Transcripts
1. Introduction to the sleep course!: Imagine waking up, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. You feel alert and awake and you're ready to take on the date. Hi, I'm Jeremy Lobkowitz and I'm happy that you're here. I'm a mindfulness meditation teacher and the creator of mindfulness made easy. And I'm here to tell you that getting better sleep doesn't have to be a struggle. In this course, I'm gonna show you how to transform your nightly routines so that you'll wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated and excited to start your day. In particular, this course focuses on sleep meditations, have been teaching meditation for the past eight or nine years. And I've seen the profound transformations that happen when you start to integrate meditation into your nightly routine. So if you're ready to say goodbye to all the tossing and turning and restless nights. And join me in the course and look forward to seeing you there.
2. Welcome!: Getting better sleep is really not that hard, to be honest. It's actually pretty simple. But when I first started, I really didn't know anything about what it took to get a good night's rest. And because I didn't know what I was doing, my sleep really suffered and so did my life. I would toss and turn all night and wake up randomly and not know how to fall back asleep. I would wake up in the morning feeling exhausted and need to hit the snooze button 20 times before I could actually get out of bed. But about five years ago, I started learning about what happens when you don't get enough sleep and what can benefit when you do. And I started to get serious about my sleep. And in this course I'm going to show you what I've learned so that you don't have to make the same mistakes that I made. So when you're ready to get started and go ahead and join me in the next video where I'm going to talk about what to expect in this course and how to get the most out of it. I'll see you there.
3. What to expect and how to use the course: Before we jump into the course content, I want to give you an overview of what to expect and give you some best tips on how to use this course. Each evening I'll be guiding you into sleep with one over r expertly designed sleep meditation's. These are going to be a range of different topics from mindful breathing to love and kindness, to guided visualizations, each one designed to help you fall asleep faster. What I recommend is listening to one of the seat meditation's each night as you fall asleep. In order to get the most out of this, I'd recommend turning your phone on. Do Not Disturb Mode. Or even better yet, is you can download the meditation beforehand and then turn your phone on airplane mode to make sure that you don't get any disturbances or distractions in the night. And finally, experiment with your own life. Once you find what works for you, then stick with it. Consistency is a huge part of getting quality sleep at night. So without further ado, let's get started.
4. Meditation 1 Resting the body: So welcome to this series of guided meditations. I recommend doing these meditations in your bed while lying down and allowing yourself to fall asleep to the meditation. So just a reminder to always put your phone on airplane mode or on Do Not Disturb before beginning. And to start out, you can take some time to find a nice comfortable position. A nice laying down posture in your bed. Perhaps laying on your back or lying on your side. Whenever posture, position feels most comfortable for you. And perhaps closing your eyes. And you can also keep your eyes open and just have a soft gaze towards the ceiling. And we can start out this practice just by taking a few deep breaths, breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. Doing that one more time, taking a deep breath in and deep breath out. And just allowing your whole body to soften and relax. Letting all the tension release from the body. And if you're laying on your back, you might try placing one hand on your belly, your abdomen, and the other hand on your chest. Starting to feel just the gentle rising and falling of the belly in the chest. With each in-breath and out-breath. As you breathe in, seeing if you can feel the way the belly and the chest rise and inflate and expand. And as you breathe out, see if you can notice how the belly and the chest fall and deflate. Just tuning in with his quality of mindful awareness. Just noticing what you're experiencing in the body. Feeling the movement of the belly and the chest. And for this guided practice today we can focus on just settling and relaxing, letting go of any tension or tightness from the body. You might bring your awareness to your face and all the muscles in your face. Starting with the forehead. Just noticing if there's any tension or tightness in the forehead. And is it possible to soften, relax, and release checking in with the muscles around the eyes and the eye sockets? Or would it be like to relax to soften the eyes? I'm bringing that attentive awareness down to the cheeks. Softening the cheeks, relaxing the tongue, and clenching the jaw. And it can be helpful to keep your mouth closed and continue breathing in and out through the nose. Feeling the air. Come in and go out through the nostrils. And continuing down the body. Relaxing as you go, releasing tension. Moving down the neck and into the shoulders. Letting go of tension in the shoulders and letting the shoulders drop. Sinking down into the mattress beneath you. Feeling the chest open, becoming aware of the arms and the hands. Letting the whole body settle into the mattress. Becoming aware of that sense of gravity gently pulling you down from below, feeling your body sinking into the mattress and also into a state of rest, fullness. With every out-breath feeling the body, letting go just a little bit further, releasing all the troubles and worries from the day. And if you notice your mind starting to wander, you can just let it wander. Or you couldn't guide your attention back to your abdomen. Once again, feeling that rise and fall of the belly or the chest. Breathing in and feeling the in-breath. And breathing out and feeling the out-breath. Giving yourself full permission to just rest and relax. There's nothing you need to do. And nowhere you need to go.
5. Meditation 2 Nothing to do: Welcome to another guided sleep meditation. Go ahead and find a nice comfortable position in your bed. Laying down either on your back or on your side. Or however feels comfortable. And we can start with a few deep breaths as usual. So taking a deep breath in and deep breath out. One more time. Deep breath in, and deep breath out. And we can start off just by giving ourselves permission to be here. With nothing to do, nothing to accomplish nowhere we need to go. At the end of the day, giving yourself this full permission to rest and allowing yourself to put everything aside. Set down all the projects, all the tasks. And so checking in with your body. And I'm just seeing if there's any tension or tightness a you can soften around. Softening the muscles of the face, softening the muscles around the eyes, cheeks and the jaw, loosening the shoulders, and the arms drop. Can you really let go? Allowing yourself to melt into the bed. And from this place of stillness and the body, starting to tune into the feeling of your breath. Connecting with your anchor point. At one spot, either in the belly or the chest, or at the entrance of the nostrils. Feeling the subtle sensations of the body. And now I'm becoming aware also of your emotional state. So what is the attitude of the mind? If you can notice how you're feeling. Notice if you're feeling agitated or restless or stressed, or happy, relaxed. Just noticing the flavor of the mind in this moment. Getting curious about your experience. And then refocusing your attention back on the breath. Breathing in and feeling the in-breath wherever you feel it. Breathing out and feeling the out-breath. And allowing yourself to be relaxed. Phds, reminding yourself from time to time. And in this meditation there's nowhere you need to go. Nothing you need to do. Just noticing what your experiences, healing them breath, and noticing your emotions and your thoughts. If you notice any intention or tightness creeping back into the body, it can allow these areas to soften. Perhaps breathing into these areas. Letting your out-breath soften and relax the muscles. As if you were a deflating balloon. Nothing to do and nowhere to go. Just allowing us to rest and relax. And feel your breath.
6. Meditation 3 Body Scan: So welcome back to another guided sleep meditation. As usual, finding a nice comfortable posture position in your bed. And for this one I recommend laying flat on your back. And taking a few moments to settle in. We can start with a few deep breaths, breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. Let's do that one more time. Breathing in deeply. And breathing outs though. I'm getting all this stress and tension wash away from your body. And for this practice today will be focused on doing something called a body scan meditation. So it'll be scanning through the body with our awareness, with mindfulness. And for this practice today, we can also relax the body as we go through in each place where we bring our attention. Seeing if you can also soften and relax the body. We can start by bringing our awareness first to the full body. Just getting a sense of the feeling of the entire body from head to toe. Becoming aware of the general outline or shape of the body. Noticing where the body touches the mattress or the blanket beneath you. And feeling the space or the air around the body. Get curious about what it feels like to have a body. How does it feel like to have arms and legs, fingers and toes. And now to do this body scan, we can start by focusing our awareness at the area at the top of the head or the crown of the head. And first, just notice if you are aware of any sensations there. Can you feel the skin on the top of the scalp? And if you feel nothing, and that's okay just to allow that to be your experience. And you might notice some tingling or vibration in the skin at the top of the head. And we can slowly move our awareness down the body. Moving down the forehead. Feeling the front of the forehead. Becoming aware of the feeling of the eyebrows and feeling the muscles around the eyes and the eye sockets. Seeing if it's possible to soften and relax each area as you go through relaxing the muscles around the eyes. Moving your awareness down into the cheeks and the jaw. Relaxing these areas. Letting the tongue relax and slowly move your awareness down the neck, into the shoulders. Softening. And releasing the shoulders. Letting your awareness travel over to the right side and down into the right arm. Feeling the right biceps and triceps. Traveling through the right elbow into the right forearm. Feeling the right wrists and the right palm. And feeling all the fingers on your right hand. And then taking a moment to just rest your awareness and the palm of the right hand. And slowly moving your awareness, pack up the right arm through the right shoulder and over into the left shoulder. Traveling down into the left arm, the left biceps and triceps through the left elbow. The left forearm. The left wrist. Palm of your left hand. And feeling all the fingers on your left hand. As you rest your awareness. And the palm of your left hand feeling whatever warmth or tingling or vibration is present. And slowly moving that awareness backup the left arm through the left shoulder and bringing your awareness into the center of your chest. And we're taking a slightly deeper inhale. And along slow exhale as you relax the chest. Slowly moving your awareness down the body. Relaxing, softening as you go. Healing into the abdomen and the belly. Softening the belly and releasing any tension. Allowing yourself to breathe fully. As you feel yourself sinking. And moving your awareness down into the pelvis, into the hips. And feeling both of your thighs? The right thigh and then the left thigh. Just noticing the warmth. As you let go of any tension. And moving down through the knees, into the shins, through the ankles. Keeping your awareness alive. So staying curious and mindful. Moving down into the soles of the feet and letting your awareness stay there. The soles of the feet. Noticing the vibration, the warmth. And from there, expanding your awareness once again to the full body. Feeling yourself. Healing the body being supported by your bed or the mattress. And also pulled down by gravity. Allowing your body to settle. And find that place of stillness. And allowing your mind to drift off into that state of sleep.
7. Meditation 4 Curiosity Body Scan: So welcome back for another guided sleep meditation. Taking some time to prepare your body and your mind for sleep. In this guided practice today we'll be doing another body scan meditation. So for this one, you'll want to find the position laying on your back, arms at your side or on your belly or chest. And you can have your eyes open or closed. If they're open, just having a soft gaze towards the ceiling. Or closing your eyes. And for today's body scan meditation and will be similar to the previous body scan. But this time really focusing on developing curiosity. So really getting curious about what you're feeling in each different part of the body. And if there's no feeling than just allowing space for there to be no feeling. And starting as we usually do with a few deep breaths, breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. Releasing all tension from the body. One more deep breath in. And deep breath out. Relaxing and sinking. Allowing yourself to come to a place of stillness. Feeling the weight of gravity pull you down. So we can start this body scan at the top of the head. And bringing your attention to the crown of the head, the area on top of the scalp, and just rest it there for awhile. Noticing what sensations you feel or experience. Can you feel that area? And what do you notice? Is there any tingling or vibration? If you feel nothing, they're just making space for that as well. There's no need to force any feeling. And slowly letting your awareness and trip down the top of the forehead. Feeling your way as you go down towards the eyebrows. And moving with curiosity towards the eye sockets. And resting your attention in the eyes. If there's tension, you can soften or you can just make space for the tension. There's no need to change it. But just to get curious about what does it feel like? What do the eyes feel like in this moment? And moving your awareness down the nose and the cheeks. Feeling the outside of the cheeks and then the inside of the cheeks. Becoming aware of your teeth and your tongue. Becoming aware of your choice. There's nothing you need to do with this awareness, but just feeling into the body. Cultivating and strengthening this body awareness. Slowly moving the attention down as if it were honey dripping down your body. So moving down the neck, feeling the upper neck and then the lower neck. Down towards the right shoulder. Feeling the muscles of the deltoid on the right shoulder. And 0 awareness slowly moves into the right arm, healing the right bicep. Right tricep. Moving your awareness through the right elbow, right wrists. And resting your attention in your right hand. Perhaps feeling the palm and you warmth and vibration. And perhaps feeling each finger one-by-one, the thumb, and then all the other fingers. And then slowly withdrawing that awareness from the right hand and the right arm. And the travel up and over to the left side. Feeling the left shoulder. Muscles of the left shoulder. I mean down into the left bicep and left tricep, the left elbow, left forearm and left risks. And then bringing at full, complete attention into the left hand side. What is the experience of feeling into your left hand? Feeling the fingers of the left hand, letting go forwards and just experiencing directly the physical sensations. And slowly withdrawing your attention from the hands and the left arm. Moving slowly back up to the center of your chest. Feeling the area of the solar plexus and the sternum. Noticing any subtle rising and falling. The expansion and contraction of the ribcage. Moving down, feeling the abdomen. Noticing how your belly moves. Feeling the breath softening, and moving down through the pelvis. And both eyes at the same time. The quadriceps, hamstrings, and the hips. Moving down through the kneecaps. Again, just staying curious. Connected to your own body. Moving down the tops of the shins and feeling the calves, feeling into both ankles. And then resting your attention in the soles of the feet. And again, being curious about the direct experience. Bringing your mind into your body down to the soles of the feet and resting your attention there. And moving air attention from the soles of the feet and traveling back up towards the center of the body. Becoming aware of the solar plexus and allowing your attention to stay there. The gentle rising and falling as he slowly drift off into sleep. Why?
8. Meditation 5 Mountain Visualization: So welcome back to another guided sleep meditation, allowing yourself to get comfortable. Relaxing the body, settling the mind. And let's start out today with a few deep breaths. So I'm breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. Another deep breath in. And deep breath out. And letting all the tiredness and stress and tension make its way out of your body. Settling in. Finding that place of stillness. And today's practice will be another guided visualization. Using this imagery to calm the mind, cultivate inner peace and balance. And the imagery will be using today is that of a mountain. So bringing to mind the image of a tall and beautiful, magnificent mountain. Imagining a mountain that reaches high up into the heavens. So high that it touches the clouds. And then feel your body as if it were this mountain. Majestic, serene, and yet grounded, stable. Becoming aware of all the places where your body touches the mattress beneath you. And feeling that as the base of this mountain. Feeling yourself rooting into the Earth. With each in-breath. Feeling the belly arise. As you visualize the rising of this mountain up into the sky. And with each out-breath, feeling the belly fall. And feeling this stability. Growing, rooting into the earth. And knowing that this mountain is so stable, there might be strong wins. There might be thunderstorms and lightning, rain, even fire. Even amidst all this chaos. A mountain is strong, unmovable feeling into that sense of depth and support and stability. And feeling into your body. Feeling the heaviness and the pull of gravity. And how stable your body is. Like the tall, majestic mountain. And bringing an image of this mountain into your mind. You might imagine all the trees and the plants and the flowers and exist on this mountain. What kind of trees? Or on your mountain. And you can imagine a wind flying through and connecting it to the rhythm of your breath. And gentle and seeing the trees move gently in the wind. And imagining all the different animals and might exist on your mountain. All kinds of animals. Do you see? Different birds, and cats, and bugs? What else do you see? Feeling your body routing to the ground. Your connection with the earth? No matter what comes. The mountain is strong. Adding the wind and the rain. Common go. Nothing can disturb your piece.
9. Meditation 6 Loving-kindness: So settling into a nice comfortable posture in your bed. Allowing yourself to fully relax. Letting your body be at ease. Letting the thoughts and worries fade away. And getting ready for this place of rest, fullness, getting ready for sleep. And the meditation today we'll be doing a form of loving-kindness practice. Cultivating, well wishing for people in our life who care for us and who we care about. And if this is your first time practicing loving-kindness meditation. Just a brief introduction to the practice. And the way it works is, you know, be repeating a set of phrases of well wishing and good intentions as you visualize someone in your life. And the phrases are not too important. You can find what phrases work for you. But I'll be using a set of phrases. And those phrases are, may you be happy and peaceful? May you be healthy and strong. May you feel safe and protected. May you live with ease and well-being? And don't worry about trying to remember those phrases right now, I'll be guiding you through the practice. But just to know what you'll be doing is visualizing someone and repeating those phrases as you see if you can get behind the feeling of wishing well for someone. Getting behind that feeling of caring for another person and truly wishing them health and happiness. So we can start this practice as we usually do with a few deep breaths. Breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. Another deep breath in, filling the lungs. And a deep breath out, relaxing the body. And from there, letting your breath returned to its natural rhythm. There's no need to control the breath in this practice. Softening and letting your body to the work of breathing. And for this loving kindness practice, I'll invite you to first bring to mind someone from your life who, you know cares about you. And this might be a mentor or a teacher, maybe a former coach, or an older relative. Thinking of someone in your life who has cared for you or helped you out in some way. You might consider this person a benefactor. And trying to think of someone who you have a very easy and simple relationship with. Not very close person, not your romantic partner, and not someone from your immediate family. As those relationships can be more complicated than just choosing someone who you feel warm about. You know, they care for your well-being. And then see if you can visualize this person in your mind. Taking some time to are the conjure up an image of this person in your mind's eye. And noticing the way that they smile. Perhaps remembering the last time you saw them and had a good interaction. And you might find it helpful to imagine this person sitting next to your bed. And just imagine them looking at you with kind eyes. And just knowing that they care for your well-being. They're not concerned with how much money you have or what type of position or status you have. They just wanna see you. Happy. They just care for your well-being. Taking some time to just feel that loving-kindness coming from this person. Knowing that you are cared for and you are loved and supported. Feeling that warmth and connection. And taking a moment now to reflect on this person's life. Knowing that they are human just as we are. And they go through difficulties and challenges. And they will have times of disappointment and sadness and loneliness. And knowing that just as they send us their well wishing we can send this loving kindness back in their direction, caring for them. And to do this, we can repeat the phrases of loving kindness. Just silently in your own mind. Bringing an image of this person into your mind and repeating the phrases after me. May you be happy and peaceful? May you be healthy and strong. May you feel safe and protected. May you live with ease and well-being? And we'll go through the phrases a few more times. Each time you say the words. See if you can imagine this coming true for this person. Can you imagine what it would look like for them to be happy and peaceful or healthy and strong. So coming back to the words and starting again. May you be happy and peaceful? Maybe healthy and strong. May you feel safe and protected. May you live with ease and well-being? If you lost the connection with the person and taking a moment to visualize them once again. See their face and the way they smile, the way they laugh. And recognizing that they are human. And sending them these phrases of loving kindness. May you be happy and peaceful? May you be healthy and strong? May you feel safe and protected. Me. Live with ease and well-being. And bringing your attention to your chest and noticing if there's any feeling of warmth or goodwill. And resting in that state of love and kindness. Imagining the smile on this person's face as they receive your well wishes. And allowing yourself just to rest in this field of loving kindness. Keeping your attention on your chest or on your belly. As you allow yourself to drift off into sleep.
10. Meditation 7 Equanimity: So welcome back to another guided sleep meditation. Today's practice will be focused on cultivating the quality of equanimity, state of inner balance, inner peace. So taking some time to get settled in your bed, lying down and relaxing the body, releasing any stress and tension from the body. And releasing any stress and tension from the mind as well. And putting down all your to-do lists and tasks. Giving yourself permission to just arrive with no agenda. Nothing else you need to do for the day. And bringing your awareness down into your belly. Softening the belly and taking a few long and slowed the breaths. One more time. Deep breath in. The breath out. Allowing your mind to settle on your anchor point. Feeling your breath. And see if you can just notice the movement of the breath. How it changes from moment to moment. And then moving your awareness outward. Feeling the rest of the body. Becoming aware of your whole body. And for this practice today of cultivating equanimity. And want to see if we can focus on making space for any experience. So whether you're experience or sensation is pleasant or unpleasant. See if you can allow it to be present. Without grasping after pleasant sensations and without pushing away unpleasant sensations. See if you can simply make space for any experience. You can use the labeling technique to simply note what you're feeling. So if he noticed some pain in the body, simply noted pain pain and allow it to be there. You might investigate more closely. Notice if there's heat, coldness. Notice if there's any throbbing or pinching. Does the pain feel sharp or dull? Whatever you notice, whatever you become aware of, new, make space for that experience. Maintaining your inner balance. Coming back to the breath whenever you're not sure of what to do or what to pay attention to. I'm bringing this same quality of equanimity to the breath. Can you let the breath be just as it is without wanting it to be deeper or different. Noticing the breath and maybe noticing in your mind, this is how it is right now. Might be aware of different emotions or feelings. See if you can use that same phrase. This is how it is right now. Or this is how I'm feeling in this moment. You can notice if you're feeling sleepy or tired. Notice if you're feeling restless or agitated. Make space for any experience. Nothing to change, nothing to fix. Noticing whatever arises. And he sight or smell or taste, and body sensation or sound, any feeling or emotion. And you welcome every experience. As if you were a greeting a friend at your front door and inviting that friend in for tea. Can you let go of all resistance? Nothing to cling to, nothing to push away.
Jeremy Lipkowitz, Mindfulness Meditation Coaching
