to play with some of the elements of yoga nidra in this meditation to help guide us into a restorative, peaceful sleep. Yoga nidra is the practice of progressive conscious relaxation. We gently drift our attention to the outer world and back into our inner world. We travel through the layers of the self, and as we do this, our mind and body fall into a restful state. If you fall asleep, that's absolutely fine. Allow your body to respond in the way it naturally wants to. As you listen to the sound of my voice, I want you to close your eyes and find a comfortable position. What can you do to make yourself even more comfortable? Shift around until you find that sweet spot. Now, I want you to become aware of the sensation of your skin. How does it feel against the material of your clothing or blanket? Feel the temperature of the air around you, the feeling of warmth or cool around your body and the way this feels on your skin. Now I want you to bring your attention to your toes. Feel them relax as you consciously let go of any tension. And now the rest of your feet, your ankles, all the way up to your knees, consciously relax them. Bring your attention to your upper legs now. Your hips, pelvic area, imagine them all relaxing. Now your attention travels up to your belly, your chest, and shoulders. Imagine all the tension melting out of these muscles and joints, sinking deep into the Earth. Now your attention moves into arms, hands, and fingers. They all relax completely. As your awareness travels up your neck and into your face and scalp, all of these parts of you relax. Your eyebrows, your mouth, cheeks, tongue, ears all relax. Let go. (no audio) (no audio) I want you to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. As you do this, count backwards from 10. Inhale, 10, exhale. Inhale, nine, exhale. Inhale, eight, exhale. Inhale, seven, exhale. Inhale, six, exhale. Inhale, five, exhale. Inhale, four, exhale. Inhale, three, exhale. Inhale, two, exhale. Inhale, one, exhale. Now I want you to embody the sensation of sinking. Feel your body becoming heavier and moving lower and lower into the Earth, pulled down by gravity. You give in to the pull of the Earth as your body moves down, down, down. Now imagine that your body becomes weightless and begins to float. You start lifting off the surface you're on and slowly travel higher and higher and higher. I want you to bring together these feelings of traveling up and down at once. You float and sink. Allow these sensations to merge in your body. (no audio) (no audio)...