The muscle tension practice, adapted for falling asleep. The closing gong has been removed so nothing wakes you at the end.
Listen to the Meditation
About This Practice
Most of us get into bed still braced from the day. Jaw set, shoulders raised, stomach tight, and none of it noticed.
That tension is not incidental. It is part of how the stress response works, and it feeds back into the state that produced it. A body held rigid keeps signalling that something is wrong, and the mind reads that signal and stays alert to match. Which is one reason sleep will not come even when you are exhausted.
Releasing it deliberately breaks that loop from the physical end. You are not working on a belief here, or examining anything. You are letting the body stand down, and the mind tends to follow.
This is a good one for the nights when everything feels like too much and the last thing you want is to think about your thinking.
Micro Practice: Three Breaths
A few times a day, take three breaths.
- Breathe and settle on the breath itself.
- Breathe and scan for tension. Jaw, shoulders, hands, stomach.
- Breathe out and let it soften.