So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.
And as you begin to comfortably drift asleep.
I don't know whether you'll drift asleep faster to the sound of my voice.
Or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.
And as you comfortably fall asleep.
I'm just gonna tell this bedtime story in the background.
And you find yourself resting.
At home in the most comfortable chair.
And your reading.
I put.
.
.
And you're deeply absorbed in reading that book.
I'm all reading that book.
And drinking a comfortable warm drink.
And feeling the warmth of the most comfortable fire.
Your mind absorbs it so.
In the world being created.
Within the pages of that book.
And you're reading a story.
About a girl who.
.
.
Grew up being bullied.
Who believe that they're a failure,
They can never achieve anything.
And yet,
In their own time.
They were doing gymnastics.
And they're very good at gymnastics.
But because they didn't believe in themselves,
They kept that.
A secret from everyone else.
And then there was an event with the school and they were looking for people to take part,
To represent the school.
And the girl never put herself forward.
And later in the book.
One of the people.
Who were going to be representing the school had an accident.
And they were worried that they wouldn't have enough people on their team.
And then one day,
One of those people on the team.
.
.
Happen to be going past.
Where this girl trains.
And as they went past,
They recognized her.
And they saw her practicing and training.
And they saw that she was so much better.
And the entire team.
And they'd never really spoken to this girl.
They normally blanked her.
And they barely even knew who she was.
She was just the girl that would get pushed aside.
But they went in and spoke to her.
And ask her.
To join the team.
And at first she refused.
She thought that they were somehow trying to pull a prank on her.
That they obviously can't be serious.
And eventually she was convinced.
To take part and to join the team and the rest of the team.
Didn't like this idea at first,
They hadn't seen her.
And so they complain.
So we don't want her in our team.
We need someone good.
But that girl that had seen her.
Encouraged her to demonstrate what she could do.
And so she demonstrated all her different skills.
And the team were very impressed with their abilities.
And so you've just reached the point in the story.
Where they're finally on a coach trip.
Heading to the competition.
And you continue.
To read that story,
Absorbing yourself in the story.
And while you're so absorbed in the story.
All your awareness of everything around you begins to fade away.
As being less important than your focus on that story.
It's almost like the rest of the room.
Begins to darken.
The sensation of sitting where you're sitting fades from your awareness.
And you're totally locked in to what's going to happen in the story.
And every single page.
Has something about it that encourages you to turn to the next page.
The next page.
And at the end of every single chapter.
There's something about that last paragraph.
That makes you think,
I'll just read the beginning of the next chapter and then I'll stop.
Then when you start reading the beginning of the next chapter.
It's written in a way that draws you in and makes you then want to read just the next paragraph,
The next paragraph.
Until you're so far into that chapter.
That you decide I'm so far into this chapter I may as well reach the end and then stop.
But then as you reach the end.
The last paragraph or two.
Lock you in to wanting to see what happens next.
And so it goes on and so you just find yourself reading and reading,
Struggling to find a place you can easily just choose to stop.
You think to yourself of what a page-turner this book happens to be.
The fact that you just can't stop turning the pages and reading.
Until eventually.
.
.
It's getting later and later,
Darker and darker outside.
You have just a few pages left to read.
You read those pages.
And then a part of you.
Is relieved that you finally reached the end.
Because you can finally stop without breaking any patterns.
While another part of you is so engrossed in that book.
You feel it's a shame you've reached the end.
And there's nothing more left in that book to read.
And although it's late.
You haven't actually eaten any dinner yet.
Because you are too engrossed in the book.
So you take time to make yourself some food,
But not quite as much as you otherwise would have done if you were eating at the proper time.
You make yourself a cozy drink.
And you rest back down in a seat.
And you enjoy that food and drink while letting your mind wander and be lost in thought.
Processing the book you've just read.
Finding ways it's relevant to you.
The different patterns that were contained within the book.
Exploring in your mind the different characters.
And after finishing eating and drinking.
And then just resting a little more,
Putting on some music so that you have something that isn't too stimulating.
Something that you won't get so drawn into that you can't leave it.
You rest listening to that music for a while.
Letting your food go down.
And after doing that,
You head off to bed.
And you find it so easy to rest down in bed.
Close your eyes.
To drift deeply and peacefully asleep.
And you sleep so soundly through the night and when you awaken the next morning.
You're heading off on a road trip.
It's a very long road trip.
We're heading up to see the Northern Lights.
Once you pack a backpack for your journey.
And gather up some food for your journey.
You choose another book to read.
And pack that into your backpack.
And then you begin early in the morning to make your road trip driving along a wide and calm quiet road.
Very few cars on the road at this time in the morning.
Slightly before sunrise.
Watching the light of streetlights slide their way across your vehicle.
Across the bonnet up over the windscreen.
Gently alternating between the light on one side and the light on the other.
Almost hypnotic.
Noticing the first signs.
Of the sun rising.
The gentle pink hue on the horizon.
And the way that gentle pink hue pushes softly onto the dark blue of the night.
And seems to be gradually.
Painting its way.
Over that dark blue.
As if carefully rubbing the dark blue out.
Filling the dark blue.
With a lighter blue,
An almost whitey blue.
Followed by a slightly orange-yellow.
And then the cap of the sun.
Carefully pokes itself just up onto the horizon with streams of light.
Sliding their way through the trees in the distance.
The crossfields.
Running along the side.
Of the vehicle as you pass.
Like spinning spokes of a wheel.
And a mist beginning to form across the fields.
As the air begins to warm.
And the moisture in the fields begins to softly and slowly evaporate and yet hangs low over those fields.
Bubbling and frothing.
Gently just above the grass and then the sun stretches up a little higher.
Just above the trees.
The sky much lighter now.
As the sun gets lighter.
I most like it boiled up.
Bobbing gently.
On the ocean of the earth.
That ball of light.
Slowly rising up into the sky as you drive.
And having a curious effect when.
The light starts off darker.
A deep and comfortable orange.
And seems very large.
Intellectually.
You know it's not changing size.
But as it begins to rise higher above the horizon.
It feels like it looks smaller and smaller as it gets brighter and brighter.
And you half expect.
A celestial cat.
To leap up and try and grab that ball as it floats above the horizon.
To try and grab it and drag it back down again.
As you continue driving down this road.
And the lights of now long gone out.
More traffic is forming on the roads.
The mess.
Is now freeing itself into the atmosphere.
Releasing itself from the ground.
And you get.
.
.
Into the most comfortable mindset.
Almost locked into the experience of driving peacefully.
Almost like being in a flow state.
Temperature inside the car being just the right temperature.
The rhythm of that car while it moves.
Vibrating your body ever so slightly.
In the most comfortable way.
Where you feel relaxed and alert at the same time.
It's almost like you're at one with the vib.
As lunchtime approaches.
So you start to look out.
For somewhere to eat.
You have some food on you,
But.
.
.
If you can pick up food on the way,
You'd rather have that.
So you look out for somewhere to eat.
And when you see somewhere,
You pull in.
You exit the vehicle,
Stretch your legs Move around a little and stretch your back.
You show this.
Moving your head and neck a little.
Before walking into a diner.
And having to pass through.
The waft of the most pleasant-smelling food en route to the door.
As if there's a cloud of the most.
Beautiful scents hovering.
And wrapped.
Around this diner.
You tring the door,
Walk in,
Take a seat.
You enjoy eating something,
Having a drink.
And after perhaps an hour or so.
You set back off on your journey.
For a number of hours.
This road trip.
It's so pleasant and relaxing.
As the sun continues passing across the sky.
And the root is very straight.
And not much thought has to go into this journey.
You're almost going with the flow.
Until the sun begins to set.
That you find somewhere else to pull in and have something to eat.
And then you drive perhaps five or six hours beyond sunset until you decide it's time for you to sleep.
When you set up.
A tent on the side of your vehicle.
You have yourself something to eat.
And then sit inside the tent.
With the camp light on.
The sound of the breeze.
Rattling the tent walls.
Smelling that fresh cool night time air.
That just creeps gently into the tent.
You begin to read that book.
Until your eyes.
Keep closing for just a few moments at a time.
Almost like they close secretly,
Not telling you they've closed.
And you have that moment where you suddenly realise your eyes are closed and yet you are reading.
And so you open your eyes again and try and read some more.
Not that's happened a few times.
You decide there's no point fighting sleep.
You close the book.
You settle yourself down.
You tuck yourself so comfortably into a sleeping bag.
You begin to feel so deeply calm and relaxed you begin to notice.
How your head is feeling so comfortably supported on the pillow.
And it's like any tension is just flowing out of your head down onto that pillow.
And then dripping down onto the ground.
As you breathe in relaxation and then while you continue to relax relaxation starts to move down around your face softening and relaxing the muscles around your eyes around your ears,
Around your forehead.
Calming the ring and calming the muscles.
Around your cheeks and your jaw.
The lips relaxing.
Feeling the relaxation move down.
It's your neck.
And with each out breath.
You breathe out a little more tension.
And breathe in more comfort and relaxation.
Breathing in that cool air.
As the shoulders relax.
The upper back relaxes the chest relaxes.
The relaxation moves down those arms.
Relaxing the triceps,
The biceps,
The forearms.
Those arms getting heavier.
And heavier.
Relaxing all the way down to the fingertips.
And that relaxation moving down from the chest and the upper back to the lower back around the stomach and the sides.
And relaxing deep within you.
And it's that relaxation moving down to your bottom.
And down through your legs,
Those legs feeling heavier and heavier.
As the relaxation moves down.
To your feet and the tips of your toes.
And you feel your mind drifting deeper and deeper asleep as your body relaxes deeper and more,
Peacefully and calmly as you drift more into a dream.
You become less aware of the world around you and more aware of the world in the dreams having the most pleasant night's sleep.
The next morning you're awoken.
By the gentle movement of the side of the tent.
And the glow of the sunlight on the outside of the tent.
You stretch as you wake up.
You feel so refreshed.
And you open the tent.
I'll have to squint a little because of the brightness of the light.
But you do enjoy breathing in that fresh air.
Before leaving the tent.
Packing the tent away.
Sitting in your open car door.
Eating some of the food you have with you.
Having a dream.
Stretching a little bit more,
Just walking around a bit and looking around you.
Before getting back into the car.
Continuing your journey.
And as you continue your journey so you find your attention drifting from time to time to what you pass.
Taking in interesting buildings,
Interesting scenery.
And aware as you continue driving.
How the temperature is beginning to shift.
How it's beginning to get cooler.
Towards the end of this day.
You pull in at a train station.
Because the rest of this part of the journey will be taken on train.
And you go through the train station and board that train You look at your ticket and you find your way to your carriage.
And it's an individual character.
And his carriage.
Smells of hard work.
And has.
An old-fashioned looking light.
Above the seat.
And cartons over the windows.
And the seat is long and high.
Has a squishy pillow covering.
And it pulls out.
To form a bed.
And in its current configuration.
It's a seat with a table in front of you.
Once you place your book onto the table.
Replace your bag and other items.
Into a cupboard in this room.
You sit there waiting for the train to depart You can see the station through the train window.
People standing on the platform.
Some people walking,
Milling around.
Others dashing,
Dragging suitcases to jump on the train.
You hear someone outside.
Blowing a whistle twice.
And then the train begins to move,
Very slowly at first.
Sound of that train.
Carefully creeping along the tracks,
Gradually speeding up,
Feeling the slight rocking of the trains.
As it begins to work its way up.
To its full speed.
Once the train's on its correct speed for the journey.
And has left the station you begin to read this new book some more.
And absorb yourself in the book.
And at some point,
And you lose track of time,
How long?
Ticket conductor.
Taps on your door and you open the door.
They ask you to show the ticket,
So you show them your ticket.
And they're highly polite.
And they clip the ticket.
And they say,
I hope you enjoy your sight.
And they close the door and leave.
And then after a while,
You begin to feel Like you want something to eat.
So you head out of the room and wander.
Down the train.
And the trains rocking gently as you walk.
And it's bobbing very slightly up and down while it moves.
You can hear the sound of this train chugging along the tracks.
And you walk down to the car.
At the restaurant in.
You sit down in that rest room.
Someone comes over and serves you,
And you have yourself some food and drink.
And the table has a tablecloth on it and a fake candle on the edge of the table.
And the windows.
Have curtains which are held up.
At the sides.
And you watch that scenery passing by.
Enjoying the smell of all the different foods.
And the murmur of people chatting among themselves.
And after eating and resting here for a while.
You head back to your cabin.
You read for a while longer in your cabin.
And there's very little else to do here on the train.
And so you read quite a bit of the book.
And when it reaches dinner time,
You head back.
To that restaurant car and you have yourself some dinner in the car.
And as you look out the windows now.
All you see is pitch black.
And you can only see that.
If you put your eyes up to the window and wrap your hands around the side of your eyes.
To reduce the reflections from inside the cabin.
And after eating,
You head back.
To your cabin.
You turn the seat into a badge.
Placing that table away.
Make you better.
And it's not quite as comfortable as a bed at home.
But you're surprised how comfortable it is.
But what you're really surprised by.
Is how the movement of the train.
And the sound of the clicky-clack of the train on the track.
Seems to guide you gently asleep,
Almost like it's rocking you to sleep.
So you rest there and drift asleep to the clickety-clack of the train on the track.
Falling so peacefully.
So comfortably asleep.
Drifting into the most pleasant dreams and deep sleep.
Before awakening the next morning.
Rearranging the cabin again.
Going back to that car for some breakfast.
And then back to your cabin.
Watching the world go by,
Seeing how the scenery has now changed.
Outside.
Everything is covered in snow and ice.
The top of the snow glistening.
Like a billion diamonds.
Under the low early morning sun.
The air seeming so clear.
And Chris.
And you rest a hand.
On the window of the cabin.
And you can feel the coolness of the outside.
Through the palm of your hand touching the glass.
Feeling that coolness.
As it almost infuses into your fingertips and your palm.
Carefully up to your wrist.
And eventually.
.
.
Halfway through the day.
The train reaches its destination.
Pulls into its station.
You disembark the train and the first thing you notice.
.
.
Is that wall of cold air?
That wraps around your cheeks.
And wafts its way in to your nostrils and down into your lungs.
Feeling so pure.
Fresh and clean.
A new head.
Through this train station.
And you can see someone holding a sign.
For the bus you have to catch.
To where you'll be going to see the Northern Lights.
And it isn't an ordinary bus.
This bus.
Has unusual wheels.
Almost like tracks around three separate wheels at the front and the back of the bus.
And you board this bus.
And the bus isn't much warmer than the outside.
And so you stay wrapped up warm in your coat and gloves.
And the bus rumbles to life.
And begins to journey its way.
Through snow-covered roads and over ice.
Towards where you'll be seeing the northern lights.
And it's a very long journey by bus.
Of sitting in that seat,
Just watching.
The almost endless view of snow pass by.
Until eventually the bus slides to a halt.
And you exit that class.
And you're shown with others.
To an area of igloos.
And you're shown to the one that's for you.
And you place your items inside.
And as it gets later and later.
So you begin to have this sensation like you think You can notice some color in the sky,
But your eyes aren't fully open.
Adjusted yet.
The sky is still slightly too bright.
Then you notice a little bit of purple in the sky.
And then think you see a hint of green.
And as it gets darker and darker.
So,
That hint of colour.
Starts to look like curtains waving in the sky.
The curtains of light.
Mainly in greens and purples.
Waving gently in the sky.
In front of a backdrop.
Of twinkling.
Points of light.
And you're lying back.
Gazing at the sky.
And time seems to almost stand still.
As you're so absorbed in the experience.
And you feel like you could watch this all night long.
Until eventually.
.
.
It gets so late,
You get so tired.
You have to settle down and drift to sleep.
See you relax back.
Feeling much warmer than you thought you would in this environment wrapped in the most comfortable sleeping bag.
Breathing in and out.
That incredibly fresh air.
Something about the coolness,
Helping that air be even more fresh.
And you think to yourself,
What a magical place this is and what a magical sight this is.
And the journey you've been on.
The days of making a road trip,
Travelling on a train and an unusual bus.
To get here to see this.
And that sleeping bag hugs you so comfortably.
So deeply asleep.
And while you drift deeper asleep,
You begin to dream.
You imagine yourself.
Walking.
Along a very stony seashore.
And as you walk along this stony seashore.
A walrus,
Wearing mittens because it was cold.
Calls out to you in the most British accent.
To get your attention.
They ask if you've seen their friend.
Coconut the Raccoon and you say that you haven't and ask where they were.
And the walrus says that they were following their shadow.
Though determined.
Get to the head of the shadow.
But the further they walked,
The farther away the head of the shadow moved.
And they said,
I'll just be a moment.
I'm nearly there.
And yet they always seem to keep the same distance from the head of the shadow.
So they kept following and following and following.
And then they burst into a run,
Thinking it will get them to the head of the shadow quicker.
And then they lost track of where Coconut had gone.
And the walrus explained that because of their size It's quite difficult for them to explore this area.
Until you say that you'll explore for them.
And so you wander in the direction they said Coconut went.
And you can see the footprints.
Of where they were initially walking.
But then those footprints.
Seem to go into a hole.
Like a small cave.
As you crouch down and you carefully find your way through that small cave.
As you walk through the small cave.
So the cave starts to open up and lighten up.
And it feels like you're walking out of a cave.
Into the most beautiful meadow.
You can see the sun in the sky.
And you see what you assume is coconut.
They're running back and forth.
And you head over to them and they say that they're confused.
When they run one way.
The head that they're trying to reach,
The head of that shadow.
Moves the opposite way.
When they turn and run the other way,
It moves the other way.
Whichever way they run they can never quite reach the head.
Once you explain to them about how shadows work.
If they want to reach the head,
They don't need to go chasing.
The easiest way to reach the head is actually just to stop.
And wait.
And you sit down next to coconuts And that sun carefully passes across the sky in this meadow.
And the shadows carefully move.
And while the shadows are moving,
You talk to Coconut.
About who they are and why they're here.
How come they hang round with the walrus?
And they say that.
.
.
They became friends with the walrus.
When they followed their shadow.
All the way up north.
And it got colder and colder and colder.
And then they just sat down and didn't know what to do and they took shelter and they played dominoes.
With some dominoes that the walrus had created.
The walrus had been out and cut up some snow into rectangles.
And grabbed some small black stones and placed them onto those rectangular pieces.
Cut out pieces of snow.
When you play dominoes.
With those snowy dominoes.
And you found this.
An unusual thing to hear.
You wondered why the dominoes didn't melt.
And Coconut said,
Well,
They did end up melting because.
.
.
They decided to light a fire because of how cold it was.
And Walrus was winning at the time.
And all of a sudden,
All those dominoes melted.
Now he was suddenly losing.
And so Coconut decided to play a different game.
Get to the head of the shadow.
You've been playing that game all the way up here.
But Walrus didn't want to join in and play this game again.
And wouldn't explain why.
And just then,
The sun reached the right point in the sky.
And the head of the shadow.
Move.
Underneath coconut.
And Coconut stood up and looked down.
Then smiled at seeing that head of the shadow beneath them.
And then the sun continued across the sky.
And the head started moving away again.
The coconut now understood.
And you wandered back to Walrus with Coconut.
And you left them to go off on your own journey.
You wandered further along this shore.
And you saw what looked like a kite flying in the sky.
But that kite was tied to something on the ground.
Then a storm rolled in.
And lightning struck the kite.
And that Lightning travelled down the wire.
And exploded the rock it was tied to.
And embedded within the rock.
Was a treasure chest suddenly exposed.
And you went over to that treasure chest.
Open the chest.
And within the chest.
We found something.
Never would have imagined to be in a chest.
It was a little patch.
Of grass and some soil.
And resting in the heart of that grass was a daisy,
Just one solitary daisy.
And that soil was resting.
In a tray of water.
And you drifted deeper.
And deeper sleep.
Drifting from the dream.
Into the deepest recuperative sleep.
And then from there you gradually work your way back through the stages of sleep Awakening in that igloo.
Hearing.
The loud sound of the wind rumbling across the snow and ice.
You went back.
To that bus.
And you began your journey.
Back home.
Travelling back to the train station.
Making that journey back on the train to your car,
Before making that long road trip home,
Having to camp en route.
And the whole time you are thinking about the experience of those northern lights.
And that curious dream.
Of the walrus and coconut.
And finding a patch.
Of grass.
Was a daisy.
In a treasure chest.
And once home,
You checked.
Your mailbox.
And you found in the mailbox.
A card.
And it was like a postcard.
From the Northern Lights.
And you read what it said on the back of that postcard,
And at the bottom of the postcard.
It just said.
All the best.
Coconut.
And sellotaped to the postcard.
Was a small little daisy.
And you place that.
On your shell.
You had something to eat and drink.
And you thought once that daisy has dried out a little more,
You'll probably place that postcard and daisy into the book,
But by then you probably will have finished reading.
And you'll press that daisy.
When you head to bed.
And in your mind you just decide to count yourself down comfortably to sleep just to give something for your mind to do So you don't spend your time thinking over a million and one other things.
And counting yourself down so comfortably.
Drifting deeper asleep with each count,
Almost losing track of the counting as you go.
From 20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
Fifteen.
14.
Thirteen.
Twelve.
11.
Say.
.
.
Eight.
Seven.
6.
Five,
Roar.
All the way to sleep.
Three.
Term.
One,
Drifting and floating.
Peacefully asleep.
Into slumberland.
