21 Aug 4 Ways You Can Meditate To Sleep Better

Do you spend your nights feelings restless and counting the hours pass by? Do you wake up in the morning feeling irritated and lacking concentration? If so, use these 4 ways to meditate to sleep better:

Firstly, ensure that you are in a quiet and calming environment.

Abdominal Breathing:

When you can’t seem to fall asleep, try abdominal breathing. Breathing from the abdomen, pay attention to your in breathe. This helps you to focus on where your breath comes from and not on any thoughts that seem to pop up. To increase relaxation, close your eyes and dim the lights.

Guided Visualization/Imagery:

Enjoying a calm image, like that of a flower, ocean, mountains, a lake etc, seem to be very helpful for those who struggle to fall asleep. Combine this imagery with abdominal breathing for maximum relaxation and a perfect way to wind down at the end of the day.

PS: Stick to whatever image is calming. The ocean might be relaxing to one person and terrifying to another.

Mindful Letting Go:

Meditation teaches us the importance of letting go. When the mind goes through a lot during the day, and is highly stimulated, the practice of letting go will help you to wind down before sleeping. So when different topics or aspects of life you experienced during the day, come to the surface of your mind, identify if it is a thought, feeling or sensation and mark it. So, if it’s something from the past, you label it as memory, or if it is something that makes you feel guilty, label it as a guilty feeling.  The main thing is to label it and simply let go of that thought, feeling or sensation.

Counting Down:

Counting down is a great way to occupy a stimulated mind. When we focus on counting down from 100 to 1, the mind is remaining with the numbers instead of bouncing from one topic to another. So while lying in your bed, making sure you are comfortable, take a breath from your abdomen and hold it. Now, with the next out breath, let everything go and relax. To increase relaxation, add guided imagery like imagine yourself descending down stairs while counting down from 20. With each step you feel more relaxed and easy.