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July 13, 2025 β€’ 11 mins

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This guided meditation helps you release the mental weight of hopes, dreams, and expectations that keep you awake, teaching you to temporarily set aside both worries and positive anticipations to make space for restful sleep.

β€’ Identifying how hope itself can sometimes become a burden that prevents present-moment awareness and sleep
β€’ Using breath work and body relaxation to prepare the mind for release
β€’ Visualizing thoughts as paper lanterns on boats drifting across a lake
β€’ Understanding that temporarily letting go of hopes doesn't mean abandoning them
β€’ Recognizing that rest is an essential part of becoming and achieving what we want
β€’ Creating a mental image of being supported under a starry night sky
β€’ Learning to trust the natural unfolding of life without constant mental management
β€’ Embracing the permission to rest before everything is resolved or completed


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, if your mind is still busy spinning with
thoughts, hopes, questions,you're not alone.
Sometimes it's not the worrythat keeps us awake.
Sometimes it's the hope, thelonging, the vision, the thing

(00:25):
we wish would happen or feelwe're still waiting on.
It's that connection to feelinglike things would be better if,
or will be better when, and ittakes us off of living in the
moment.
Hope is beautiful, but when wehold it too tightly it can

(00:53):
become another kind of pressure,another weight that we carry
with us into bed.
It takes up a lot of mentalenergy and you don't need to
carry it tonight, my friend.
You get to rest.
So I've created this meditationfor you to create space to

(01:19):
relax and sleep.
Let's start with your breath.
Inhale slowly through your noseand gently release it through
your mouth, again soft to inhaleand even softer exhale.

(01:48):
Again soft to inhale and evensofter exhale.
Feel your head getting heavieragainst the pillow.
Let your shoulders drop yourjaw.

(02:09):
Soften your belly, release.
You are being held, no need togrip or grasp.
Trust that you are supported.

(02:52):
Now imagine that every thought,every loop, every rumination,
every hope is gently takingshape above you like soft paper
lanterns.
Some are bright, with dreamshovering in the distance.
Some are heavy with wonderingand responsibility.
Some are flickering withwhat-ifs.

(03:13):
You don't need to extinguishthem, just notice them.
Now imagine yourself placingeach lantern in a small boat and

(03:36):
setting it on the surface of aquiet lake.
By one, they drift, not awayfrom you, but away from now.
You can return to them in themorning if you wish, or you can

(03:57):
let them go, but for now you areoff duty.
Watch them drift away.
If part of you is still holding, holding hope, holding to

(04:25):
expectations, trying to controloutcomes, if part of you is
still doing this, place yourhand gently on your chest, feel
your heartbeat, feel yourheartbeat, feel the rise and

(04:51):
fall of your breath.
You don't have to give up onwhat you want.
You don't have to hold it alltonight either.
Sleep is what's going to helpyou, and hope is allowed to rest

(05:16):
as well.
There's absolutely nothing thatthinking about stuff is going
to do except keep you fromglorious sleep.
So I want you to trust me asyou picture yourself in a quiet

(05:41):
field under a wide night, starrysky.
The moon is watching over you.
The stars are clear and steady.
The stars are clear and steady.

(06:02):
You lay the weight of thesethoughts that hold you down.
Beside you, you let go of hopefor a moment.

(06:27):
Not discarded, just no longerclutched.
You're allowed to sleep.
Before it all makes sense,things will unfold as things
will unfold, exactly how they'resupposed to, and no amount of

(06:53):
ruminating thoughts is going tohelp you.
Right now, you are allowed torest, even while things are
becoming.
I know and I understand there'sso much you want to do, so much

(07:13):
you feel burdened to do, somuch others want from you and
you have dreams to follow andpaths to forge.
But, my friend, you're allowedto trust that rest is part of
the becoming.
So I invite you to let yourselfdrift right now, carried by the

(07:40):
calm knowing that you are notbehind, knowing that you are not
late, knowing that you are notlate and believing that you have

(08:02):
everything you need right now,that you are already enough.
Let your breath stay easy, allowthe space between thoughts to

(08:30):
grow wider, floating away,floating away as you too, drift
into the stars, with the moonwatching over you.
You are safe and supported.

(08:54):
Trust that possibility is allaround you and there's nothing
you need to do except sleep.

(09:14):
You already know how to do it.
Trust and let it go.
Absolutely nothing to fear, myfriends.

(09:39):
You are safe.
You are safe, you are here, youare loved.

(09:59):
Breathe in the gratitude of the.
Now you get to rest.
Now it's your time, gentlydrift.

(10:21):
Your body is resting, heart issoftening.

(10:49):
You've already done enough.
Sleep will come.
Trust, just breathe, namaste.
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