Open and allowing, adapted for falling asleep. The closing gong has been removed so nothing wakes you at the end.
Listen to the Meditation
About This Practice
Nowhere is resistance more obvious than at two in the morning. You want to be asleep, you are not asleep, and the wanting is what keeps you awake. Then the fear layers: first the racing mind, then worry about the racing mind, then worry about how tired tomorrow will be.
This practice does the opposite of what instinct suggests. You stop trying to get to sleep. You let whatever is present be present. Thoughts race, let them race. A sensation arrives, let it arrive.
What happens is almost anticlimactic. With nothing feeding it, the intensity plateaus and fades on its own. Sleep tends to arrive once you have genuinely stopped chasing it, which is why this one works and why it cannot be done as a technique for getting to sleep faster.
The wider lesson holds too. Experiences come and go, and you are safe. That is how trust gets built, and trust is what fear runs out of room in.
Micro Practice: Three Breaths
When you notice yourself bracing against something, take three breaths.
- Breathe and settle on the breath itself.
- Breathe and notice where you are pushing an experience away or pulling one closer.
- Breathe and let it be there, trusting that you can handle what comes.