#71 Relax & Sleep Hypnosis Daily (Jason Newland)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com, my name is Jason Newland and this is Sleep Hypnosis Weekly. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. This recording is for both, you know, people that are looking to fall asleep and also for those just wishing to take a bit of time out and relax deeply.

So if you're looking to relax, I suggest you sit in a comfortable chair that supports your body. If you're wishing to drift off to sleep, lying down on your bed would be preferable. And if you're lying down in your bed listening just to relax, there's a very good chance that you will fall asleep.

So, you know, if you need to be somewhere, you know, if you've got an appointment or generally, you know, you've given yourself an hour to relax, then maybe set an alarm to wake you up. Now, I'm going to do a like a little body scan in a sense of, so we can get in touch with how we feel. First of all, we're going to focus on how we physically feel and then we're going to go back and do the same process, but focusing on how you feel emotionally.

Now, of course, the two will be in intertwined because emotions show up in your body. So, you know, you'd probably be noticing both at the same time. We'll just get an idea of how you physically feel first and then we'll go and, you know, just observe the emotions and what you may notice.

And I'm not a hundred percent sure why this is, but when you do the body scan and when I do the body scan and I've been doing body scans since 2002, November 2002, it's quite specific, isn't it? So 19 years, you know, it's quite a long time. And the first thing I noticed is I felt more relaxed. And even though I wasn't asking or even expecting the different parts of my body that I was focusing on to relax, they did.

The body, my body started to relax, but more importantly, well, at the time for me anyway, was my mind calmed down, which was the main reason I was going to the Buddhist center to start with, to learn to meditate, because at the time I was having a lot of anxiety issues. So I was looking at ways to calm down my mind. I had quite a, quite a stressful sales job at the time.

Admittedly, most of the stress came from me. I made it stressful by wanting to be one of the top people. There was plenty of people working in that office.

They were quite relaxed and quite happy to go home with basic money. And they were very, quite calm and relaxed. I wanted to be relaxed, but also be really productive.

So, you know, I ended up going to learn meditation. It wasn't the first time that I had, I was going to say dangled in meditation. That's probably not the right word.

I had done some meditation back in 1995, learnt through an audio course, actually an audio tape course from another Buddhist organization. So I had learnt the Zen meditation or Zazen or Zazen as it's called, where you just focus pretty much just on one thing, like the carpet in front of you. And that's it, pretty much nothing else.

It's sort of the art of the meditation of doing nothing. And I did quite like it, but this, doing the body scan suited me because of the physical complications I was having at the time. And the stress was causing a lot of physical problems.

Now, I don't normally go into this much detail about my own life during, you know, I do sometimes, but generally I don't. But I thought it'd be kind of, I don't know, interesting in the context of what I'm leading you with. Leading as in talking you through this meditation is, it works.

It worked for me. It's worked for millions of people all around the world. It's one of the oldest meditation techniques there is, the body scan.

Or actually mindfulness of breathing. But it's, it's, it's an old, very old technique. I personally, I like, I kind of mix the body scan and the mindfulness of breathing together.

So maybe I'll do the mindfulness of breathing another time and I'll lead you through that. But we're going to do the body scan on this one. But it's a meditation process, meditation practice.

Some people will use it as a, as a beginning, as a lead up to the actual meditation process that they're going to be doing or practice. So, you know, do a quick body scan and then go into the, the metta bhavana or the mindfulness of breathing or whatever meditative practice that they currently enjoy doing or do, whether they enjoy it or not. Now, I've done the body scan many times in recordings.

So unless you're listening to me for the first time, you possibly heard me do this before. But I suppose in this recording, I'm going to, I'm going into a little bit deeper, maybe, in a sense of telling you why we're doing this particular thing. So part of the process is, it's about noticing how the different parts of your body feel, but not doing the natural thing.

So the natural process is to, well, if it's discomfort, is to push the discomfort away or to try and, you know, get rid of the discomfort. That's natural. Or if there's a feeling of pleasure, the natural thing is to embrace that and to want to experience more of those pleasurable feelings.

That's absolutely natural. However, however, with the body scan, we don't do either of those things. It's completely an unbiased observation.

We don't do anything except notice how you're feeling. Notice how that body part feels in this moment and just accept it. There's no internal dialogue going on, complaining about it or, you know, thinking about what's going on with that part of the body.

Why they say if there's discomfort in my neck, for example, I could easily get caught up in thinking about, well, how come it's just, you know, why is it feeling tense? And then I'm thinking, oh, maybe it's the way I slept last night and I could end up with this big long thought process that takes me away from the meditation into something that isn't relevant. It could lead to falling asleep because it's, you know, it's thinking, it's kind of daydreaming and dreaming is dreaming.

There's not really much difference between daydreaming and sleepdreaming.

I guess the difference is you daydream and you kind of come back to where you are, you know, you're awake. If you're really, really relaxed and calm and lying down or sit, you're laying back in a chair, and you start daydreaming, then there's a good chance that could lead to just drifting away into a deep sleep. Now, whether that happens or not, it doesn't really matter in the sense of what we're doing here.

Now, if you were going to have a practice, a daily practice of doing the body scan every day, then you'd probably want to do it sitting up, ideally sitting with your back straight, your feet on the floor, and to be awake throughout. Now, because we're doing it for relaxation and to allow yourself, your mind to completely let go of everything and to drift off to sleep, if that's what you choose, then we're going to go the comfort route.

Because sometimes, so even though we're not going to even attempt to relax the different parts of your body, your body will still relax.

So it's one of those, it's kind of weird really, I guess. You see, when you say it out loud, it sounds a bit strange, but it's really an amazing thing. So the body scan meditation is something that I used.

I've used it thousands of times. And it's helped me, really, really helped me so much, to calm my mind, to relax my body. Because I've come to the conclusion that sometimes the body, when the body is aching, or it's tense, or stressed, and it's painful, it's uncomfortable, sometimes it seems a little bit like a baby, those parts, they're crying out for your attention.

And with a baby that's crying, sometimes all it needs is just to be held. Sometimes it doesn't even need that, he or she. Sometimes all they need is just you to turn the light on, go over to where the baby's sleeping and say, hello, hello little Jason.

Because I imagine most people call their babies Jason, such a great name. And sometimes that's all that's needed. They look at you and they, oh, they feel safe.

Or maybe they put their arms out and they want to hug, they just want to cuddle, want kisses. And then they want to go back to bed again. Or maybe they just fall asleep in your arms.

They relax because they have received what they required, which was your attention. And I like to think of tension and stress in the body a bit like that, is it needs your attention. But realistically, it can't always have your attention.

So, you know, I'm very, I like to try and be realistic as well. In a moment like this, just me and you, where you can relax, take an hour or two hours or half an hour or 10 minutes, whatever it is, some space for you to just give yourself that attention that maybe you weren't able to do earlier because you was in the middle of working or you were focusing on other people, perhaps.

It's just, it kind of goes to show how important it is that every day, every single day, you find some space and some time to focus on yourself.

And I know some people will say, well, that's impossible. Nothing's impossible. This is something that's very possible.

It just might take a little bit of work. Even if you have to do it in the bath or do it on the toilet, you know, somewhere where no one else can walk into the room. You can do a body scan on a bus.

It doesn't have to be a long journey either. So I'm going to go through the body scan. And it really is something that you can do yourself.

I'm aware that listening to somebody else guiding you through the process can really be relaxing. And I know, just from experience, there's some people that have already fallen asleep by now. Somebody, you know, people may be used to listening to me.

They might have just got bored. I've been waffling on for 20 minutes and some people might be listening, thinking, are you going to get on with it, Jason? Why? This is taking ages. So I will start to focus on the different parts of your body.

Not trying to relax them, not trying to change how the different parts of your body feel. But actually, really accepting how they feel. Being okay with it.

Knowing that by doing that, you're no longer in conflict with yourself and things become looser. You really do start to feel more comfortable within yourself. And the sense of comfort and relaxation naturally arise purely because you're giving yourself this space, this time.

You're giving yourself some attention, some much-needed attention, which allows you to just be in the moment. No longer worrying about the past or the future. But just being here, now, listening to my voice, talking, and focusing on those different body parts allows you the freedom to listen to me or to just drift off.

If you choose to just drift away, that's fine. Because you can do whatever you decide. Now, focusing first on your face.

You've got your forehead, your eyes, eyelids, your nose, your cheeks, and there's your mouth and your jaw. Of course, there's your tongue, your teeth, your lips, the whole of your face and your head. It almost feels like you're really close and then like you're filming your face and you're kind of pulling away and you're seeing it from a distance.

And the feelings change as you focus now on your neck, your throat, the sides of your neck, and the back of your neck. Just noticing how your neck feels. Again, you can maybe pull away a little bit, seeing your neck from different angles, noticing what a great job your neck does supporting your head.

As you focus in now on your shoulders, but not just your shoulder blades and the tops of your arms, but also those bones that go and connect with your back and how the muscles of your shoulders connect to the back of your neck and the top of your back, all those muscles. You can feel it. If you were to move your shoulders around a little bit, you can feel the different muscles that are affected by your shoulders moving.

And then as you focus on your arms, both your left and your right arm moving down all the way, including your elbows, your forearms and your wrists. Just being aware of your arms and all of those muscles even. Your arms are just doing nothing at the moment.

And then you can focus on your hands. My hands are resting on my knees. I'm sitting in a chair, my feet are on the floor, my back is straight.

If I was doing this, listening to a recording, I would probably be reclined in a chair. My hands maybe would be on my stomach. And just noticing the feeling of your hands and your fingers.

Just there, not needed for anything right now. And as you focus on the front of your body, your chest and your stomach. Both parts that move when you breathe.

Your chest and your stomach. It's just there, resting, resting. And then there's your back, starting to relax.

Starting pretty much from the back of your neck, moving all the way down. All the way down your back. Down either side of your spine, working to the sides.

Containing all the different muscles. Moving all the way down to your lower back. This large area of muscles, supporting your body, protecting your spine.

So maybe, as you move a little bit away from your back, you can see it from different angles in your mind. Realizing how precious your back is. More precious than the most valuable piece of jewelry.

Your spine and your back. I know that it's probably not the normal way to think about things. To think about our body parts as being precious.

Yet the fact is, they really are. Each part of your body has a role to play in your life. And each part is precious in its own amazing way.

And sometimes a sense of gratitude can arise. Surprisingly even. When you start to realize all of the things that your body does for you every day of your life.

Every day. Without wanting anything back in return. And it will continue to do so.

Which perhaps is a really good reason to spend a little bit of time every day doing this body scan meditation. As a way to perhaps express appreciation towards every body part for all it does for you. Every day.

As you're moving down to your hips. The midsection, the part that contains your buttocks, your groin, the tops of your legs. Gives you the ability to turn and to walk.

Again such an important part of your body. You can just notice it. Not wanting or expecting anything from your hips.

And your pelvic area. Just acknowledging. Just noticing.

Being aware. Really aware. Of all the parts of your body.

In this moment. Including your legs. Your thighs.

Moving down your knees. Your calves, shins and ankles. Possibly the strongest parts of your body are your legs.

Big strong muscle areas. That do so much for you. Just being aware of the different muscles and the different parts of your legs.

Because the front of your thighs may feel very different from your knees. Your hips, your shins may feel different from your calf muscles. Your right leg may not feel exactly the same as your left leg.

Which is absolutely fine. It's just acceptance. Accepting that this is what is now.

No expectations. No needs. No requirements.

No wants. Just reality. Just observing.

Just love. Being shown towards yourself. And those parts of your body.

That deserve to be and to feel appreciated and loved. For all that they do for you. Every day.

Without wanting anything in return. As lastly we focus on your feet. The bottoms of your feet.

Your heels. The tops. The sides.

And of course your toes. With all those nerve endings in the bottoms of your feet and the ends of your toes. It's almost as if you've got an instant connection to your brain.

From your feet. And even though of course like every part of your body it goes through your nervous system and up through your spine. But the feet, the toes seem to have some kind of fast track.

Same way as your hands. And that may be due to the fact that we perhaps spend more time noticing what our hands for example are doing. So you may be more and more in touch with those feelings connected to your fingers and maybe your toes.

And we now come to focusing on your mind. And this is where we open up an interest. An interest just to know, am I okay? And this isn't in a sense of wanting to fix things.

But we can just ask ourselves. How am I? Emotionally. And allow your mind to just express itself in whatever way it chooses.

And you can just observe like you have been with the different parts of your body. Observe how you feel emotionally. Not trying to change anything.

Just being with yourself. In peace. And quiet.

And quiet. And I'm now going to count down. From 20 all the way down to 1. And with every number you hear you can become twice as relaxed.

And maybe you'll also feel twice as sleepy. Twice as relaxed. Maybe twice as sleepy.

20. 19. 18.

17. 18. 16.

15. 14. 13.

12. 11. 10.

9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 3. 2. 4. 3. 2. 3. 2.