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Before we get started, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors who make this free content possible. Hey everyone, it's me, Jessica. I'm here to extend a warm welcome to any new listeners we might have here. This is where you can come after a long day, get a little selfish, and relax.
I'm also excited to let you know that we're offering a special one-month free trial of Sleep Magic Premium to celebrate our new listeners and thank those of you who've been with us for a while. If you're new here, Sleep Magic Premium is our exclusive feed where you can experience ad-free listening, two bonus episodes per month, and the extended version of our monthly mailbag episode where I answer your questions.
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Your sleep, your health, your peace of mind. I mean, come on. Can a mochaccino do all that? Start your subscription today for a free four-week trial, and you can cancel anytime if you're not happy with it. If you're listening to this on Apple Podcasts, you can get this offer in just two taps. Or if you're listening on other podcast players, go to the Supercast link in the show notes.
This offer ends August 19th. I'll see you over there at Sleep Magic Premium. Hi, I'm Jessica Porter and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Welcome everybody. Thank you so much for being here.
I have an announcement. Tomorrow, May 9th, is your last chance to send in any questions you may have for our Magic Mailbag episode, which is coming on May 16th. This is a new monthly episode we're launching, and you can send in your questions and issues or dilemmas to me, and I'll do my best to answer them. We'll see.
Whether it's problems you're having with self-love or you just want to ask questions about hypnosis or bigger questions about life, it's a great opportunity for me to get to know you and you to get to know me. So make sure you get involved. You can send your questions to hello at sleepmagic.fm. That's hello at sleepmagic.fm. Cool. So thank you.
And thanks everybody for listening, spreading the word, subscribing, and just being here, relaxing. Tonight, building self-love. I've had many people reach out and say they can always use an episode on self-love. And I love that. Writing these episodes and saying them to you always helps me get in touch with this stuff and myself. So thanks.
All right, self-love. We tend to think of love as this euphoric ride that we generally experience with a romantic partner. Sure, there's parental love, sibling love, etc. But the word love carries a lot of energetic baggage. It's like pink lollipop kittens on rainbows heading toward the bedroom. I don't know. But for me, love begins with acceptance.
There's no pushing, no needing, no euphoria. In order to love, I have to be able to relax and let my nervous system be open. Open to my feelings, open to my imperfections and foibles, open to giving and receiving. Open to simply being a human in the world. And with that openness, I can love myself and others. So tonight we practice this acceptance.
and love with ourselves. So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently. Welcome back to your body. Welcome back to your breath. Just bring your awareness gently to your breath. Welcome back to gravity and feeling your body on the bed. Welcome back to stillness
and giving yourself the opportunity to gather all the energy that's been expressing itself all day and just bringing it back inside of you. Good. Now I'd like you to bring your awareness up into your eyelids and imagine that the little muscles of your eyelids are feeling heavy, sleepy, heavy, comfortable, relaxed. And as your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier, I want you to accept the suggestion that your eyelids are so heavy that they will not open.
Now, for those of you who've been around here a while, you know that you can open your eyes if you want to, but I'm asking you to imagine that you can't, and it's the imagining that's important. So I'm going to ask you to test your eyelids to make sure they won't open, and that means wiggling your eyebrows as your eyes remain closed. Like you're saying, whoa, look at this, I can't open my eyes. So do that now. Good. So this relaxation around your eyes...
is the same quality of relaxation that you will soon have throughout your entire body. So let's imagine this relaxation that you have in your eyelids and around your eyes melting backwards into your head, like it's pouring down from your eyes, taking over every single cell of your brain. This lovely warm relaxation
causing your head to become heavy in the pillow. Just let your head become so heavy as the muscles of your face are letting go, which allows your head to get even heavier. As that warm relaxation moves down into your neck and the muscles of your neck are releasing and relaxing, causing your head to get even heavier.
And as your head is relaxing, your mind is relaxing. All mental tension is disappearing, evaporating. So let's just allow this warm relaxation to move down even further into your shoulders. Imagine it dripping down into your shoulders, the muscles of your shoulders releasing, relaxing, sort of melting. And as your shoulders are relaxing,
All of the responsibilities you carry on those shoulders are falling to the floor. Responsibilities you feel to your family and friends. Responsibility you feel to your work in the world. Responsibility you feel to the world itself. To the future. Even responsibilities you feel to the past. They've all dropped to the floor. And you can pick any or all of them up tomorrow morning, but for right now, you are free.
Free to relax. Free to let go. Free to sleep. Just as every other being is free as they end their day and release into sleep. It's like this cool personal thing we get to do every night that we don't really talk about. We let go. And we're allowed to let go. In fact, we are designed to let go. Good.
As that warm relaxation moves down your arms all the way down into your hands and fingers, your arms are feeling really heavy. And that's okay. You could lift them if you wanted to, but you don't really want to as you allow them to sink, getting heavier and heavier. As you listen to this recording, you may notice the sounds going on around you, but that's okay.
Because from this moment on, no sound that you hear will bother or distract you in any way. Because you're relaxing, the sounds will actually take you deeper and deeper. So bring your awareness to any sounds going on around you now and let them take you deeper. Sounds are simply vibrations. So as you allow the vibration to simply pass through you, it's taking you deeper and deeper
into relaxation. And the sound of my voice is also taking you deeper and deeper. And very soon, perhaps it's happened already, the sound of my voice will seem distant, far away, or not really making any sense anymore. And that's good, because it means you're letting go. Going on your own personal journey tonight. Beautiful.
So now we imagine that relaxation moving down into your body, your chest area. Just imagine that warm relaxation pouring down into your torso, causing everything to feel warm and heavy. Your whole torso beginning to feel heavy on the bed. As the relaxation moves down deep into your belly, your pelvis,
feels heavy on the bed. Muscles of your lower back becoming soft and relaxed. Muscles in your belly that you may hold during the day becoming soft and relaxed as you go deeper and deeper. And as your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing. And as your mind is relaxing, your body is relaxing. And as your body is relaxing,
is relaxing. That warm relaxing energy is moving down into your legs. Your legs are feeling so heavy and relaxed on the bed. And the relaxation is moving down into your feet and your toes. Any tension you may have built up in your body over the day moving out through the soles of your feet. And you feel so relaxed.
So as you lie in your bed tonight, taking yourself deeper and deeper, let's bring your awareness back now. Let's move inside your chest cavity and just allow your awareness to hang out near your heart. Some of us spend our entire lives avoiding the heart. Maybe it's been hurt or maybe you grew up in an environment that didn't vibrate from this place.
Maybe the people around you had been hurt themselves and were shut down a little in their hearts, protecting themselves. But tonight, as you hang out gently in this area of your heart, you remember that this is a whole other brain in your body. Your heart has its own neurons, its own intelligence, its own feelings.
Your heart senses and processes energy and sends out its signal into the world. And your heart sends out signals to you. You are in a constant relationship with your own heart, whether you're conscious of it or not. So as you relax, going deeper and deeper, imagine holding the space
around your own heart. Just imagine your hands gently surrounding your own heart, protecting it, honoring it. Your hands can receive any of the tension your heart has been holding. Your hands are helping your heart to relax. And as it relaxes, listen for what your heart needs to tell you tonight. Maybe about what it went through today.
or how it feels, or what it needs. And as your heart relaxes and you listen to it, you are coming into coherence with yourself. This is the center of your being, your balancing point. The energy from the earth and the energy from the heavens are coming together in your heart. As you go deeper and deeper, you allow yourself to feel balanced.
and let go of extremes. This is where you can just good. So what do you need to tell your heart? Be sure to be gentle with your heart. Tell it positive things. Imagine now that the veins and arteries going to and from your heart are relaxing. They are relaxed and open as your blood pressure stabilizes.
As you accept yourself, you relax from deep inside and all inner pressure disappears. The energy from your heart moving through your arteries, going down into your arms and fingers. So as you imagine holding your own heart, you are circulating this energy, sending it back to yourself. I accept myself.
I accept myself. I love myself. I soothe myself. Sometimes, as you connect with yourself, you may detect energy from the past locked deep within your heart.
the joys you've experienced, but also some of the more difficult things. Your heart may carry conflict. You may carry experiences in your heart about which you feel guilt or remorse. You may carry ideas or belief systems that don't allow you to feel this love and acceptance fully. Maybe you've hurt other people, consciously or unconsciously.
you owe an apology. You may need to make good with someone. Does that bring up something in you? Is there someone to whom you may owe an apology? Imagine any guilt or remorse that you're carrying in your heart to appear like a marble. Now take this marble with your hand, remove it from your heart,
and place it in a box that says, "Apologies I will make." When you give the apology, you will feel more whole. By telling the truth, you allow the other person to feel more whole. By taking responsibility, you'll give the relationship a chance to become whole again. And now imagine coming back to your heart.
You may be holding some resentment for others in your heart. That's okay. We all do that. Allow these resentments to gather up in your heart like a marble and remove them with your hand and place them in a box labeled forgiveness. I will find. By forgiving, your heart becomes free. Now imagine your heart filling with white.
Imagine it expanding and allow your heart to feel good. Even if you're not used to it or have resistance to it, allow your heart to fill even more with the white light. Your heart is feeling warm and excited. These are the neurons in your heart feeling good. I love myself. It's okay.
to love myself. It's okay to soothe myself. Loving myself doesn't take from anyone else. Everyone is capable of loving themselves. Everyone is wired to love themselves. Everyone can discover the gift of self-love. Loving myself inspires others
to love themselves. It feels good to love myself. Any resistance I've ever had to loving myself has disappeared. Love myself. It's okay to love myself. It's natural to love myself. It feels good to love myself. It feels to love myself. Loving myself
helps me to love others. When I love myself, I have more love to give. There is more than enough love to go around. Love creates more love, which creates more love, which create more love. As you imagine your heart energy moving beyond your body and expanding into the world,
Love is limitless as you drift, float, and