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Thinking about stressful situations before going to sleep can trigger the stress response, which is the opposite of what the body requires in order to wind down and go to sleep. A meditation exercise can help people to get their attention from their racing thoughts to their hard-working body’s need for sleep. The following meditation exercise may be done with soft music, nature sounds (e.g., ocean waves) or a relaxation tape playing in the background. It may also be done in conjunction with a relaxation exercise or breathing exercise.
Each step of this exercise can be done while lying in bed. The steps are as follows:
- Close the eyes and take three deep, cleansing breaths. Focus on inhaling clean air and exhaling stale air.
- Continuing to breathe deeply, spend a few moments focusing attention on the toes. Attention is fully focused on this part of your body when one can mentally visualize the position of each toe. This in itself can be quite relaxing as attention shifts from the mind to the body. Imagine the toes to be warm, limp and relaxed.
- Now focus attention on the ankles. Imagine any knots or tension in the ankles to loosen and unravel, falling away while continuing to breathe in fresh, cleansing air.
- Continue to spread this blanket of warmth and relaxation up over the knees, thighs, pelvis, stomach and chest.
- When reaching the shoulders, imagine massaging fingers working out the tension in the shoulders, upper arms, forearms, hands and fingertips. Let those massaging fingers continue to massage up the neck, jaw and cheeks, until feeling completely relaxed from the cheeks all the way down to the toes.
- Now imagine a cool facecloth over the forehead, soothing away any doubts, worries or concerns.
- Feeling relaxed from head to toe, continue to take deep breaths and remember that this state of relaxation can be achieved at will.
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