Louise Hudson

Sleep is a beautiful, powerful experience that helps us all feel refreshed and renewed. It helps our minds and bodies heal, and gives us the power to continue to pursue our dreams with every new day.

I’d like to help you tonight by reaching out to you with a mindful, restful meditation that will help you drift off and wake up feeling energised and ready for the day ahead.

I’d like you to start by getting comfortable, in any position you feel happy. Lie down on your back, front, or side, however you feel the most relaxed. Close your eyes, let your eyelashes rest gently on your cheeks. Take three deep breaths, in your own time.

Now focus on your body. Focus on your limbs one by one, particularly where you can feel them meeting the surface below you. Maybe you’re lying in bed, or on a sofa, or on a yoga mat, it doesn’t matter. Just focus on your body, and the points where it makes the most contact with the floor. 

Take three more deep breaths in your own time. Now try and imagine your limbs growing heavier with each exhale. Imagine your body growing so heavy that lifting your hand or foot would be a struggle. 

Now slowly scan down your body from head to toe, starting from the very crown of your head, while focus on keeping your breathing deep and slow. Notice your face, your eyes, your ears, your nose and mouth. Imagine your head growing heavier with each breath. Now notice your neck and imagine each individual vertebrae in your spine as you slowly start to scan down your torso, noticing your shoulder blades, your ribcage, your diaphragm, and your stomach. Notice your hips and pelvis, and try to imagine them growing heavier, pressing down towards the surface you’re lying on.

Now, breathing deeply, slowly scan down your thighs, notice your knees and your kneecaps, down your lower legs to your feet, and finally your toes. Notice any interesting sensations in your body, any small adjustments you may need to make to get entirely comfortable. 

Take three more deep breaths, as slowly as you can. Imagine you can see your breath filling your lungs, then being exhaled out into the room. Imagine what colour it would be, and imagine it slowly filling up the room with each deep, gentle exhale.

I’d like you to imagine, if you can, the view from your bedroom window. You may look out onto a garden or green fields, or you may have an urban view of streets, cars, other people’s homes. Either way, I want you to picture that view as clearly as you can, and find something about that view that you love. It may be something small, such as a flower in a window box, or a particular bird that visits you regularly. Or it could be larger, an open expanse of nature or the security of having people always around you. Try to choose something that you find soothing, warming, that helps you feel calm or that feels like home. Focus on this and take three more deep, slow breaths.

Holding onto the thing you love from your current view, I want you to let everything else about that image slowly melt away, so you’re left only with the one special piece of the view that you find soothing. Now try to create another image, of your favourite place on earth. This might be somewhere secluded, a beach or a mountainside, or it may be the home of a loved one. Try to imagine everything you associate with this place. The sounds. The smells. The tastes. The colours, textures, anything particularly special that you cherish close to your heart. 

Focus on your breath. I’d like you to notice how your body feels as you imagine this place. Are you feeling relaxed, soothed, warmed by the image? Perhaps there is a small smile at your lips. Now, holding onto that feeling, whatever it may be, I want you to try to transfer as much of it as you can to that piece of your current view that you saved from your bedroom window. Try to make that small part of your view as special as your chosen favourite place. Imagine yourself opening the curtains in the morning, the sunlight streaming in, noticing this particular item or person or view, and smiling as you welcome in the morning light. 

Take three more slow, deep breaths. Imagine the warmth of the sunlight touching your skin, mirroring the warm feeling in your chest. 

Notice how heavy your body feels, and scan slowly down again, starting at the crown of your head and finishing at your toes.

Continue to breathe slowly, deeply, and notice the warm feeling of being soothed, relaxed, calm, and at peace.