Following a voice down
You cannot get this wrong. Falling asleep partway through is not a failure, and neither is staying wide awake.
- Lie flat on your back somewhere you will not be disturbed. Cover yourself, because the body cools as it settles.
- Let the eyes close. Take three slow breaths and let the floor take your full weight.
- Set one intention, in one sentence, in the present tense. Say it silently three times, then let it go.
- Move attention through the body in a fixed order: right thumb, fingers, palm, wrist, and on through the whole right side, then the left. Name each part, feel it, move on.
- Turn to the breath. Count each exhale down from twenty-seven. When you lose count, start again at twenty-seven without irritation.
- Let a few images pass through: a candle, a river, an open field. Watch them arrive and leave. Hold none of them.
- Return to the intention, then to the room. Wiggle your fingers before you sit up.