Letting Go of Struggle ✨ Abundance Meditation For Sleep

[00:00:10] Good evening, Sleep Wave. I'm your host, Karissa Vacker, and tonight we have a juicy meditation on abundance to help us drift off to sleep. Before we dive into it though, I wanted to give a shout out to one of our listeners, Susan Fay, who says she has learned to find her center within her body and mind since listening to Sleep Wave and can now fall asleep much more easily. We are so glad to be here for you. Sweet dreams.

[00:00:38] If you love this show, start a free trial of Sleep Wave Premium tonight. You'll relax and sleep easier with no advertisements, enjoy more variety with two premium episodes every month, and unlock the full library of exclusive supporter-only episodes. Join in two taps via the link in the show notes. Cancel any time. But now, a quick word from our sponsors who make this free content possible. Where were we? Ah yes, abundance.

[00:01:14] We all have to deal with money every day to function in this world. And how much you have or don't have can cause all kinds of feelings to arise. Worthiness, desire, tension, appreciation, gratitude, humility, comparison, and all of this has the potential to keep you up at night. I've certainly been no stranger to financial concerns keeping me tossing and turning.

[00:01:42] Just recently, though, I've expanded my definition of abundance beyond money. How abundant am I in time or relationships or health or freedom? I'm trying to expand into each of these to give the whole of my life a more expansive, relaxing quality.

[00:02:01] When I do that, I feel more abundance, which, for me, looks like greater generosity and gratitude, less tension and stress, more slowing down and savoring. So what does abundance feel like for you? Who would you be as an abundant person? These are important and revealing questions to ask, but also don't feel bad if they bring up a bit of resistance.

[00:02:29] Some of us, raising my hand over here, have gotten our worth and purpose out of struggling and striving, and it takes some deep awareness and intention to let that go. Whenever I feel that inner gripping that occurs when I am in lack or fear, I try instead to remind myself of how I feel as an abundant person.

[00:02:52] Free, relaxed, in awe of the goodness of life, deeply grateful, and I practice feeling those things all day long. Eventually, it becomes easier and easier, and I begin to align more with my abundance than with a familiar feeling of lack.

[00:03:12] Tonight, we are going to practice this together as we go on an exploration of abundance and drift off to sleep with a feeling of well-being, peace, and flow in our hearts.

[00:03:36] Abundance is often thought of as material wealth or having a lot of something, but at its core, abundance is the felt sense that there is enough. Enough time. Enough love. Enough support. Enough energy. Enough space to breathe, rest, create, and exist just as you are. It is a state of being.

[00:04:06] States of being fluctuate. This is one of the greatest insights we can glean from a meditation practice. The thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are arising in this moment are fluid and dynamic. Our reactions to the various states of being are also transient. Sometimes we feel that whatever state we are currently in will go on and on persistently.

[00:04:36] When we feel that way, especially when it's an uncomfortable state of being, we try to find some distraction to help us escape that discomfort and return to normal. The thing is, what feels normal to us may not actually be the state that most aligns us with who we wish to be or how we wish to feel. Just because it is common or familiar doesn't mean that it is healthy.

[00:05:05] If your nervous system grew up attuned to stress, scarcity, or unpredictability, then calm and ease may actually feel threatening to your sense of what is normal.

[00:05:22] The state of abundance, of having enough, whether it be ease, flow, health, love, money, sleep, can be a foreign enough feeling that we unconsciously subvert our own abundance. Tonight, you are allowed to receive a new story.

[00:05:50] One where rest is wise. One where abundance is gentle. One where you do not have to earn safety. You simply remember it. Make sure that there are minimal distractions as you settle in for a good night's sleep.

[00:06:17] Adjust everything, pillow, blanket, and the rest. Give yourself plenty of time to settle into a comfortable stillness. Let your body become heavy. Let your breath become slow and effortless

[00:06:46] as your lower belly rises and falls with each inhale and exhale. This should be a very subtle movement. There's no need to protrude your abdomen as you inhale.

[00:07:10] When you breathe in, your diaphragm muscle, which is attached to the base of your ribcage, will gently descend. The upper abdominal organs will move very slightly downward, which will make your belly rise.

[00:07:29] As you exhale, the diaphragm will relax toward its resting position as a slightly domed structure, and the organs slide slightly upward again as your navel retreats toward your spine. Your belly will rise and fall if your abdominal muscles are relaxed.

[00:07:58] If they are tense, it's more likely that your chest will rise and fall with the breath. Don't worry if you don't notice much movement in the belly.

[00:08:18] As you grow more and more, it will feel very easy to let the belly flow with the breath in this way. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

[00:08:47] Breathe in. Allow your hands to be soft and open. There is nothing to hold right now. Let your hands be empty.

[00:09:10] Notice how receptive they are when turned upward, as if they are ready to receive abundance. Good things are always flowing to you. But if your hands are too full, you won't be able to receive them.

[00:09:32] This simple metaphor points out that we must make space within ourselves to receive abundance. Notice how this word resonates within you. Does it stir up emotions for you?

[00:10:04] Give yourself permission to feel however you feel when the mind perceives this word. The word may carry some weight with it, whether it sparks desire or whether it evokes discomfort. Breathe with the word for a moment without the need to react.

[00:10:50] To have abundance is to have enough and even enough to share with others. The collective unconscious is a layer of the subconscious mind that is shared by all humans.

[00:11:11] It holds universal patterns, instincts, and symbols that we all inherit simply by being human. There is nothing more profoundly human than the question of whether or not there is enough.

[00:11:35] The timeless idea that sacrifice and struggle are required to receive the abundance of nature is embedded deeply in our cultures and in our families. As a result, it's also embedded in our own mind.

[00:11:59] Somewhere along the way, we began to believe that ease was suspicious. That peace was unearned. That rest was something you had to deserve through exhaustion.

[00:12:20] We inherited stories from family, culture, and from generations shaped by survival, telling us that value comes from how much you can endure, how much you can carry without breaking. We gradually became fluent in the language of cortisol,

[00:12:47] in the tempo of urgency and overwhelm. We were taught to admire those who sacrifice everything, to wear burnout like a badge of honor, to feel pride in surviving the storm.

[00:13:14] And yet, there is a tenderness beneath that pride. A quiet voice that says, What if I didn't have to struggle to be good? What if I could be safe and still? The truth is that you were born to feel the sun on your face,

[00:13:44] to laugh with your whole body, to sleep deeply, to be nourished fully. It's possible to honor the idea of sacrifice as a kind of sacred offering, while still acknowledging how the ego can easily misuse it.

[00:14:16] When this occurs, sacrifice becomes twisted into a form of pride and attachment to the belief that we must earn abundance through suffering, that unless we are striving or sitting on the head of a pin, we don't deserve to receive the goodness of life. Breathe gently,

[00:14:47] deeply. With each exhale, feel yourself release any need to strive or prove. This moment asks nothing of you,

[00:15:05] but presence that doesn't serve you. Breathe in, presence.

[00:15:47] Continue breathing at your own pace. For a few minutes,

[00:15:53] the wisdom that abundance is not transactional.

[00:19:03] It is not something we barter for with our pain or hustle. There is a great deal of goodness that comes to each of us in life, for which we have exchanged nothing in return.

[00:19:24] The true sense of gratitude is to see the goodness in our lives that have come to us through no effort of our own whatsoever. This leads to the realization of our interconnectedness and the benevolent state of existence.

[00:19:53] We are already whole as you sink deeper towards sleep.

[00:21:19] Imagine the layers of inherited tension melting. The part of you addicted to struggle releasing its grip. There is nothing to battle now.

[00:21:50] No approval. Just the warm truth of enough. Just the breath. Just, just this moment of return. Of resting.

[00:22:19] Of receiving. Breathe in.

[00:24:07] Sometimes, this realization is the true sacrifice. For those of us who are deeply conditioned to believe that we must struggle and strive. Perhaps even clinging to a sense of virtue around that belief. The most challenging thing to release

[00:24:33] is the sense of control that that gives us. If I can just be exhausted or stressed enough, I can earn a bit of relief. The identity that I am one who struggles against the odds may be so strongly held

[00:24:59] that it requires the most surrender of all to relinquish. When sacrifice is no longer merely the price of abundance, it makes space for it to become truly sacred. Letting go of the pride that comes from struggle

[00:25:24] will undoubtedly be a challenge to the ego. It may indeed be a hard thing to give up, but a true sacrifice is about giving up something with an open heart and a willingness to trust that what we're letting go of will return to us

[00:25:53] in some higher form. Simply repeat these affirmations in your mind. It's overworking to make space for rest. It's overworking to make space for rest.

[00:26:21] There is enough and enough to share is enough and enough to share. I release any attachment to chaos,

[00:26:52] struggle, stress. It is safe to let life be good. It is safe to receive.

[00:27:28] It is safe to let life be good. It is safe to receive. Abundance flows to me when I soften, not when I tighten. It flows to me when I soften,

[00:27:57] not when I tighten.

[00:29:30] Gratitude has powerful effects on both mental and physical health. Focusing on what is good in our lives, even in the midst of challenges, improve our mood, increase positive emotions, and reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.

[00:30:02] Regular gratitude practices like journaling cultivate a sense of abundance, helping to shift our mind away from lack and toward the fullness of what we have. Take the next 60 seconds to make a mental list of all the good things in your life for which you are grateful.

[00:30:34] Don't comment on your list and don't overanalyze this instruction. For the next minute, simply focus your mind

[00:30:48] on all the good things

[00:31:57] put down your mental pencil and notice how you feel in your body. Again, no need to comment mentally or verbally. Try to be in a direct relationship with the feeling of gratitude. Observe that some of the items on your list were not brought to you

[00:32:25] through your own efforts. Perhaps they are even the items for which you're most grateful. Notice the abundance that is already in your life. Stay with the feeling of gratitude.

[00:33:48] If some part of you resists the softness and ease of gratitude, the fluid simplicity of abundance, notice it with compassion. There is safety in the familiar even when it drains us. But tonight, you are not in a storm.

[00:34:21] You are not surviving. You are remembering something older and truer. That you were made not only for effort, but for ease. That abundance is not about excess, but about

[00:34:51] enough breath. Enough you, a machine that must justify every moment of stillness. You are a being

[00:35:20] alive, sacred, and allowed to receive. Sleep is an act of trust. Trust that the world will carry out your vigilance. Trust that your body knows how to replenish itself. trust

[00:35:50] that abundance will still be here when you wait. So let yourself drift. Let go of the edges of control. Feel the quiet generosity of the night. Wrap

[00:36:21] deep in. Let your thoughts soften and scatter like petals