So as you listen to me telling this sleep story,
You can allow yourself to get comfortable and you can begin to drift off asleep.
And I don't know whether you'll drift asleep faster to the sound of my words or the spaces between my words or perhaps just to my voice.
As you drift asleep,
I'm just going to tell a story in the background.
A story about two friends.
They've both decided to go out on a camping trip.
They've gone down to their favorite beach.
And they've spent the afternoon setting up camp.
They've set up a tent that they'll both stay the night in.
They've made themselves a campfire.
And now just as the sun is beginning to set,
So they light the campfire,
Position themselves just around that campfire.
And they start to play a game of chess.
They're just having a relaxing,
Mindless time.
And their minds wander while just playing a game of chess.
Just using that to occupy their minds.
And they're just focusing on being in the moment as the sun's setting in the background behind them.
As the sound of the sea sloshes on the shore.
As the sky changes color from blues to reds.
And the sounds of birds begin to quieten down for the evening.
And they just enjoy sitting by this campfire playing chess.
And these two friends just feel so calm and relaxed in this environment.
They can hear the crackling of the fire.
And they decide to just put some food on the fire that they can eat towards the end of their game of chess.
And while they continue playing chess,
Focused on that game.
So they can smell the food cooking and relax.
And every now and then,
There'll be just a bit more of a breeze and they'll hear the tent rustling slightly in that breeze.
And after a while,
The sun's setting so far that it gets harder to see the game of chess they're playing.
And so they decide to stop playing chess.
They eat their food.
And they decide just to go and wade in the water a little bit.
The sea is so calm and still.
Just the most relaxing sloshing as it reaches the shore.
So they walk down the sandy beach.
And they walk up to their knees in the water just to feel the warm water.
Feel the way the water's warmer than the air.
Just a warm,
Relaxing water.
Feeling the way the sand moves over their feet and through their toes as the water moves in and out.
Moving forward up the beach and then pulling back.
Feeling some sand over and through their toes.
Relaxing.
So calming.
And they just talk as they gaze up at the night sky.
Now the sun is almost completely set.
There's just the faintest hint of red.
And they can see the stars.
And they just feel in awe looking up at the stars.
And then they walk back to the tent.
They go and sit in the tent.
They slide into their respective sleeping bags.
And notice the smell of relaxing in that tent.
The way the sounds sound from within the tent.
The sound of the tent moving slightly in the breeze.
The way they can just feel so calm and relaxed in here.
And then they lie down.
They just talk to each other for a little while as the fire crackles away outside the tent,
Burning down to embers.
Giving the most comforting glow and flickering light.
And then they both drift off asleep for the night.
And as they drift off asleep,
So one of them begins to dream that they've woken up.
And they dream that they've left the tent.
And that everything seems similar but slightly different.
Seems almost like a dreamy kind of version of reality.
That they feel so calm and peaceful.
And they walk along the beach a little way.
And as they walk,
So the sun rises.
And while the sun rises they begin to see a hut a little way along the beach.
And they walk all the way to that hut.
They enter the hut.
And they notice that around the walls of the hut are different paintings.
And one of the paintings is of two people sat playing chess on a beach.
And they walk over to that painting and they think it's interesting that they had been sat playing chess on the beach.
And now in this dream there's a picture in a hut of two people sat on a beach playing chess.
And they walk over to that picture and they feel compelled to touch the picture.
And as they reach out to touch the picture,
So the hand goes through the picture.
And as soon as the hand starts going through the picture there's a flash.
And they find that they seem to be in this picture.
And this is an unfamiliar beach and they can see two people playing chess.
They can hear sounds of seagulls and families in the distance.
And hear the sound of the sea sloshing on the shore.
And they decide they want to go and explore.
They walk along the seafront and they can see that off a little way in the distance is a river mouth.
And that there's a bench near the river mouth.
And so they walk all the way along the seashore barefoot in the sand,
Aware of the feeling of the sand beneath their feet and between their toes.
And they arrive at the bench,
Sit down on the bench near the river mouth.
And they're curious about this dream.
And they watch as the water flows out of the river into the sea.
And that at the point where the water is flowing out into the sea,
There's an area of rough water where the sea water is trying to flow into the river.
And they find this curious and they notice that birds seem to like this area and keep diving into the water at this area.
And they look down the river to see what they can see.
And they can notice that the river has people along the sides of it for a little way.
And then people just thin out.
And the river starts flowing into countryside and woodland.
And they can see that it seems to go all the way down to some hills.
And it might even go as far as the mountains.
And this is somewhere they've never been before,
It just seems to be a dreamland.
And they're curious at being lucid in this dream and being aware of this dream and aware of some of the similarities with their wakefulness and their experiences.
And while they relax on that bench,
They just close their eyes a moment so they can better feel the warmth of the sun and feel any breeze of the air.
They take some time to go quiet in their mind and do that.
And after a period of time,
Quiet in their mind,
They notice that they can relax their breathing,
Slowing their breathing down.
They notice that they can begin to feel calmer,
More relaxed throughout their body and mind.
And they decide to wander along that river a little bit.
Given that this is a dream,
They know they've got as long as they like to do this.
So they start to wander along the river.
They walk past families,
Children playing,
Friends and couples sitting on benches and sitting on the ground.
They continue walking past people with their feet in the water and carry on as fewer people are around them as they go into the countryside and carry on into woodland.
People following this river.
And then after a while of following this river,
They see a cat.
And as they see the cat,
So the cat seems to notice them.
And it starts almost skipping to them and purring and meowing.
It starts weaving its way around and between their legs.
And they can feel the fur on their feet and ankles as that cat weaves its way between their legs.
And after it's weaved between their legs for a little while,
It gets in front of them and then seems to just lose the ability of its own legs.
It just slumps to the floor with its belly pointing slightly upwards.
And so the person instinctively leans over and starts tickling and stroking the cat's belly.
And the cat starts purring more and more.
And then occasionally attacks the person's hand in a playful way and then purrs some more.
And the cat lets them stroke it for a while before they continue their journey.
And after a bit further,
They find someone offering grapes.
And they think this is an unusual thing,
To find someone offering grapes.
This person offers them some grapes and they wonder why they would want the grapes.
They say it's always good to have little packets of energy.
To not overdo it,
But to have just enough energy,
To have just enough energy to keep you going from moment to moment.
But this person says,
I'll give you some grapes if you'll help me to solve a dilemma.
I need to get to the other side of the river.
But I can't seem to do it.
There isn't any way across and there's no bridges for miles.
And the river wasn't particularly wide,
But it was too wide to jump across.
And so they wondered how they could help.
They loved the opportunity to invent things.
So they sat down on the ground with the cat.
And while they stroked the cat,
They started thinking and wondering about how they can help this person cross the river.
And they didn't have much to do this with.
But after some thinking,
They'd figured out a way of being able to go and get some wood from the woodland and some of the vines and use the vines and the wood to start to make a suspension bridge,
To start to make it so it crosses part way so that they can get halfway over,
Jump the rest of the distance,
Build the other side up and connect it so that this other person can get across the river.
And the person was tremendously grateful.
They got across the river and gave them the grapes.
And as they continued walking further along the river,
They had this feeling like it would be nice to get to the mountains,
But they knew that was a long way off.
Then as they were walking,
They heard a rumble,
Had a rumble of thunder in the distance.
The cat jumped up into their arms and they couldn't notice any rain,
But they knew the storm must be coming.
And so they wondered what the best course of action would be.
Could they get all the way back to where they came from before the storm hit?
Or would it be better to hunker down and weather the storm out?
And they noticed that there was a fallen down tree,
Quite near to the river,
But just slightly up a bank.
And that fallen down tree,
The area it had fallen out from,
Had left quite a big hole.
So they decided to get loads of wood from around the area,
To stack it across the hole and then get loads of leaves,
Quite broad leaves that were near the river.
Stick those and weave those in with the wood and use the vines to help to weave it all together more.
And then cover it with a bit more wood and to build a shelter.
And as the rain wasn't yet here,
It was quite easy to gather everything they needed to build this shelter.
So they built the shelter while it was dry.
And they noticed the sound of those first drops of rain.
And so they went into the shelter with the cat,
Sat on some seats they'd built,
Digging into the mud.
They could hear the rain dropping down onto the shelter,
Hear that pitter patter of rain.
And the cat just sat on their lap as they stroked the cat.
And they just relaxed,
Noticing how with every drop of rain,
It helped them to feel more relaxed.
So they just relaxed the sound of the rain.
Occasionally some water would get inside the camp,
Inside their little setup.
That didn't matter.
They remained dry and enjoyed their camp they'd made.
And they could feel some breeze from time to time blowing into the camp.
And then after a while,
The rain passed.
They left that camp and they could smell that fresh air.
They could smell that smell after a storm has passed by,
Like the air has been cleaned and purified.
And they started their journey back along the edge of the river.
And the cat came with them a little way,
Before stopping and almost saying goodbye.
They continued their journey on their own.
All the way along that river,
Back to the river mouth.
Many many hours had passed now.
Or so it seemed.
And they walked all the way back to the river mouth and started walking their way back along the seafront.
And they didn't know how they were going to get back into that hut.
Because at this side,
There was no picture.
But they knew that somehow something would happen.
So they went back,
They could see where those people were playing chess.
And those people weren't playing chess now.
They went and sat near that area,
Just watching the sea,
Listening to the birds.
They could see the storm off in the distance over the sea,
As it moved further and further away.
And then after a while,
They began to feel sleepy.
Their eyes began to close.
They began to drift comfortably asleep.
And as they did,
They found themselves,
Stood in front of a picture with their fingertip touching the picture,
In that cabin.
And they walked out of that cabin,
All the way back to their tent,
Through this surreal feeling world.
And arrived back at their tent,
Lay back down in their tent.
And felt there was something they're learning from this experience.
Something therapeutic and helpful to them.
As they close their eyes and drift comfortably and relaxed and deeply asleep for the night.
