A Guided Fairytale Meditation To Return To Yourself
Guided by the timeless wisdom of fairytales and their living symbols, this story-led meditation invites you into a twilight world: a place between day and night, designed to help you come back into yourself. You’ll be guided through an enchanted twilight plain where light softens, time slows, and the world feels held. A glowing landscape unfolds around you - dense grasses shimmering with dusk, a quiet brook, fireflies, birds returning home, and a cottage formed of evening light. As you move through this fairytale space, your breath and body are gently supported, allowing tension, freeze, and self-abandonment to ease. Through imagery, breath, and embodied guidance, you reconnect with your sense of inner holding and self-trust. You may return to this practice daily to rebuild a connection with your solar plexus, or revisit it whenever you feel disconnected, overwhelmed, or no longer fully inside yourself.
Transcript
Welcome to Held at Dusk,
A powerful story-led meditation centered around liminal worlds,
Fairy tales,
And their symbols,
Where your imagination makes way for your healing.
I am Shavi from En Route Angels,
And I'll be guiding you through this meditation to help you come back to yourself,
To feel grounded after overwhelm,
Quiet after freeze,
And experience a sense of inner holding when you may have gone silent to survive.
This guided meditation can be listened to daily to rebuild self-trust and wholeness,
Or revisited whenever you feel disconnected,
Unsure,
Or no longer fully inside yourself.
Before we begin,
Make sure you're in a quiet space where you can fully rest.
Please don't listen to this while driving or doing anything that needs your attention.
This is your time.
So find a comfortable spot.
Let your hands rest softly.
Drop your shoulders.
Relax your jaws.
And as you settle in,
I invite you to close your eyes and take a slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Hold it gently and breathe out through your mouth.
One more time,
Take a deep breath in,
Hold it gently,
And breathe out through your mouth,
Releasing any tension you've been carrying.
Soften your forehead.
Relax your fingers and toes.
Let your breath deepen and allow yourself to be fully present here in this moment.
Let your body settle into the support beneath you.
Take one more deep breath in.
Hold it gently and breathe out from your mouth.
Keep breathing naturally now.
You don't have to try.
You don't have to hold anything back.
Breathe in and breathe out.
Notice the inhale as it enters.
Notice the exhale as it leaves.
Let your breathing be deep,
Slow,
Yet easy.
With every exhale,
Allow your body to soften a little more.
Bring your attention to your body's weight.
The weight of your head.
The weight of your shoulders.
The weight of your arms.
Allow gravity to hold you as you release this heaviness with breaths.
Bring your attention to your back,
Supported by the surface beneath you.
Now,
You do not need to hold yourself right now.
Bring your attention to your legs,
Your knees,
Your feet.
Let them be relaxed.
Let them rest.
If any thoughts arise,
Let them pass.
There is nothing you need to solve here.
Now bring your breath lower into your belly.
Feel the belly gently rise with the inhale.
Feel it soften with the exhale.
Stay here for a few more breaths.
Now,
Gently bring your awareness to the center of your body.
To the space just above the navel,
Below the ribs.
Your solar plexus chakra,
The epicenter of your energy.
You don't need to feel strong here.
You don't need to feel confident right now.
Just notice what is present there,
Warmth,
Tightness,
Silence,
Or even numbness.
Everything is allowed and welcome.
This is the place where you hold yourself when words leave.
Where you stay when leaving feels like too much.
Where you carry yourself through moments that ask too much.
Stay here for a few breaths.
As your attention rests here,
Imagine a soft glow forming inside the solar plexus.
With each breath,
The glow grows larger and brighter.
And the space around you begins to shift.
Just the sense that one state is ending and another is about to begin.
The air grows denser.
The time begins to stretch.
And ahead of you,
A passage begins to form.
It is not a door or a portal of light,
But a widening in the world.
The light in front of you dims,
Taking on the color of evening just before night falls.
That hour when the sky turns amber and violet at the same time.
When you are ready,
Step forward.
As you step into this world,
The ordinary world slips away.
You have arrived in the twilight plains.
The land before you is wide open.
The sky above is neither day nor night,
Washed in layers of gold,
Fading into blue-gray and soft rose.
There is no sun in sight,
Yet everything is visible.
There is no moon,
Yet nothing is dark.
The air is still and easy to breathe.
It carries the smell of warm grass and cooling earth.
Under your feet,
The ground is covered in long meadow grass,
Tipped with dew that catches the last light of the day.
Each blade glistens as you walk.
Listen to the sound of crickets beginning their twilight call.
Somewhere nearby,
A cuckoo bird sings its final song of the day.
A gentle breeze moves through the plain,
Brushing past your ankles,
Lifting the edges of your clothes playfully.
To your left,
Oak and birch trees stand scattered,
Their leaves rustling softly.
A few silver-leafed willows bend low,
Their branches trailing close to the ground.
Between the trees,
A deer moves slowly.
A doe lifts her head,
Ears alert but calm,
And a young stag steps carefully through the grass.
Butterflies drift past you,
Deep blue,
Pale gold,
Soft white.
Their wings catch the twilight light as they move from flower to flower.
Farther ahead,
Near a low rise in the land,
A unicorn grazes quietly,
Radiant,
Glowing.
His horn catches the last warmth of the sky.
The animals don't startle as you pass.
You are so welcome here.
A narrow brook winds through the plain.
The water is moving slowly over smooth stones,
Reflecting the sky like polished glass.
A wooden bench is set near the water's edge.
Step closer.
Sit on the bench and drink in the beauty around you.
Relax your body even more now.
And stay here for a few breaths.
Feel the coolness of the grass beneath your feet.
And the air that holds the promise of the night.
Across the brook,
You notice a small cottage standing.
Its windows glow with a low amber light.
Smoke rises gently from the chimney.
Drifting sideways in the evening air.
This is the place on the twilight plains where warmth gathers.
Gently get up from the bench and cross the brook.
As you cross the brook,
Stepping from stone to stone,
You feel the temperature change.
It is warmer here.
The light from the cottage does not spill outward.
It pulls inward.
And as you approach the cottage,
More light gathers and it lingers longer here.
Feel the dusk air brush past you.
And let yourself be filled with this warmth.
The light here leans into the shadow and the surface of the cottage shifts with it.
Sometimes stone.
Sometimes wood.
Sometimes neither.
The cottage doesn't just invite you.
It allows you to enter just as you are.
As you allow yourself to just be.
The space in front of the cottage loosens.
And light gathers to reveal a female figure.
She is the keeper of the last light.
The light moves slowly around her,
Stirred only by her breath.
Her face is calm.
There is no urgency in her expressions.
In her hands,
She carries the remaining light of the day.
It rests there like something alive but resting.
A small held sun after it has finished its work.
The light does not radiate outward.
It gathers inward.
And standing before her,
You feel it.
The sense that nothing is being asked of you.
She gestures toward you.
Not to hurry,
Not to bow.
Just to stand where you are.
Allow yourself to rest into this feeling.
Allow yourself to let go of anything that is holding you back.
To come into yourself.
To loosen its grip on you.
You are safe and in the keeper's presence.
Nothing needs to be held back anymore.
Breathe normally and easily.
The keeper of the last light stands with you in the slowing light.
Feel the air around you.
It is comforting and more present.
Focus on the rhythm of your breath.
As you breathe,
Notice how the light she holds begins to respond.
I invite you to focus your attention on your solar plexus chakra.
The place above the navel,
Beneath the ribs.
Notice any sensations here.
A quiet warmth and fuzziness.
A subtle loosening.
A slight widening.
Or perhaps nothing distinct.
Just space.
Stay with whatever is present there.
Breathe deeply into your belly.
Let the muscles around your middle soften.
Let the ribs widen.
The belly releases any heaviness it has been experiencing.
Let it.
The keeper guides your attention again to your solar plexus.
You can listen to her words in your mind,
Out loud,
Or just feel her.
Anything is welcome.
Let it rest here,
She says.
If you feel it,
Allow it.
If you don't,
Stay with your breath.
You may notice your posture change.
The spine stacking more easily.
The shoulders resting back where they belong.
The light begins to settle,
Finding its place at the bottom of the brook.
As it settles,
You feel something take shape around your waist.
A band of dusk light.
It may appear in shades of gold,
Amber,
Rose,
Or violet.
Like the colors that arrive when day begins to soften.
Notice the colors you see.
They don't have to match anyone else's.
They don't have to be clear or vivid.
Twilight is never one color.
It shifts,
Deepens,
Changes.
Allow the band to hold whatever hues arrive for you.
Don't doubt what you're noticing.
Whatever you see is part of how your body remembers itself.
It rests at the solar plexus.
Reminding your body where it begins and ends.
Like a gentle sense of containment wrapping around your center.
Not just holding you in,
But holding you together.
The keeper of the last light places her hand at your center.
Around the band of dusk light.
As she places her light-filled hands,
Your body remembers something familiar.
The feeling of standing without bracing.
Of being present without preparing.
Of existing without shrinking.
Breathe deeply into your belly to lock in this remembrance.
With each inhale,
The band imprints remembrance.
With each exhale,
The belly releases old gunk.
You are now more available.
You are now more inhabited.
You are free.
You are witnessed.
You are back into your own.
The world around you mirrors this shift.
The grasses of the twilight plains sway slowly.
Their movement is unhurried.
The brook flows steadily,
Finding its way around stone after stone.
A deer lifts its head and then lowers it again,
Returning to craze.
Butterflies drift through the air.
Their wings opening and closing in an unhurried rhythm.
Everything here knows how to belong,
And you feel it too.
The dusk band at your center deepens.
It is no longer held in front of you.
It is no longer separate from you.
It gathers at your solar plexus,
Settled there fully.
The presence you sensed before.
The keeper of the last light draws closer,
Not in form,
But in feeling.
Her light dissolves into the band of dusk light around your waist.
What once stood before you now lives within you.
The band remains luminous and present.
Continue to breathe naturally,
Yet deeply.
With each breath,
You may notice a sense of being more inside your body.
More located.
More intact.
Stay with this sensation for a few moments.
Let the band of dusk light settle completely,
Becoming familiar,
Becoming yours.
This is a place you can return to.
By remembering this sensation.
By tuning into the band of dusk light at your center.
As you step into this remembrance,
Notice around you the twilight has fallen.
The world around you has shifted once more.
The air is cooler,
Signaling the natural movement of time.
And it is easy now to turn back.
As you turn back toward the threshold,
The land remains calm.
The animals continue their quiet movements.
The sky deepens.
You step back across the boundary,
Illuminated.
The ordinary world comes into focus again.
Bring your awareness back to your breath.
Back to your body.
Back to the space you are in.
Feel the surface beneath you again.
If you wish,
Place your hand once more over your solar plexus.
And take one slow breath.
When you are ready,
Gently open your eyes.
Whenever you need to feel yourself again,
You can return here.
Remember,
Your true nature is luminous.
Hope you find what you are looking for,
And then some.
