Meditation is an oriental technique that, during the last decades, has become an instrument for relaxation and reconnection with the inner being and life in western societies. One of its many applications is to meditate in bed before going to sleep to promote sleep restorative and calm, as well as to recover the necessary forces to maintain a state of emotional physical health optimum.
Meditating in bed before going to sleep is a simple and accessible tool for everyone with many benefits. Taking advantage of the moment of going to sleep to meditate is much easier and more accessible to everyone than going to class or practicing it outside the home. If you want to put it into practice, in this Psychology-Online article, we explain how to meditate in bed before sleeping Step by Step.
Index
- Benefits of meditating lying in bed
- Prepare everything before you start
- Lie down and adopt a good posture
- Breathe consciously
- Do a small visualization or verbalization
- Take one final breath
Benefits of meditating lying in bed.
The benefits of meditating in bed are many and have a positive impact on both physical health and emotional state and psychological balance. Among the many benefits of meditating, we highlight the following:
- Reduces stress levels associated with life in Western societies.
- Provides an optimal and restful night's rest: the body rests for the necessary time and activates once recovered. This period of time varies from one person to another depending on factors such as age, daily routine or diet, among many others.
- It allows to recover the vital force, motivation and joy
- Contribute to restore physical health.
- rebalances mental and emotional states.
In this article we talk about the benefits of meditation for the brain. Do not miss it!
Prepare everything before you start.
How to meditate in my bed? Before getting into bed and starting the meditation, it is important that you take into account the following aspects:
- Put all your affairs in order the next day.
- Go to the bathroom and drink water before you start, if you usually do it before bed.
- Prepare a piece of classical music for half an hour or more to accompany you during the meditation. We recommend some of Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Tchaikovsky, etc.
- Wear comfortable clothes and cover yourself so you don't get cold or hot. When you enter a state of relaxation, your body temperature drops and you may feel a bit cold.
- Prevent any possible interruption: try to attend previously to any matter that could interrupt the meditation and, with it, its positive effects.
Lie down and adopt a good posture.
When you start, play your chosen piece of music at a soft volume and get into bed. Find a position in which you feel comfortable, not to sleep but to start meditation. The most recommended postures to meditate lying down are:
- Lean on the cushion, with the whole body stretched out and the hands on the abdomen, or the arms stretched out along the body.
- Put your head off the cushion, or place a small cushion at the neck and bend the knees. The arms should be stretched along the body or with the hands on the abdomen.
- sitting on top of the bed: sit with your back straight on the bed and with your legs crossed. If you are just starting out, we recommend using the wall, and a cushion, as support for your back, so that you can support your spine and get used to the position.
Breathe consciously.
Conscious breathing is fundamental to meditating in bed. The goal of this step is to become aware of your breathing and do it deeply and slowly. A good way to put it into practice is inhale through the nose counting to 4 and exhale through the mouth in 8 counts.
If you want to meditate before going to sleep, you should take between ten or fifteen deep breaths, becoming aware to do them correctly. After these initial breaths, continue to meditate without leaving this type of breathing.
This step is important because we do not usually become aware of how we breathe, so it is likely that, in the first days of meditation, you will lose the conscious rhythm of your breathing. If this happens to you, you should resume conscious breathing and, little by little with daily practice, achieve incorporate it as the basis of meditation night.
Meditating lying down without respecting conscious breathing does not provide the same benefits, so it is important that you incorporate this habit when you meditate.
Do a little visualization or verbalization.
When you are already breathing consciously, you can add in the process some small visualization that helps you get closer to those internal spiritual states that you want to achieve, either inner peace, joy, vital force, union with others, cleansing of internal impurities, etc.
On one hand, the display consists in internally create a mental image to help you achieve the internal state you desire. For example, the bright images of natural places bring peace, calm and inner joy. So, visualize these images
Visualizing these images provides a state of balance and inner well-being. Repeated use of visualization during meditation will allow you to call upon it in your daily life when you need to regain lost peace or strength.
On the other hand, the verbalization refers to the use of certain words or phrases which, in the same way as visualization, will help you reach or get closer to the desired states. In this case, we recommend using words like peace, calm, calm, joy, cordial union, love, purity, kindness, etc. In turn, the following phrases will also bring you closer to states of calm and bliss:
- I remain calm.
- I am a child of light...
- I am a whole with my fellow men.
- I am not alone.
- My soul is light, strength and joy.
Take a final breath.
After practicing visualization or verbalization, you should resume conscious breathing and, after 10 or 15 breaths, surrender to the good and peaceful rest.
Another possible option would be, instead of performing a visualization or verbalization, do progressive relaxation and go through the whole body mentally, observing how, with your breath, each part of your body relaxes. After this progressive relaxation, do the same 10 or 15 conscious breaths and end the meditation lying down with the intention of falling asleep.
First of all, it is recommended that you try finish meditation in bed before falling asleep completely. If you find it difficult, you can shorten the practice and finish it before resting completely. You can leave the music on to accompany you while you sleep. Discover how it influences us the music in this article.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to meditate in bed before sleeping, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.
Bibliography
- Andre, Ch. (2018). Meditate in 3 minutes. Editorial Kairos.
