This is a YouTube video titled "Sleep Now - 1.5 - Visualization - Gentle Loving Sleep" created in June 2015. It contains a guided meditation or visualization exercise designed to help listeners relax and fall asleep by nurturing their inner child and promoting feelings of safety and calmness. The content is a single-speaker monologue focused on relaxation and emotional healing.
So take a nice, slow, deep breath and just notice your toes for a minute. Wiggle them. Feel the texture of the blanket or your socks or whatever is against them. Notice the temperature around you and just be present with your feet for a moment. Take another slow, deep breath and notice how the air feels as it goes in your lungs and then out. Let yourself be present with your body for a moment. Realize there are no lions or tigers in the room. You can actually be present and relax and take another slow, deep breath, noticing how the air is cooler on the inhale than on the exhale. Laying down and going to sleep for many of us has been really stressful for a long time. We learned when we were very, very young that it was a time of feeling overwhelmed, isolated and abandoned. We literally felt like we were going to die. So of course it's hard to relax when we go to sleep. So what I'd like you to do right now is curl up on your blankets and put your head on your pillow if that feels okay for you. And imagine that you're taking you as a tiny infant into your arms. Let her or him snuggle in your shoulder, reach down and gently stroke that little one's hair and let them feel your heartbeat. Just notice your heartbeat for a minute. It may help you to close your eyes. Just tune into your own heartbeat and let that infant self feel it too. When you were little, you didn't know how to regulate your own heartbeat. You often felt overwhelmed and it felt like your body wasn't under control. But now you can tune to your own heartbeat. And as you relax, your heartbeat will synchronize with that little one's and let your breath slow and deepen so that that little one can feel how safe and secure you are right now. And just reach over again and stroke that little one's face. Brush their hair out of their face and just notice how safe you both are together. You don't have to wonder if anyone else is going to come and be there for you, because you're there for each other right now. Let yourself relax and feel the warmth of the blanket that's over you. The love and snuggling feeling that you have by holding this little infant that so needs you. And let the safety and that feeling of soft warmth gently melt the freeze feeling you've been holding onto for so long. Let that small, small child feel incredibly safe in the arms of the one person who will never abandon them and just hold them and love them. That's all you need to do. Just let that freeze feeling slowly melt away as you notice the tension in your neck and shoulders just kind of oozing out the ends of your fingertips flowing away into the universe, giving that infant permission to relax as well. And if their brow is furrowed, you can reach up and gently, gently stroke the furrows on their forehead and ease that out as you let the tension in your own forehead flow away. And you can let the sound of my voice reach both you and that small infant. Let it soothe you. Let it integrate into your heart, knowing that someone cares very, very deeply about you and that you are loved and safe in this moment. That you can turn back to this recording whenever you want and access the energy and the love and compassion I have for you. I care about this so much. I know what it feels like to be so scared, so alone and so overwhelmed. And I want you to feel safe and to know that going to bed can be a lovely reward for a day well spent. That it can be a chance to renew and reward yourself for all the effort and love you put out into the universe. So as you let old tensions go and the stress in your back gently ease away, allow that infant to feel closer to you. Allow that small, small child to feel the security of your adult arms and the knowledge and experience you have in your mind. And that you can look around the room and know that this is a safe space. It's okay to relax and let the day take care of itself. It's okay to let go of the day that just happened. Tomorrow will still be there when you get there. But for right now, the only job you have is to love that small child and listen to my voice as you allow yourself to slowly, slowly drift off into a beautiful, loving sleep.
