Over the next few minutes or so,
You will have the chance to help relax your body and take a magical journey in your imagination.
You can use this anytime you want to help yourself relax or just before bed when you are ready to fall asleep.
Begin by finding a comfortable place to sit or lie down.
Wiggle your toes and feel the bottoms of your feet.
Now imagine that you are on the beach walking on the sand.
Feel the sand on the bottoms of your feet.
Gently squeeze your toes and scrunch up your feet as if you are squeezing sand between your toes.
Now take a deep breath and relax your feet.
Imagine they are soft and floppy like a piece of cooked spaghetti.
Now feel your legs.
Imagine for a moment that you are a statue and make your legs all stiff and straight so they can't bend.
Take a deep breath,
Relax your legs and let them become all wiggly and soft like pieces of cooked spaghetti.
Now think about your belly and chest and hold your breath for a second.
Feel how everything gets tight inside when you do that.
Now let all the air in and take a deep breath.
Imagine that you have a balloon in your belly and when you breathe in it fills up with air.
When you breathe out it gets smaller.
Put your hand on your belly.
Feel as your balloon fills up with air and then gets smaller over and over with each breath.
Now imagine that you are squeezing two lemons,
One in each hand.
Gently give each lemon a squeeze to get all the juice out.
Now relax your hands and arms letting them be all floppy like a rag doll.
Finally,
Imagine taking a sip of the lemon juice you just squeezed.
It's all sour so feel your face crunch up as you taste it.
Take a breath and relax your face.
Let it feel calm like a lake with no ripples.
Notice the difference between when your muscles are tight and when they're loose.
When your body is tense compared to when it is relaxed.
Now you're ready to go on a magic journey.
Close your eyes if you'd like or you can keep them open if you prefer.
Imagine that you have a magic wand that allows you to travel to a very special and safe place.
This could be a favorite place you've visited or a place you'd like to go or a made-up place in your mind.
You get to choose if you'd like to bring anyone with you to this special and safe place and what you'd like to do there.
First,
Take three deep breaths as you imagine your magic wand transporting you to your special place.
Now at the entrance to your special place is a box just for you where you can put any of your worries that you might be holding on to.
The box can hold all of your worries so you are free to explore your special place.
Take a look around.
What do you see?
What colors are around you?
Picture what you might do in your special place.
See yourself there right now.
Listen to the sounds of your place.
What do you hear?
Take in a breath and notice if there are any smells around you.
Perhaps flowers or fresh cut grass or cotton candy or something else.
Take a moment to feel any sensations against your skin.
Do you feel the warm sun shining down on you or a gentle breeze across your face or something soft around you?
Now feel the love of all of the people who care about you.
Let these warm and loving feelings surround you like a warm blanket.
You can send love out to the people you care about too.
Think of one thing that you are thankful for that makes you feel good inside.
Let that feeling of thanks fill you up inside and notice how that feels.
In a moment it is going to be time to come back into the room.
But know that you can carry back with you any feelings of peace,
Safety,
Relaxation,
Joy,
Love or anything else that you like.
These feelings are within you and you can call them up whenever you like by thinking of your special place.
Now let your magic wand transport you back into the room where you can go on with your day or have a peaceful and restful sleep.
