There is a particular moment at night.
When the world begins to feel very far away.
The rooms around you are quiet.
The lights are low.
The day has already begun to disappear.
And the hours ahead belong to sleep.
Perhaps you can feel the weight of your body against the bed.
The warmth beneath the covers.
The gentle movement of your breathing.
For a little while,
You can simply listen to my voice.
You may follow the words closely.
Or allow them to become less distinct.
Your conscious mind can wander.
It can think about something completely unrelated.
While another part of you listens in its own way.
And sometimes as you stop trying to follow every word.
Sleep begins to come more naturally.
Take a slow,
Comfortable breath in.
And let it go.
Again.
A quiet breath in.
And a longer breath out.
Feel your body settling.
Your forehead can soften.
The muscles around your eyes can loosen.
Let your jaw become comfortable.
Allow your shoulders to drop away from the day.
Your arms can grow heavy.
Your hands relax.
Your fingers loose.
Let that feeling move through your chest.
Your stomach.
Your legs.
All the way down to your feet.
There is nowhere else you need to be.
Just here.
In the warmth of your bed.
At the beginning of the night.
And now imagine that you're standing at the entrance to a garden.
It is night time.
A garden hidden from the rest of the world.
A quiet,
Secret place that seems to exist only at night.
The garden is illuminated only by moonlight.
And a few small lights hidden among the trees.
A narrow walkway stretches ahead.
You begin to move slowly forward.
There is no destination.
Only the feeling of going further into the night.
Deeper into your secret garden.
10.
With each step you can settle a little more deeply into the quiet of the garden.
Nein.
The sounds of the world behind you are becoming distant.
The path continues gently ahead.
Beneath the trees.
Seven.
The air is cool against your skin.
6.
Ahead you notice a small pond.
The surface reflects the Moon.
A slight movement in the water sends the reflection gently across the surface.
5.
Nearby,
Night flowers have opened.
There are pale petals catch the moonlight.
The air carries a faint,
Delicate fragrance.
Step 4.
You cross a small wooden bridge.
Your steps are slow and easy.
We.
On the other side,
There's a quiet clearing beneath an old tree.
You lie down in the soft grass.
The Earth supports you.
The branches move gently overhead.
Above them,
The sky is filled with stars.
One.
And now you can simply rest here.
In this quiet,
Secret garden.
And the peaceful darkness.
With sleep drawing closer.
You feel the soft grass beneath you.
Cool and gentle.
Supporting your body completely.
And as you become more relaxed.
The feeling of the grass beneath you begins to change.
It becomes softer.
Warmer.
More familiar.
You don't need to notice exactly when the garden disappears.
You may simply find yourself resting in your bed again.
Warm beneath the covers.
Completely supported.
And the peaceful feeling of the garden can remain with you.
Somewhere in the background of your mind.
Perhaps the garden becomes a beach beneath the moon.
Perhaps a quiet room with open windows.
Perhaps a forest.
Or perhaps there's only darkness.
And whatever begins to appear.
Can drift gently into whatever comes next.
The garden is somewhere behind you now.
Like a beautiful place you once dreamed of.
Becoming softer.
Farther away.
And as the night grows quieter.
Something begins to change.
The edges of thoughts become softer.
Images appear.
And fade.
A memory may float gently through the mind.
Then dissolve into something else.
Perhaps there are colors behind your closed eyes.
Deep blue.
Silver.
Shadow and light.
Perhaps there are places you recognize.
Or places you have never seen before.
They don't need to make sense.
They can simply drift by.
Like clouds moving slowly across a nighttime sky.
Somewhere between one thought and the next.
The waking world becomes quieter.
The room around you peels further away.
The bed feels warmer.
Softer.
Almost weightless.
And your body is becoming very still.
Breathing moves gently in its own rhythm.
And gently out.
The heart continues its quiet rhythm.
Steady.
Peaceful.
Everything is slowing now.
Everything is becoming softer.
Perhaps a sound reaches you from somewhere in the room.
And then becomes part of the silence.
Perhaps you hear my voice.
And some of the words seem very far away.
You may catch a phrase.
Then drift somewhere else before the next one arrives.
And that is perfectly natural.
The words can become like distant sounds in the night.
Barely noticed.
Burleigh remembered.
Like rain beyond a window.
Or leaves moving gently in the dark.
And if you happen to wake sometime during the night.
Perhaps the feeling will already be familiar.
The quiet.
The warm.
The softness of the darkness.
And somewhere in the background.
The secret garden may still be there.
Moonlight on the water.
Flowers beneath the trees.
The old wooden bridge.
The soft grass beneath you.
And perhaps without knowing how.
You are there again.
The night becomes deeper.
The thoughts become quieter.
The spaces between thoughts become longer.
And longer.
A dream may begin as a color.
Then a shape.
Then a place.
Perhaps you are walking somewhere.
Or floating somewhere.
Or simply resting beneath an endless sky.
Nothing needs to be clear.
Nothing needs to be complete.
The dream can change as it wishes.
And now there is less and less between dreaming.
And sleeping.
The body is warm and heavy.
The mind is light and distant.
The darkness feels gentle around you.
And the night stretches quietly ahead.
You may already be drifting.
Somewhere between the last thoughts of the day.
And the first dreams of the night.
A thought appears.
Then disappears.
An image comes.
Than changes.
And another.
And another.
Only the feeling of drifting.
Deeper into the quiet.
The bed is beneath you.
The darkness is around you.
And sleep is somewhere very close.
My voice may seem farther away now.
Softer.
Quieter.
Until it becomes only another sound within the night.
The words can fade.
The images can fade.
And somewhere beyond all of that.
There is only rest.
The night is quiet.
The body is still.
The mind.
Is dreaming.
And sleep is already carrying you deeper.
Slowly.
Naturally.
Ease away.
And now.
Let the voice disappear.
Let the music remain.
Softly.
In the background.
While you drift deeper.
Into sleep.
Sleep deeply.
And let the night.
Carry you.
The rest of the way.
