The bed beneath you is holding all of your weight, completely. You do not have to hold yourself up anymore. This bedtime meditation guides you into full surrender, feeling every place your body meets the mattress and letting the muscles that worked all day finally, completely, stop. Tonight there is nothing to brace against, only the bed that catches you.
Best for: anyone who lies down tense and cannot fully relax, who holds tension in the body at night, and who wants to release into deep rest and drift off to sleep.
Use it when: you get into bed but your body stays braced; you want to wind down and let go of the day's tension; you cannot seem to relax enough to fall asleep; or you want a calming body-scan to sink into the mattress and surrender.
How it helps: point by point you give your weight away, letting your jaw fall slack, your hands open, your legs roll loose, until the last of the bracing dissolves. You discover how restful it is to be held instead of holding, and you sink, heavy and supported, toward sleep.
A roughly ten-minute guided breathing meditation in a calm voice over gentle ambient sound, from The Silent Ember Sleep collection.