The Magical Outback: Sleep Meditation Bedtime Story

Journey deep into the outback away from civilization with this sleep story with sound effects (the story is about 41 minutes long). Enjoy the experience of taking shelter in a cave while a storm passes, drifting into a reverie about this land, before continuing your journey to a newly refilled salt lake, from the overnight storm. Explore near the lake, before settling down in a tent, listening to the sounds of the lake, the campfire, and the nighttime nature as you fall comfortably asleep.

This bedtime story integrates two relaxation processes, a body scan process and a staircase process.

Transcript

Welcome to this slumberland sleep story.

I'll be your guide as you journey through the magical outback,

Driving in a 4x4 through the desert,

Sheltering from a thunderstorm in a small cave,

Before continuing your journey to a salt lake,

Settling down in a tent and falling comfortably asleep to the sound of a crackling campfire and the sounds of nature around you.

I would 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 shift about a little if you need to,

To make yourself more comfortable.

When you are ready you can let your eyes gently close and as the 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 on the edge of the Australian outback,

Walking in the heat of the midday sun to a 4x4.

You climb into the vehicle,

Settle comfortably into the driver's seat and start the engine.

Turning on the air conditioning,

You feel the comfortable temperature begin to wrap around you like a cool blanket as you set off on your journey.

Your vehicle drives so smoothly along a stony dirt track,

Across the reddened soil as you head away from civilisation and out into the wilderness.

While driving you can hear the crunching sound of the loose stones under the wheels.

You can see the blue sky overhead,

With the occasional wispy cloud hanging like silk high in the atmosphere.

It seems to only take a short period of time for the nearest town to already be over the horizon behind you,

As you continue to travel deeper and deeper into the desert.

Once the vehicle has cooled down to a comfortable temperature,

You turn off the air conditioning and open the car windows,

Feeling that air blowing from both sides into your face,

Tickling your cheeks and ruffling your hair.

Breathing in that fresh,

Clean air as you continue to drive deeper and deeper into the outback.

While driving you look around at the passing scenery,

At tall trees,

Short trees and clumps of shrubs and grasses,

With some distant rock formations.

The day continues to progress,

As you continue to drive.

The driving almost becomes monotonous,

As you watch the same scenery pass you by,

Mile by mile,

Hour by hour,

Heading deeper and deeper into the outback.

After many hours of driving,

The sun is beginning to set.

You pull over and light a campfire near some large rocks.

A container on the roof of your 4x4 opens into a tent.

You set this tent up and head back to the rocks.

Sitting on the rocks near the campfire,

You cook,

Eat and have a drink.

While watching the most beautiful scene of that sky turning the most incredible shades of reds and oranges as the sun continues to drop lower over the horizon,

Night time sounds of the desert start to come to life around you.

You gaze up towards the sky with a sense of awe and wonder,

As almost every part of the sky is coated with stars,

Like a painter has spray painted into the heavens.

You can see the dusty dense band of stars arching overhead.

You set a camera up on a tripod and photograph the milky way stretching across the whole sky,

Listening to the gentle crackling and popping of the campfire.

You can find yourself so transfixed on the experience that you barely register the incoming storm clouds.

You notice flashing in the distance as lightning illuminates the bulbous clouds,

Glowing them shades of white and grey against the inky backdrop of the night sky,

Hearing the low faint rumble of thunder.

The storm seems to be rapidly approaching so you find shelter in a small cave in the rocks.

Shortly after settling comfortably into the rocks,

Placing an upright torch in the cave to illuminate the ochre walls,

The first large drops of rain arrive,

Soaking and darkening the rock in the entrance to the cave and making the campfire flame flicker and dance.

As the storm intensifies so you can feel the refreshing mist of rain filling the air,

Splashing up off the ground and finding its way delicately into the cave.

The campfire outside the cave gets doused out by the storm as the thunder continues to roll in.

You watch that majestic storm as lightning occasionally forks to the ground in the distance with the sky flashing and crackling,

Casting light upon the red,

Barren landscape.

While the storm continues,

You decide to relax comfortably in the cave.

It seems like you might be here a while.

You get a book out of your backpack,

Frankenstein.

Open that book at the bookmarked page and continue reading.

As you read,

So you notice random dark shapes in the night with the flashes of lightning and imagine the poor monster from the book roaming alone among craggy rocks,

Mountains and forests on stormy nights like this,

Trying to find shelter,

Comfort and understanding.

After reading for a while,

The storm begins to subside so you head over to your vehicle.

You then head to the back of the vehicle,

Pull down a ladder to the entrance to the tent,

Climb the ladder and settle into the tent.

It's getting very late now,

So with the sound of the storm fading into the distance,

You close your eyes,

Take some deep,

Comfortable breaths and allow yourself to drift into a pleasant reverie.

And as you drift into that reverie,

You can have a sense of relaxing your mind and body.

You focus on the top of your head,

Noticing what your head is resting on,

How it is supported gently in place,

The comfort in and around your head resting 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,

Before moving your awareness around 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,

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 relax also,

Noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension.

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 upper back of your neck and around your throat,

As your jaw relaxes and hangs slightly loose,

Limp and comfortable,

That relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and upper back,

And I don't know whether that relaxation happens faster around the back of your shoulders or in the 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 comfortably down the arms to the hands,

All the way to the tips of your fingers,

And I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest,

Whether it'll 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 to 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 the tips of the fingers,

And with another in-breath,

The 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,

Imagining yourself waking from this cozy slumber,

Opening your tent to find yourself in a strange and beautiful world,

A world which looks like a magical version of the Australian outback you fell asleep in,

The night sky has moving,

Undulating,

Almost pulsating colours,

Dancing overhead,

Under the backdrop of stars and the inky blackness beyond,

You can notice the faintest glow from the light touching the red earth below,

And see soft glowing orbs of light rising up from the ground until they fade into the darkness of the night,

And see the light comfortably pulsing in the trees,

Shrubs and grasses,

From the roots to the tips,

Just a slow and gentle pulse,

Almost like the heartbeat of this magical,

Mystical land,

Watching as the light pulses along the roots visible near the surface of the desert pavement,

Towards the trunk of the flora,

Pulsing almost with the faintest hum,

The leaves twinkling like a thousand soft bells as they rustle in the breeze and seem to dissipate the pulsing light back out into the surrounding landscape,

Seeing a small grey black marsupial smoothly scurrying over pebbles and sand hills and through the coarse grasses,

Almost in a slight blur like you're watching it on a video shot with the longer frame rate typically used for night photography,

With the tiny animal jumping into focus each time it suddenly stops,

Surveying the environment for a moment before scurrying off in a different direction,

Like the flora in this night time desert,

The fauna also seems to glow with soft light,

This small animal glowing slightly purple,

Leaving a purple light trail behind it as it moves,

Which gradually fades like contrails of planes in the sky with the most vibrant colour at the boundary between stillness and movement.

As you gaze out across this landscape,

So you notice there are many streaks of purple light crisscrossing the ground,

As well as lights of various other colours all looking like the trails of animals unseen,

Peacefully going about their lives on this magical night.

While you watch this scene unfold around you,

You begin to feel a deep connection with this land,

Almost like this magical version of Australia is always here,

It just goes unseen to all but the few who really take the time to connect with the land honestly and completely,

Absorbing themselves in the true,

Interconnected nature of all that is there,

All that has been and all that can be.

After being absorbed in your reverie for a while,

You drift and float into the most healing,

Restorative,

Recuperative sleep.

As morning approaches,

You can feel the light of the rising sun illuminating the tent,

Almost making it glow,

You awaken feeling so refreshed and revitalised,

Ready for the day.

You leave the tent and notice that it's already getting warm as the sun rises higher and higher into the sky.

You have some breakfast,

Walk around and stretch your legs and pack away your tent before carrying on your journey.

The journey ahead continues to be a long one,

You drive deeper and deeper into the outback as the sun joins you,

Journeying across the sky like a faithful companion lighting the way.

The more you travel,

The more you appreciate the environment around you,

How harsh and difficult it must be to survive out here,

How unforgiving this landscape can be and how important it is to respect this environment and be humbled by it.

You observe how interconnected everything is,

Driving through such a landscape gives you nothing but time to observe and learn.

Out here,

You are but a small speck in the vastness of this wilderness.

You have one kind of intelligence but the life around you has a deeper,

More profound intelligence than you do about this location and how to thrive,

Adapt and survive in such challenging conditions.

After a long drive,

As the afternoon sun begins to slowly tuck itself behind the blanket of the earth,

With the wispy clouds in the sky turning shades of pink,

You arrive at your destination,

On the bank of a newly refilled salty lake.

As you get out of your vehicle,

You can taste the salt in the dry air and hear the soft lapping of the water against the shore.

You get a tent out of the back of your 4x4,

Assembling it just up on a small sandy hill by the lake edge.

Light a campfire and place some of your items in your tent before sealing the tent up and going exploring.

After being in your vehicle for so long,

You enjoy finally taking time to stretch your legs and explore near this lake before the sun fully sets and you settle down for the night.

You head over to a tall marble gum tree and run your fingers around its smooth white bark,

Finding that your fingertips brush off some of the red brown flakes of bark.

You can hear the leaves rustling above you in the breeze.

Looking up,

You notice the greyish blue clouds of leaves delicately perched high up on the branches.

As you continue to explore,

Walking mindfully over towards another tree which looks different,

You reach out and run your fingers around the bark of this tree,

Discovering that the bark of this tree is very different to the last tree.

You can feel the rough,

Fibrous dark grey brown bark of this tree and really notice the sensations of that against the fingertips.

This tree isn't as tall as the last tree and seems to be covered in bright yellow flowers.

As you walk around the tree,

Looking up at the flowers and bluish green leaves and noticing that the bark higher up appears smoother and more of a pinkish grey creamy colour,

You notice your foot kick something.

As you look down,

You discover that this tree seems to have a swollen root crown and suspect perhaps that it's part of this tree's way of surviving in this environment.

Wondering whether perhaps it's to store some water,

You continue your amble around this shore of this lake and notice the sun has now set behind the horizon and so you don't have much longer to explore before you need to get back to your camp.

You hear the distinctive distant sound of a dingo and notice the night time sounds picking up around you.

The sky very quickly begins to darker,

With the moon's silvery light glistening off the lake water as it gently kneads the shore.

The curtain of stars twinkling,

Almost seeming to be trying to communicate through their soft blinking in the night sky.

You begin to walk back in the direction of the flickering campfire,

Seeing the faint glow of the front of the tent under the orange hue of the dancing flames,

Each footstep crunching underfoot.

As you arrive back at your tent,

You open the tent and comfortably settle down inside the entrance to the tent.

You have a torch hanging up inside the tent,

You turn this on a comfortable brightness,

Have something to eat and drink as you watch the flames flickering and dancing before you,

With occasional pops and whistles and the crackling of that fire.

The gentle lapping of the water on the shore and the sounds of nature enveloping you,

The slight salty scent still hanging in the air.

After relaxing for a while,

Taking in your surroundings,

You decide to settle down for the night.

You back into your tent,

Close the entrance to the tent.

You can still hear the gentle lapping of the water,

Nature sounds and the sounds of the crackling and popping campfire.

You can notice the campfires glow through the sides of the tent.

You make yourself comfortable,

You get your book out to read for a while before falling asleep.

You pick up where you left off,

Reading Frankenstein,

Aware of the compassion you feel for this troubled creature.

While reading about the monster's journey through cold and snowy mountains,

You think about the juxtaposition between what you are reading in this book and your experiences here in the Australian outback.

The mountainous,

Cold compared to the flat,

Hot desert.

Both very different environments,

Yet both still challenging in their own way.

As you read,

So you begin to struggle to keep your eyes open.

You find that your eyes keep wanting to close.

Sometimes you discover that they had closed without you realising.

With each page that you read,

You begin to feel sleepier and sleepier,

And your eyelids begin to feel heavier and heavier,

And you try in vain for a while to fight the unconscious urge to close your eyes and fall asleep.

Determined that you'll make it to the end of the chapter that you're reading,

But eventually,

You give in.

You bookmark your page,

Before putting down the book and preparing to sleep.

You settle down,

Turn off the light and make yourself comfortable,

Then,

To help keep your mind focused and to stop it drifting off to other thoughts,

Ideas,

Worries or concerns,

You imagine yourself at the top of a stone path with twenty steps leading down to a lush,

Beautiful country garden.

You can see a myriad of colourful flowers filling the garden,

Vibrant green grass,

Trees and bushes,

Birds flying in and out of the bushes and trees,

Some bathing in a small pond,

Bulbous cotton candy clouds hanging in the rich blue sky,

The glow of the sun comfortably warming your cheeks.

You begin to descend those steps,

As you become deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience of drifting comfortably asleep.

From twenty,

To nineteen,

Eighteen,

Seventeen,

Going deeper and deeper,

As you descend those steps into that beautiful garden,

Sixteen,

Fifteen,

Fourteen,

Slowly,

Carefully,

Softly,

Descending,

Thirteen,

Twelve,

Eleven,

All the way,

Deeper and deeper,

Ten,

Nine,

Slowly,

Drifting asleep,

Faster with each step down towards that garden,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

As you start to smell the sweet smell of the flowers in the garden and watch the iridescent butterflies dancing from flower to flower,

The bees crawling in and backing out of flowers,

The flowing of the grass in the gentle breeze and the background rustling of leaves,

Four,

Three,

Two and stepping off of the bottom step,

One,

Finding yourself walking along a path in this deep sleep garden,

Towards the most comfortable looking sleepy bed at the back of the garden and with each step that you take through this garden,

So the sun sets and night time draws in,

The daytime animals head to bed,

The plants close their flowers for the night,

The stars shimmer overhead and you feel sleepier and sleepier,

Arriving at the bed,

Settling down comfortably in this bed,

In your inner deep sleep garden,

As you find yourself drifting and floating deeply,

Relaxed,

Asleep into slumberland.