Welcome to this Slumberland sleep story.
I'll be your guide as you wander through a meadow along the edge of Loch Ness,
Seeing Urquhart castle in the distance.
You take a break halfway to the castle before continuing on with your journey.
Once near the castle you encounter Nessie.
They share knowledge about themselves with you.
After Nessie disappears back into the loch,
You notice a storm approaching.
You head into the ruins of Urquhart castle to find shelter from the storm,
Where you settle down,
Relax and drift peacefully asleep to the sound of that storm overhead.
I'd like to take this moment to wish you the most peaceful night's sleep and pleasant dreams as you fall asleep to this story.
Before we begin the story you can take a few moments to settle down comfortably.
You can perhaps shift about a little if you need to,
To make yourself even more comfortable.
And when you're ready you can gently let your eyes close and as this story unfolds you can take a few deep relaxing breaths,
Allowing the out breaths to be a little longer than the in breaths.
This triggers the body's natural relaxation response and as you relax you can find yourself walking through a meadow along the edge of Loch Ness.
And as you walk through that meadow you can gaze out across the loch,
Noticing that murky water,
The waves on the surface of the water.
You can see over to the other side of the loch,
Seeing the tall hills that flank the loch,
The trees and the woodland rising up those hills.
And dotted among those hills you can notice the occasional house and some houses looking quite grand while others looking quite small and simple and cozy.
And the weather currently is generally overcast but occasionally there's glimmers of Sun breaking through the cloud in grand shards of light.
And as the shards of light strike water so they lead to the sight of sparkling rows of diamonds on top of the waves.
And you can feel the cool breeze against your cheeks as you walk along the edge of the loch through this meadow.
You can see butterflies flitting from flower to flower,
The way the breeze blows the grass creating ripples of waves throughout the meadow and a gentle distant rustling of the leaves of trees,
Occasionally spying birds circling overhead as you continue to amble along,
Gently,
Slowly,
Relaxed,
Just walking along in your own world,
Gazing out across the loch,
Curious whether you'll ever be fortunate enough to spy Nessie or whether you'll see something which looks like Nessie but you'll know that it's not and perhaps even take a photograph knowing that you can joke with people about how you saw Nessie and then explain to people what it really was that you saw.
And you know sometimes there are creatures in the loch which as they swim at the surface can look like the humps described for the Loch Ness monster,
Sometimes the ripples from a passing boat can resemble the creature traveling down the loch,
Sometimes silhouetted birds with their curved necks in small flocks on the water can blend together and sometimes it's difficult to gain a sense of perspective and so the birds may be nearer to the shore than they look in a photograph making it look like there's a curved-necked monster further out in the loch when actually it was some birds silhouetted nearer to the person taking the photograph.
Sometimes it can just be the stump of a tree floating through the water,
Occasionally rolling over and perhaps a branch on that stump rises above the surface and people see this rising neck-like structure coming out of the water and interpret it as being Nessie because in the location they're primed to want to see what they think they want to see and you're aware of this and you're reasonably confident that there is no monster in this loch,
You've heard all the stories but you know that if there was one single monster in this loch then the stories over the hundreds and hundreds of years would be about that same monster and so the monster would either be very very old or the stories must be incorrect because you know that there'd be no way that a single monster could be in this loch but if there was multiple monsters here then sightings would be considerably more frequent so taking a very analytical look at it you're confident this is just a large lake with no large animal within it but you find the idea intriguing and curious and a fun idea to think about and a part of you almost like a childlike part of you really wishes that the lake would contain the Loch Ness monster and that by chance you would be the one to see it and so you continue to walk through this meadow along the edge of the loch gazing around taking in the environment until after some time of walking look at castle there's still some way off in the distance you decide now would be a good time to take a break and so you sit down on that grass near to the shore you have yourself some food and some drink and still feel that cool yet comfortable breeze on your face and as you rest there you look across the surface of the water and find that those waves rolling in and lapping on the shore are almost hypnotic almost mesmerizing you feeling those eyes getting heavier and heavier with each wave that rolls in as your eyes track the waves to the shore and after a wave has rolled onto the shore gently your eyes move back to the next wave back and follow that into the shore looking out and back out and back with regularity until eventually as the eyes look back they close for a moment it takes a moment to realize that your eyes are still closed you open your eyes and look out and out and back until the eyes close again and you find yourself drifting and floating inside your mind into the most peaceful the most comfortable reverie you begin to have a sense of relaxing your mind and body you focus on the top of your head noticing what your head is resting on as you lie back onto the ground noticing how it's gently supported in place feeling almost like it's resting on a cushion of grass being aware of the comfort in and around your head as it rests gently there having a sense of the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and relaxing drawing in peace and comfort with each breath that you take before you slowly and carefully move your awareness around to your face focusing on what it's like for that relaxation to spread around your face your ears and your cheeks having the muscles in these areas soften and relax deeper and deeper relaxing the muscles around your eyes and across your forehead while the muscles around the side of your head and over the top of your head begin to relax deeper and deeper noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolves without paying it any attention at all and you continue to allow that relaxation to spread down around your mouth relaxing your lips and your jaw relaxing the muscles around the side of your neck around the back of your neck and around your throat and as your jaw relaxes and hangs slightly loose limp and comfortable that relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and upper back I don't know whether that relaxation will be happening fastest around your shoulders or in your upper back or perhaps down the tops or the front of your shoulders as that relaxation progresses around your back and your chest softening and relaxing those muscles fully,
Deeply and comfortably and as those muscles soften and relax while you rest there that relaxation can begin to spread down the arms to the hands all the way down to your fingertips and I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest whether it will be the left arm or the right arm or whether the arms will relax at the same rate and speed as each other and as that relaxation continues through those arms it can flow down through your stomach,
Sides and lower back all the way down to your bottom before extending deeply down through your legs,
The tips of your toes and as your body becomes deeper and deeper relaxed while you drift into the most pleasant sleep so your mind begins to relax,
You begin to have a sense of a healing light touching your forehead enveloping your face and head with healing deep relaxation absorbing comfortably and gently into you with each in-breath that you take filling you with healing peace and calm,
Spreading that healing restorative recuperative light down through your body breathing in healing,
Calm relaxation and breathing out any stress or tension aware of that healing light passing down your neck,
Softening and relaxing those muscles spreading that healing light throughout the neck as it spreads down with the next breath to your shoulders,
Around the back of your neck and down into your arms gradually continuing that flow of healing light all the way down to your fingertips and with another in-breath,
Healing light can spread down through the body softening and relaxing muscles,
Healing deep within the body filling the body with pleasure and deep relaxation as the light journeys down around your stomach,
Your lower back and sides,
Into your buttocks and all the way down your legs to the soles of your feet filling your whole body with that healing restorative light and as you allow that light to flow with each breath,
You can find your mind drifting deeper and deeper into a reverie,
Finding yourself aware of the sound of the water gently lapping onto the shore aware of the feeling of the breeze on your cheeks,
The slight warmth of the sun at the times when it breaks through the clouds the distant sounds of birds overhead,
The feeling of the grass beneath the fingertips and the palms of your hands and the way your body just feels so supported in place by that meadow,
Resting back on that cushion of grass and then after a while of enjoying this break,
Drifting in this reverie you slowly shift around a little and open your eyes and sit up initially everything seems a little brighter until your eyes adjust to the light and you stand up and collect up your belongings and continue on your journey around the outside of this lock your journey towards Urquhart castle while continuing to look out across the water for any signs of that mythical beast and while you walk around the outside of the lock,
You notice the occasional tree and as you continue walking,
Those trees get a little more dense almost like there's a gentle slightly open woodland along the edge of the lock and so you cut through the trees and while walking through the trees with the leaves rustling overhead and touching the trunks of the trees as you navigate around them and over their roots and over some slightly uneven ground you can feel the bark of the trees beneath your fingertips and notice the sensation of that rough bark of the trunks of the trees cutting through this light woodland before coming out the other side seeing that you're much closer now to Urquhart castle and you walk along through more gentle grassy area aware of how the edge of the shore appears stonier and flatter here almost like you could take your shoes off and if you could comfortably walk on those stones,
You could walk into the shallow bit of water here and you wonder how cold that water must be and you've no plans to walk into water you imagine to be so cold even on a slightly warmer day like today and as you near the castle,
You notice something moving in the water initially it just looks like some ripples and then it looks like something rises from the water and whatever it is,
Looks like it's heading in the direction of Urquhart castle and it passes by,
Disappearing beyond Urquhart castle and you're sure that it looked like some kind of a creature with a long neck,
At least one hump if not two and a lizard-like face and you're unsure whether that was just you seeing something just making an interpretation of what it was that was really there you know you saw something but it may just have been some wood floating past or maybe it was something else but you don't believe that it would be the Loch Ness monster and you sit down on the bank again this time gazing out across the loch trying to catch a glimpse of what it was you just saw and after a short period of time the most incredible thing occurs you see what looks like some kind of a monster heading towards you on the shore and as it gets closer and closer the more aware you are that it isn't mistaken identity it isn't just a branch on the water and as it arrives near the shore so you feel yourself holding your breath for a moment as it towers above you in height the lower part of its body still in the water its tall neck towering up into the air its head looking down at you and then you feel this sense as if it's trying to somehow get into your mind and as it seems to be trying to access your mind almost as if it's trying to communicate from mind to mind you start to feel a gentle euphoric state of pleasure and a deep focus and a tingling through your body almost like somebody's stroking gently down your back and then you start to have visions and recognize that this Loch Ness monster is projecting thoughts into your mind almost as if to try to communicate and share knowledge with you and you start to feel this sense like you're supposed to count back from 20 in your mind to focus and deepen this connection and so you imagine in your mind's eye the number 20 and then you imagine erasing that number as if rubbing out a number written in chalk on a blackboard and then seeing the number 19 written on that blackboard in your mind and having a sense of that number being gently rubbed out and then seeing the number 18 drawn onto that blackboard and then gently and softly being rubbed out going deeper and deeper with each number seeing the number 17 written onto the board and then going deeper as that's rubbed out and then the number 16 and that's rubbed out and then the number 15 and that's rubbed out and then the number 14 and that's rubbed out and then the number 13 and that's rubbed out going deeper and deeper and then the number 12 and that's rubbed out and then the number 11 and that's rubbed out and then the number 10 and that's rubbed out going deeper and deeper going all the way inside and then the number 11 and that's rubbed out and then the number 8 and that's rubbed out and then the number 7 and that's rubbed out and then the number 6 and that's rubbed out going deeper,
More profoundly into this pleasant reverie and then the number 5 and that's rubbed out and then the number 4 and that's rubbed out and then the number 3 and that's rubbed out and then the number 2 and that's rubbed out and then the number 1,
Deeper and deeper and then that's rubbed out as you go deeper and feel that connection with Nessie and you find now that Nessie can communicate with you so much easier and more effortless and Nessie communicates through images almost as if they are transmitting memories or images from their minds straight into yours and Nessie transmits the images of their history they transmit that there's an underwater cave system that's not yet been discovered that comes out into the loch and following that cave system it heads towards the north of Scotland and comes out in the sea off Stransea in the Orkney Islands and Nessie shows you that north of Scotland is a large community of plesiosaurs which live in the cold sea and they have very long lived with slow metabolisms and have adapted and evolved to the cold water and they generally live quiet lives and very slow moving lives and they live very long lives with their slow metabolisms and they can spend very long periods of time underwater without requiring surfacing and they only give birth about once every decade or so with each female giving birth to a handful of young plesiosaurs and there's cave systems heading to many lakes around Scotland and Norway and the female plesiosaurs when they're due to give birth find their way through those cave systems back to the relevant lake and they give birth to those young plesiosaurs and they look after those young for a few weeks until they're large enough to be able to head back to the open ocean and then the mothers guide the young back through the cave system back out to sea and the young will remember the routes back through the caves to the various lakes and decades later the mum will do the same again and after many decades the children will be old enough to have their own children and then they will do the same themselves when it's time to give birth they'll head back through the cave systems to the various lakes they'll give birth to their own young and Nessie shared this insight and wisdom this knowledge of their lifestyle of how they have been around for so long that it isn't just a single monster it isn't just a single plesiosaur which has been somehow in this one lock all this time it's perhaps a single plesiosaur for many,
Many decades making occasional appearances but every 500 years or so it'll be a new plesiosaur which is the offspring of one which came before and they only appear for a very short period of time before disappearing again for a decade or more and after Nessie has transmitted all this information almost psychically from mind to mind they head back into the deeper water and you see some small plesiosaur heads bobbing around near their mum as she dives back down below the surface and they'll disappear off and you start to drift out of this reverie out of this almost psychic connection that you had and you notice the clouds tumbling over the tops of the hills and the other side of the lock and you can see the rain coming in you can hear the faint rumble of a distant storm beginning to brew and so you head round to the castle you head into the ruins of Urquhart Castle you find sanctuary in these ruins you set up a small camp under the ruins of the floor overhead you can see out across the lock through the ruins and you hear that rain arrive and see the rain striking the water initially just the occasional circular splash of rain and then a patchwork of circles from the rain as it strikes those waves in the water breaking up the waves,
Making the water seem more choppy as the breeze picks up a little bit more while the storm rolls in noticing a flash of lightning the way it illuminates the stone on the inside of the castle lighting a small fire to keep yourself warm that's just protected enough from the elements that it keeps dry but you can't hear that fire of the sound of the storm overhead that's rolling in you set up a place to sleep tucked up against the wall nice dry spot feeling so comfortable,
Feeling the gentle warmth of the fire aware as the storm's rolling in that night time is rolling in faster as deep darkness sets in across the lock the only illumination being the glow from the fire and the occasional illumination from lightning relaxing back onto that bed which you've made so comfortably wrapped and snuggled up into a sleeping bag you drift and float so peacefully and so relaxed asleep finding yourself drifting deeper and deeper asleep,
Drifting and floating deeply relaxed into slumberland
