Check that your privacy is protected against interruption. If there is an interruption, of course you can flow with it and incorporate it in some way. And by unplugging the phone, putting a note on the door, making sure the children have what they need, etc., you can maximize your chances of having no interruption.

Your partner can be sitting up or lying down. Read very slowly. At the end of the suggested wording you may feel free to voice additional words. . . Don't think about anything ahead of time. . . let it happen. This is all about allowing, letting, experimenting . . . this will be equally relaxing for you as the reader.

Throughout the script we put in a series of periods to represent a suggested pause of about 2-5 seconds so that your partner has time to experience the words and not have to be hurried. Feel free to pause longer or shorter. It's about what feels right to you. By watching your partner you will get a sense of timing and spacing. For example, when you suggest listening to sounds, you might want to allow for 10-15 seconds or more. You'll know. Ready? Begin.

"THE PRESENT MOMENT"

Get in a comfortable position . . . . . .

Let the body relax . . . . . .

Close your eyelids if you want . . . . . .

Be aware of the sounds around you . . . . . .

Distinguish between sounds close to you and sounds further away from you . . . . . .

Between higher pitched sounds and lower sounds.

Listen to your body's sounds...maybe your breath....

Listen again to the sounds around you.

Are there many different ones?

Are any of them changing?

Now feel the sensations in your body associated with your breathing. Feel the air go in and out of your nose.....as it crosses the tiny little hairs in your nose . . . . . .

Now take in a deep inhalation . . . . . . Hold it for a few seconds and let it out.

Do this again...

And take in another breath and this time let it out very slowly. . . . . .

Now let your breathing return to its own rhythm . . . . . .

Just let the body breathe itself... it's own way . . . . . .

On the next exhale let a concern you have go. . . just . . . let . . .it . . . go . . .

Let anything else you are concerned about pass and come back to your breathing....

Experience yourself into this present moment . . . . . .

And now this present moment . . . . . .

J..u..s..t . . . . . . relaxing . . . . . . j...u...s...t . . . . . . being . . . . . .

BE......ING

Feel the support for your body, the surface you are on . . . . . .

Note your breathing . . . . . .

(longer pause)

Being . . . . . . Allowing . . . . . . Just letting . . . . . .

At this point you may continue by making up your own words, you may put the script down quietly because your partner has fallen asleep, or you may just suggest that she/he stay with the breath by remembering to keep bringing the attention back to the breath. This is a meditative experience which uses the breath as an anchor for the awareness.

<<< Maintaining Marriage Any suggestions for a Bedtime Reading you know of? Email us.