Please do not listen to this track when you are driving a car or doing any activity where you need to concentrate and remain alert.
Before beginning the exercise,
Just take a quick moment to make any final adjustments that you may need to.
Whether you're doing this lying in bed or lying on a couch or on a yoga mat,
Making sure you're lying down,
Using a bolster or a pillow to support your head,
Putting something under your knees perhaps.
Your arms can be down by your sides or they can be placed just across the chest and the belly.
And your legs could be out straight or you could bend and tuck your knees inward.
There's no right or wrong way of doing this and feel free to adjust if you need to throughout the practice,
So long as you are as comfortable and as relaxed as possible.
You may well find that your mind wanders.
It's possible you may even fall asleep while we're doing this.
But it's okay.
I will be talking to your unconscious mind.
It will always be listening.
My voice will always be relaxing you,
Whether or not you're taking any notice of the words I'm saying.
You can think of this exercise just like daydreaming because when we relax,
We are in complete control.
We can see things clearly and when we relax,
We can do whatever we set our minds to do.
So just relax and lie there.
Listen to my voice.
Firstly,
Just briefly pay attention to your breathing.
Just noticing the gentle rising and falling sensation.
Maybe with every breath you take,
Your breaths are getting shallower,
Slower.
Just notice how relaxed you are,
Just with the gentle breathing in and out through the nose.
Now move your focus to the top of the head,
To the crown.
We're just going to do a gentle body scan from the very top to the very bottom.
Now focusing and relaxing the muscles in your forehead,
The eyes and the eyelids.
Just resting them gently.
No squinting or frowning.
Relaxing your cheeks and your jaw.
Allowing the tongue to rest.
No biting or gripping.
And your whole face is just loose and relaxed.
Relaxing your chin and your neck and your collarbone.
Just allowing gravity to press your head down into the mat,
The pillow,
The bolster underneath.
Knowing that they can take your full weight.
They will fully support you.
Now focusing the attention on the shoulders,
The arms,
The elbows.
And relaxing the forearms,
The wrists,
The hands and each of your fingers and thumbs.
Notice every individual finger,
Every muscle just relaxed.
No need for any movement right now.
Now we're focusing on the torso,
So the chest and the upper back.
And relaxing the diaphragm,
The belly and the lower parts of the back.
The only movement that should be happening here is the rise and fall of the breath and the heartbeat.
Relaxing the pelvis,
The thighs,
The knees,
Shins and calves.
Relaxing your ankles,
Your feet and all of your toes.
And now just scan your entire overall body from the bottom to the top,
The top to the bottom.
Notice your entire body,
How completely still and relaxed it is.
Feeling the forces of gravity just pressing you down into the earth,
Grounding you in this one place.
This is a safe place where you are.
And with that,
I'd just like you to smile for a moment.
Smile and acknowledge the fact that you are alive right now.
That you are conscious,
Awake and breathing right now.
You are here.
Smile because you are.
And that is enough.
You have the greatest of gifts,
The biggest of all blessings.
It's time now for us to take our minds out of the physical body.
We're going to go on a journey together to another place.
So just for a little while,
For the next 10 to 15 minutes,
We're going to leave the physical body here in this relaxed state,
In the safe place.
The mind is going on an adventure.
Just follow my voice and allow me to be your guide.
I would like you to imagine that you are standing inside a hallway or a corridor.
Just one narrow hallway.
You are standing,
Looking down at the other end.
Where there is one door,
There are no other doors or windows within your line of sight.
Just the door at the end.
That is the only place that you are going to be going now.
And as you have probably already started walking towards this door,
Just slow down your walking pace.
Notice each individual footstep that you take.
As you place one foot in front of the other.
And notice the floor beneath you.
Is it a soft carpet?
Is it an old wooden floor?
Maybe tiles perhaps?
But not just identifying the floor,
Just noticing how it feels.
Maybe you're not even stepping on the floor.
Maybe you're floating slightly.
As if just travelling on a soft cushion of air.
As you reach this door,
You can hear some faint sounds of nature outside,
Such as the birds singing.
You know that there is a beautiful place on the other side of this door.
You know that this is a safe and happy place where you want to be right now.
And now that you've reached the door,
You examine the handle on the lock.
And in this instant,
You realise that this door is never locked to you.
You can access your happy place at any time,
From anywhere.
Now that you've realised this,
You notice that without any physical contact,
The door simply just swings open in front of you.
And immediately as the door swings open,
You're hit with a brilliant,
Bright sunlight.
And you feel the fresh air from outside going up your nose as you inhale that freshness,
That calmness.
You take a step now outside.
And now that you're inside your happy place,
This is a place which I like to call the dream world.
And everybody's dream world is different.
Just visualise the most beautiful place that you can possibly imagine.
It could be a beach,
You could be in the mountains,
You could be inside a forest,
You could be in the desert or by a river.
Just visualise the most beautiful place.
Maybe this is somewhere you've been before.
Or maybe you've seen this in a movie or on TV.
Or maybe this is purely out of your imagination.
What matters is you're outside,
The sun is shining,
The birds are singing.
And you are in total paradise.
Notice the things around you.
Not only what you can see,
But just tuning in to your other senses.
So noticing the sounds that you can hear.
Noticing any smells or tastes.
Notice what you can feel,
Be it a physical feeling or maybe a deeper,
More internal feeling.
Any sensations that are popping up,
Just notice what you're experiencing,
Notice how this place makes you feel.
And just take a moment now to stand there in this place and be,
Take it all in.
It is time now to go for a walk.
Just choose any direction,
Maybe there's already a path or a road in front of you.
Or if you're in the middle of a large open field or desert,
It's okay.
Just choose any direction that you fancy walking in.
And it's time now to go and explore,
To go into a new territory.
And see,
See what comes up in front of us.
As you keep walking,
With each individual step that you take,
Notice that everything is just slightly different.
Notice that with each footstep,
Your surroundings are slightly different,
One way or another.
But as you keep walking,
After every ten steps,
Every hundred steps,
The environment around you is beginning to change now.
The further you walk,
This goes for any dream world,
Wherever you are,
Whatever the setting is around you.
Notice how things are changing.
The trees that may have had bright green leaves before are now dying.
Some of them are completely bare or some of them will have brown or red leaves.
The grass is no longer green.
The grass in some places is brown,
Maybe it's dead.
It's dried up or maybe it's even muddy.
But wherever you are,
Whatever you're seeing,
There is change happening around you.
The environment changes the further you walk.
Where you are now is nowhere near the same as where you began your journey.
Everything that we experience in each moment,
It will pass.
Nothing,
Nothing stays the same.
Everything changes eventually and you're seeing this now for yourself.
Just keep on walking,
Feeling that fresh breeze in your face.
Wherever you are now,
Just look into the distance,
Look straight ahead of you and you'll notice a patch of soft green grass.
And I want you to walk over to that grass right now.
You're going to go over there and you're going to lie down on your back.
Lying there on the grass,
You're looking straight up at the sky.
Notice what's happening in the sky.
Is it completely blue and completely clear with the sun still beaming down or are there some clouds in the sky now?
Just observe because even if you started with a crystal clear blue sky,
That will pass.
There will more than likely be clouds coming through now.
Some of which will be small,
Some of which will be larger.
Just notice if there are clouds passing through right now,
Just noticing the different shapes and sizes and formations.
Before they had even reached you,
They might have been just evaporating,
Disappearing,
Leaving the same blue sky behind that you started with.
All of these clouds,
They're not stopping,
They're not pausing,
They're just gently floating past you,
Disappearing as quickly as they came.
Whichever direction these clouds are coming from on the horizon,
Take a look now and you will see a much larger,
Much darker cloud.
It's on its way.
A big,
Scary looking storm cloud.
Very dark.
Looks like it's probably going to pour with rain soon.
Maybe there will even be some thunder and lightning.
But this doesn't bother you because you know that even if it does begin to pour with rain where you are,
There is no way out.
There is nowhere for you to go to take cover and you cannot stop it from raining.
You cannot stop nature.
The easiest thing for you to do right now is just carry on lying there.
Just continue to breathe in and out through your nose and just allow nature to take its course.
Surely enough,
This big black cloud has actually.
.
.
It's disappearing now,
It's gone past you more or less.
And it's still moving and not a single drop of rain has fallen and landed on you.
You are still dry,
You are still relatively warm.
There's been no rainfall,
No thunder.
And you realise now and you smile to yourself because you realise what a waste of energy it would have been to worry and get anxious about this cloud.
It would have been all of that build up and all of that overthinking and worrying for nothing.
It would have been such a waste of energy.
You would have been laughing at yourself.
The cloud is now disappearing,
As are many of the smaller white fluffy clouds,
Leaving behind the same crystal clear blue and sunny sky that you started with.
It's still there and it always will be there.
The sun shines heavily,
Warming the place back up.
The birds are singing again.
The bees are buzzing,
The butterflies.
Fluttering around you,
Everything is coming back to life again.
And even this moment,
This positive moment,
Will pass.
This too shall pass.
You know this.
It's time for me to reveal the truth.
The dream world that you are now visualising is not just a place that is inside your mind.
No.
The dream world is your mind.
Your head is as clear as a bright blue sky.
But your head will also be invaded by many many clouds and strong winds.
Some of these clouds will be big and dark and very scary.
You can think of these clouds as anything from stress to anxiety,
Depression,
Overthinking,
Negativity,
Worry,
Pain,
Sickness,
Grief.
Whatever different kinds of clouds will invade your mind and your body,
They will pass.
They will just keep on drifting through and that blue sky always remains behind those clouds.
Even if the sky is so overcast,
Even if it feels to you like it's too much to bear and it's so dark and heavy,
Just know that that blue sky and that sun,
They are still there.
They will always be there behind the clouds.
So just stop what you're doing.
Just observe.
Sit by and watch as these clouds just drift on through.
And the clouds in the sky,
They're just like the cars on the road.
You cannot run after them and chase them or jump up and try to grab them.
Just allow them to drift on through.
Allow them to be.
Knowing that they too shall pass.
Life is not about finding constant happiness.
It is not about finding perfection.
Life is about balance.
It is about changes,
Fluctuations.
It is about experiencing the highs and the lows,
The ups and the downs.
And now that you know this,
And now that you have seen this happening right before your eyes,
This epiphany liberates you.
Now you can go to sleep tonight knowing that tomorrow brings a new day with new clouds,
New challenges and new experiences.
But no matter what happens,
That bright blue sky and that happy,
Beautiful place will always be there.
It is waiting for you.
