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'm just going to count down from 10 in the background.
And while I count down from 10,
You can have a sense of a healing light passing slowly and softly through your body.
Healing and softening the muscles and calming the mind from 10,
Relaxing the muscles around the top of the head,
Around the face,
Around the jaw,
Relaxing those muscles around your temple and your forehead,
Gently smoothing those muscles out,
Softening,
So peaceful,
9,
Just allowing that relaxation to slowly work its way around the back of your head,
Relaxing down the back of your neck,
Perhaps tingling so gently with peace and comfort.
And with each out breath that you take,
You can perhaps find yourself relaxing deeper and deeper asleep.
And as you relax deeper and deeper asleep,
I don't know whether it's the sound of my voice that helps you drift deeper asleep or whether it's the spaces between my words.
And as that relaxation moves with the next out breath down your neck,
Around your neck,
Deep within you,
Drifting,
Floating,
Deeper and more peacefully relaxed,
7,
That relaxation can move down those arms,
Around your shoulders and your shoulder blades,
Softening and relaxing the muscles,
Perhaps making those arms begin to feel heavier and heavier.
Just as the eyelids can feel heavier and more relaxed,
With that relaxation moving down those arms,
It can begin to reach the fingertips,
Bringing a deep sense of comfort and peace to those fingers.
Relaxing down around the chest,
The upper back and deep within you,
And the relaxation can continue to move down to your stomach,
Your lower sides and your lower back.
Softening,
Relaxing,
So calmly as a mind and body.
With the relaxation moving down around your bottom and around your legs,
Carefully moving down towards your feet,
3,
Moving all the way down those legs,
Deeper and deeper,
Bringing a deep sense of peace and calm,
Taking you to a place in your mind where you drift deeper and deeper asleep so easily and effortlessly,
Where your mind is so calm and peaceful,
Where sleep seems to just draw you in,
Where the mind slows right,
As that relaxation spreads around the lower legs,
Around the ankles and down into the feet,
1,
Feeling that relaxation as it flows through your whole body,
Like a wave of peace and comfort.
And you know the process of sleep involves the body relaxing fully,
As the mind begins to drift almost into its own reverie before passing into pleasant dreams.
And as you continue listening to this and we move into the story,
So you can sleep deeply and sleep well all night long.
And in this sleep story,
You're walking through an orchard at twilight,
Hearing the dull thud of each footstep on the soil beneath your feet,
And the soft rustling of the leaves on the trees as the wind calmly blows a breeze,
Noticing the air cooling as the sun sets,
And the way the sky is changing colour from blue through to shades of purple,
Then reds and oranges,
Before all colour drains out of the sky,
Leaving behind the most beautiful dusting of stars,
Dancing gently overhead on a moonless night,
And you continue walking,
Songs of the birds all but gone,
Now replaced by the chirping of crickets as they rub their wings together,
The song calmly rising and falling,
Almost undulating on the breeze as crickets chirps drift in and out of synchrony,
And after a while of walking through the fresh cool countryside air,
You could notice the lights of your cabin gradually come into view,
And the more brinky black the clear sky gets,
The cooler the air gets,
And although calming and beautiful outside at night time,
You look forward to getting into the warmth of your cabin,
And as you approach the cabin,
You reach a gate into your garden,
You unlatch the gate,
You swing the gate gently open,
Turning as you pass through the gate,
And carefully closing it behind you,
Walking through the garden and up a step to your front door,
You carefully fumble around in your pocket,
With cold fingers for your keys,
Feeling the metal of the keys and instinctively working the keys into position in your fingers,
Even as you're pulling the keys from your pocket,
Ready to open the front door,
Fingers slightly numb as they grip the key,
Jabbing and scraping around the lock slightly clumsily,
Until the key finds the keyhole and slides in,
Feeling the sensation of that key entering the door,
In small jumps as the serrated edge of the key pushes and works its way past the lock pins,
Until it's fully embraced by the lock,
You turn the key,
Unlocking the door,
Before twisting the handle,
Slowly opening the door and instantly feeling the warmth from within the cabin,
Wafting out from the gentle glow to greet your face,
Like a pet being excited about your arrival home,
You place your keys into a small pot beside the front door,
You take off your shoes placing them down against the wall by the door,
Shimmy your way out of your jacket,
Twisting it around and hanging it,
Among a few other jackets on a hook,
About head height on the wall by the front door,
And walk from the entrance space,
Across the soft,
Thick,
Warm carpet towards the kitchen area,
And in the kitchen area,
You fill the kettle with enough water for a single drink,
Turn the kettle on and head over to the fireplace,
Placing a couple of logs into the fireplace and poking at the calming,
Glowing embers,
Enticing them to dance up to the logs,
You watch as a few of the embers take hold of the log and the fire begins to slowly crackle to life,
As the kettle begins to bubble loudly behind you in the kitchen,
Before switching itself off,
When you head back through to the kitchen,
Pour yourself a hot drink and decide to sit for a moment in the chair beside the fire,
Drinking the drink before making dinner,
As you sink into that most comfortable chair,
Wrapping your hands around the mug,
Feeling the warmth permeating your palms and fingertips,
As you move the mug slowly and carefully towards your mouth,
Your out-breaths encouraging a stream of warm water vapour to rise up and linger on your cheeks,
And with each sip of the drink,
You can feel the warmth of the liquid travelling down into your body,
Warming your body and calming your muscles,
Your breathing slowing,
As you relax deeper and deeper without even trying,
And once you feel that your hands have warmed up nicely,
And you've drunk a little of that warm drink,
You place the mug down next to an old novel on a small coffee table beside you,
You pick up the novel,
Feeling the texture of the cover between your fingertips,
The weight of the novel in your hand,
Getting a slight hint of the old book smell lingering under your nose,
You turn to your bookmarked page and decide to read a few chapters as you finish your drink before making your dinner,
And with each sip of your drink,
You can have a sense of it's healing power warming and calming your mind and body,
And you open the book and begin to read,
And it only takes a few pages of reading for you to find yourself deeply absorbed in the story once again,
Almost as if you start off consciously reading,
Paying attention to each word,
And then at some unknown point,
You become one with the story,
You no longer feel like you're reading,
But rather,
You're experiencing the story as it unfolds,
Discovering that it's like it's just unfolding automatically around you,
With your mind playing out the story,
Almost as if it's a real experience,
And the story is about a princess who drank a magical potion which they believed would make others see them how they see themselves,
The princess felt that others didn't take her seriously,
All they saw was a privileged child,
Someone who didn't understand the world,
And although now a young adult,
They're still treated like a child,
She feels that she presents ideas to people,
And they almost seem to humour her,
They listen,
And then metaphorically,
Pat her on the head and tell her what a good idea,
Before continuing on as if she hadn't said anything,
She felt that whenever she shared her opinions and thoughts,
That people just dismissed them as stupid or don't even listen in the first place,
All she wants is to be heard and treated as an equal,
After drinking the potion,
She sets off on a journey from the palace to the town hall in the heart of the nearby city,
Most of the duration of the journey is actually just travelling through the grounds of the palace,
The palace is surrounded by vast swathes of meadows and woodland,
It takes about half a day's travel by horse and carriage just to clear the palace grounds before passing through an ornate marble arch,
Out onto the road to the city,
The princess climbs into a glass carriage,
Before the carriage pulls away from the palace,
Two horses pulling the carriage,
Clipping and clopping away from the palace and into the surrounding grounds,
From within the carriage,
The princess gazes out over the landscape,
The rolling hills and meadows,
The distant woodland,
The most beautiful blue sky and occasional wispy clouds,
A buzzard circling high overhead,
Catching an updraft of warm air,
A family of deer chowing down on the meadow grasses,
The soft scent of wildflowers working their way to the princess's nostrils,
Evoking happy memories of times long past,
The carriage continues on through the palace grounds,
As the sun continues on ambling across the sky,
While the carriage gently rocks its way through the landscape,
The princess turns away from the view to read a book for a time,
She reads her favourite book,
One which she has read dozens of times since childhood,
About a snow angel,
And snow angels are formed from the most delicate snowflakes,
Each flake resting gently on other flakes,
And as they melt slightly when the sun is at just the right angle in the sky,
The kind of angle which makes snow glisten and sparkle with magic,
The tips of some of those unique and individual snowflakes melt together,
And when this happens just right,
The resulting structure begins to sparkle and glow with magic,
And a small snow angel is born,
And these snow angels have one purpose,
To go throughout the land,
Whispering kind thoughts into the minds of children and adults who believe,
They bring hope and joy to the minds of those they communicate with,
The snow angel in this story was drawn to a princess who lived in a palace,
In the heart of a distant land,
The princess felt alone,
Trapped by rules and the expectations others had on her,
When her carriage would pass through the land,
As her parents carried out their duty,
She could see other children playing with each other,
Yet she'd never played with another child,
She didn't know what that experience was like,
And dreamt of being able to laugh and play like the children she saw,
As the carriage passed through the town,
She would hear children saying how much they would love to be a princess,
She was here wishing to be like them,
Just as they were wishing to be like her,
And one day this snow angel visited the princess,
They shared thoughts of playing with other children,
The princess became lost in the reverie playing out in her mind,
And on waking from her reverie,
She had a thought,
She needed to have a party for her next birthday,
And all of the children in the land should be invited,
She asked her parents whether she could have a party,
But they refused,
Telling her that she's a princess,
She doesn't mix with those people,
As she started to lose hope,
The snow angel shared thoughts of a future where her parents will allow her to have the party,
They just needed to know why this was important,
The angel visited the parents as they slept,
And began to implant dreams of their daughter,
And of what would bring their daughter happiness,
And how they can bring their daughter joy,
The angel continued the dreams into the daughter being grown up and the skills she has and how loved she is by all because of her playing and interacting with others when she was a child,
The next morning,
The parents tell their daughter that she can have the party,
She designs the invitations herself before sending them to the royal printer,
Every child in the land receives an invitation and all but one responds to say that they'll attend,
One response from a young boy says that he's unable to attend because he's too busy,
He has to work to provide for his family,
To care for his mum,
The princess has never had to do any of these things and doesn't at first understand,
She'd never thought about children having to work or having to care for their parents,
She'd grown up where her parents don't work and if anyone needs caring for,
Staff do that,
She learns from her parents that everyone in the kingdom pays them money but they don't get anything in return,
Her parents tell her that this is the way things have always been,
They are royalty,
This makes them special,
They explain that everyone is born into their position in life and that that position is where they're meant to be,
Which is why they were born into it,
The princess doesn't understand or believe this,
If people are born to people who were born to people in certain situations,
Then if everyone treats it as this is the way things have always been and so must be,
Then her family will always be in this position and everyone else will always be in their positions,
She felt that that doesn't seem like people are born into a position they were meant to be born to live in,
But rather people are born into the only position possible to them,
The snow angel continues to give hope and the princess sees that there could be hope not just for her but for those in the land,
She encourages her parents to share the wealth to help improve the lives of those in their kingdom with the money they give,
And years later,
When it's the princess ruling the kingdom,
She's much loved for helping the community and giving everyone the opportunity to have the life that they want to lead,
And the princess enjoys reading and re-reading this book,
Seeing it as inspirational,
She wishes that real life was like that and has taken this magic potion to try to be taken more seriously and perhaps she can change things for people like the princess in the story,
And the carriage passes into the woodland,
Beams of light dancing through the canopy,
Illuminating dust motes,
And it takes many hours before finally making it out of the woodland and onto the road leading to the city,
As the carriage climbs over the last hill before the city,
The city skyline gradually rises into view,
A patchwork of buildings surrounded by a large stone wall,
Approaching the city,
The carriage passes over a broad wooden bridge which stretches across a wide river and waterfall,
The sound of which rumbles into the carriage,
Along with a little soft cool watery spray,
And almost as soon as the carriage passes through the city walls,
And the sound of hustle and bustle can be heard,
With people busily darting around the streets,
A place of life and activity with almost too much to look at,
The princess wonders whether her brain can keep up with the amount of information her eyes are taking in,
And eventually,
The carriage arrives at the town hall,
The carriage comes to a halt,
The driver can be heard climbing down and walking to the carriage door,
Before opening the door,
Reaching a hand out to support the princess as she climbs out of the carriage and onto the street,
The princess walks to the front of the carriage to pat the horses,
Thanking them for their work before heading into the town hall,
As she enters the town hall,
Her footsteps echo through the building,
She walks to the room a meeting is being held in,
And pushes the doors to the room open,
As the doors open,
So everyone in the room goes quiet,
The chair stands up,
They watch as the princess walks around the rectangle of tables to her seat and sits down,
And once she's seated,
So the chair sits back down and begins to talk,
Not the chatter they were having before the princess entered,
But now focusing on what the meeting is actually about,
And all the people in this room have been elected by people throughout the kingdom to represent their individual communities,
However,
They've been arguing and not coming together as a group,
Which hasn't been beneficial for anyone,
The princess wants to change that,
She wants them to all work together for the betterment of the kingdom,
Once it's her opportunity to speak,
She gives a rousing and passionate speech about community,
About coming together and working together,
About best representing those who put you here,
By finding common ground and starting from where they all agree,
And looking at how they can be helpful to each other,
Rather than focusing on what they can get for themselves,
She explains about how each of their communities that they represent want certain things for their specific community,
But by arguing and just focusing on what I want,
When in many cases,
Many of the communities want very similar things,
They could be focusing on what can we do to achieve this for all of us,
And she's holding her favourite book that she'd been reading in the carriage,
And she shares an overview of that book,
Sharing the points from the story that are relevant to this situation,
She shares her vision for the future of the kingdom,
And how this can only happen if we all work together for everyone,
And everyone in the room sits quietly listening and seems engaged and moved by what the princess says,
And after the meeting,
Everyone present gets to mingle and have drinks and eat sandwiches and biscuits,
Before people start to say their goodbyes to each other,
And eventually the princess leaves,
She heads back to the carriage and begins the long journey back to the palace,
But she's surprised by how well everyone listened to her,
She was so happy to have drunk that potion,
Maybe there's now hope for the future of the kingdom,
Perhaps it'll become the kingdom she dreams that it will be,
And by the time her carriage arrives back at the palace,
It's now dark,
She heads into the palace,
Kicks off her shoes and rests at the most comfortable chair,
The potion bottle she drank from earlier is still sitting on a small table by the chair,
She picks up the bottle and there's still a small amount of the potion left in that bottle,
She wonders how long taking the potion lasts for,
It lasted long enough for her to do well and be taken seriously at the meeting,
But would its effects last a day or two days,
Perhaps a week or maybe even longer,
She looked at the bottle to see if the small print revealed how long its effects lasted,
But all she could see was the ingredients,
She noticed something odd about them,
There was only one ingredient,
Water,
And next to the ingredient was a sentence in brackets,
Powered by belief,
Her,
She thought to herself,
Smiling as a realization popped into her mind,
And you continue reading the story through those last few pages to the conclusion of this novel,
Before realizing the rest of your drink had now gone cold,
You've been sitting here reading for over an hour,
The fire is in full flow in the fireplace,
The cabin is comfortable and warm,
You take your mug to the kitchen,
Pour away the last of the cold drink before beginning dinner,
Putting on a pot of water,
Placing a little oil in the water and giving that water a gentle stir,
And as the water is heating up,
You chop various ingredients,
The smell of which dances within your nostrils,
Tickling your taste buds,
You begin to cook and blend the ingredients together in a frying pan,
Hearing it calmly hiss as you move the ingredients around with a wooden spoon,
As the water begins to boil,
So you place spaghetti into that water,
Fanning it out and watching as it starts to relax,
Go loose and limp and sink gently into the water,
And while the spaghetti is cooking,
You continue to stir the food in the frying pan,
And once the spaghetti has completely submerged,
You use a different wooden spoon to move the spaghetti around,
Just to make sure it doesn't stick or clump up,
It doesn't take long for the food to be cooked,
As it approaches completion,
You get a large plate which curves gently up around the edges,
You drain the water from the saucepan and place the spaghetti onto your plate,
Using a fork to carefully shape it into a nest,
You pour the bolognese into the middle and decide whether to add cheese or not this time,
Before heading to a table and enjoying your dinner,
And after dinner,
You head outside briefly to get some fresh air,
Gazing out across your garden,
You can see the patchwork of the garden,
Of stars peppered across the sky,
Feeling the stillness,
Noticing how more stars come into view as your eyes adapt to the dark,
You sit on a bench which leans against the wall of your cabin,
Just out of the cool slight breeze,
And occasionally you hear a chirp of a songbird,
And wonder whether perhaps it's dreaming,
And that it's like a bird talking in its sleep,
You can still hear the crickets rubbing their wings together,
Calling out for a mate,
And from time to time you notice shooting stars streak across the sky,
And after giving time to rest and let your food go down,
You head back into the cabin,
And again,
Relax by the fire a little longer,
Until you feel yourself becoming tired,
And as your eyes get heavier and heavier,
And the fires once again burn down to the faintest of glows,
You head to bed,
Settle down into that most comfortable bed,
Feeling that it's just the right temperature for you to fall asleep,
And as your mind drifts and floats into the most pleasant dreams,
So you drift and float so peacefully,
So comfortably asleep,
Into slumberland.
