Get ready to fall asleep tonight with a guided sleep meditation and story that will help you relax in sweet surrender.
You have arrived at Michelle's sanctuary and are listening to the Monarch Butterfly.
The great migration of millions of Monarch Butterflies at the end of summer has marveled humanity for centuries as these delicate yet hardy creatures clutter their way from the northeastern seaboard of the United States to as far as Mexico to seek respite from the cold winter.
In this story,
You will be able to travel along on this great migration before falling into a deep and healing sleep.
And as you get cozy and dive into your own personal sleep ritual,
You may let go of your day and find your chest,
Your heart,
And your lungs feeling lighter.
Imagining the lightness of being that a Monarch Butterfly enjoys throughout its life.
As you sink into your bed and let your eyelids flutter closed before resting heavily upon your tired eyes.
Inhaling and exhaling as you tune into your breath,
Slowing it down.
And as you inhale,
You visualize the words I AM on the backs of your eyelids.
And exhale as the words light and carefree appear like a cursive neon lit sign.
And inhaling you see the words I AM.
And then exhale to see the words letting go.
And this slow breath creates a rhythm,
A soft and easy tempo that matches the gentle flutter of a Monarch Butterfly's velvety wings as she glides above the golden sands of a barrier island at summer's end.
She is your guide on this journey and you deeply trust her.
As young as she may be,
She has been born with a roadmap and plan.
Just like you have been born with a roadmap and strong pull of intuition to guide you towards experiences and people that are meant to be a part of the tapestry of your life.
And this glorious Monarch lands upon the wet sand that now glitters like tiny golden topaz and diamond gemstones.
Her feet taste the briny waters that have washed the shore and naturally safe and protected from the seagulls now feasting as her glorious black dots and stripes,
An orange and white pattern indicate to pray that she is poisonous to consume and so she is free to explore fearlessly and without a care.
And just as you may recall tides in your life when the warmth of the sun gave you energy and awakened you in a new day,
The Monarch Butterfly now absorbs energy from the sun that rises over the horizon so she may begin her great migration southerly to escape the harshness of winter.
And you are able in this beautiful and safe mental state between your waking and sleeping life to experience all the sensations this butterfly feels,
The comforting warmth from the sun and the intuitive pull and understanding of where she must go.
And you relish in her certainty,
How she is able to commit to part of the journey without concern about the final destination.
The migration is all about answering the call one day at a time for this monarch,
One flap of her papery wings at a time.
And just like you have transformed into different physical versions of yourself,
The metamorphosis of this monarch from caterpillar to butterfly gives you a sense of relief and faith.
Growth and transformation are not just a conscious decision,
They are often a requirement to survive.
And the greatest of growth may just flow if you listen and tune into your own intuition and needs.
Gently and calmly accepting this is part of being alive.
And as the sun begins to rise higher above the horizon and glittering sapphire sea illuminating the sky,
The temperature begins to rise.
The air becomes misty from a haze of silvery blue morning fog that coats the golden warm sands.
The ocean is at its warmest temperature of the year.
Their months of intense July and August heat and long days of sunlight have transformed it into a tepid salt water bath.
The monarch takes one last solo pass across the shoreline.
The same shoreline she may return to come springtime.
She is full of energy and life.
Her vivacity as brilliant as the vibrancy of her velvety orange hue wings.
She flutters inland towards a pine home that has been faded by the salty air and lands upon potted zinnias in shades of fuchsia and purple and marigold yellow.
Sipping in the nectar that coats her black feet with its intoxicating fragrance.
Filling up she is joined by other monarchs also getting in their nourishment before the great flight southward begins.
And then just like the strings of an orchestra that is warming up for a performance,
The first of the swarm of butterflies begin to take to the cerulean blue skies going higher and higher up.
And you can feel the splendor of what this is like.
This easy ascent towards the sky,
Fluttering up and up as the wind assists their plight.
Like a summer's wind hitting the sails of a boat out at sea.
The salty air has the slightest nip that cuts through the otherwise warm morning's temperature.
It is a gentle battle between the heat of the sun and autumn's chill,
But for now the warmth winds out during daylight hours.
And the monarch butterflies inherently understand this and use this special time to begin their epic journey.
And you feel the sensation of how freeing it is to have the support of the breeze beneath your monarch guides wings.
Wings that seamlessly glide forward.
All to travel up to 100 miles or 160 kilometers a day.
Relying on the golden sun to activate and support their journey,
The monarchs travel above the vista of lush emerald green marshes and waterways along the seaboard and man-made homes that scatter the landscape below.
The trees are beginning to change colors and while predominantly of verdant green,
It is as if the forest below is speckled with pops of gold and magenta and orange like a mystical speckled egg.
From a distance,
It is so natural and easy to appreciate the splendor of the planet below and you take it in.
The splendor of the experience and the wonder of being such a small yet resilient life form.
A flock of seagulls fly in the opposite direction,
Sharing the open skies that are so vast and yet offer a sense of community for all airbound creatures.
They have been gifted with skills that take them away from the landbound and waterbound species below and right now relish their ability to soar.
The landscape below becomes meditative,
A continual kaleidoscope of life basking in the afternoon's sun and you think back to all the times in your life as a child or even in the dreamscapes of your sleeping life where you imagined what it would feel like to fly.
How wondrous it would be to escape the strong pull of gravity and to look at the planet from a new vantage point.
Imagine right now as you inhale and exhale,
Looking through the eyes and living the experience of this monarch butterfly,
You intake all the sensations of this journey.
What it is like to be so light and feathery and yet so strong and determined with a set direction and end goal,
To be so beautiful and vibrant,
With velvety soft wings that are so fragile and yet are able to endure for months of flight during a migration,
To appear so captivating and delicate and yet at the same time convey a sense of danger to all potential predators.
How perfect it is to be a butterfly and you relish in this protection and as you go deeper and deeper within,
You realize that you too are part of perfection.
You are here to learn,
To grow and to transform and you are doing that every single new day.
You are opening yourself to new experiences.
You are tending to your basic needs for relaxation and respite at the end of the day.
And you may take this moment to celebrate you,
To celebrate the spectacular moment in time that you had this shift and you answered this call to work towards being your best self.
To aligning yourself with a greater good for you.
To listening to that intuitive voice that begins as a whisper and can become as loud as necessary until you hear your own inner voice.
And on this flight,
This intuitive journey of the monarch butterflies,
You vow to go deeper and deeper within,
To surrender and listen to your own truth and to the guidance that the universe is always offering to you.
Like two dials in your heart center,
Reminiscent of an old radio dial,
You may tune into the right frequency and with the other dial you may tune up the volume until you hear what needs to be heard and you are doing so very well,
Feeling so relaxed.
And the day is beginning to fade into night and the kaleidoscope of monarch butterflies are slowing down in flight.
During the hottest point of the day,
The monarchs were able to ascend as high as 10,
000 feet or 3,
000 meters above the earth's surface.
As the temperature drops and the sun lowers beyond the horizon,
The last of the liquid orange waves of light spanning the landscape and deciduous and evergreen trees below,
The monarchs begin to lower,
Intuitively aware they may drop out of the sky if the temperature lowers too significantly.
Gently gliding down,
Down,
Down.
With the shadows of the trees,
Fluttering like autumn leaves on a night's wind.
The air clean and crisp with the aromas of the forest floor and pine trees swirling up through the spaces between feathery branches.
Becoming more fragrant,
The further and further down towards the ground,
The monarchs float.
Their monarch guide leads the swarm of butterflies to settle among the damp branches of a pine tree.
All settling on the ruddy branches,
Their feet taking in the aroma of the sticky pine pitch,
And you feel what it's like to nestle among the owls and squirrels and deer and birds and rabbits that have all gotten cozy for the night and are ready to surrender to their own tiredness.
It is the completion of another day.
And for the monarch butterflies,
This journey will continue for months,
With each day finding them a first time glimpse of new parts of the continent and each night will bring an easy retreat for respite.
And you may think of your life in the same way.
No day is ever the same.
Even if you're doing the same things,
You are different each day.
The circumstances change and so many new things await being discovered by you.
And each night welcomes you like a gentle hug and special sanctuary offering you sleep and an escape from your toils and challenges of each day.
And in the months that come,
Like centuries ago,
People will await the arrival of the swarms of butterflies seeking escape from the cold.
Their iconic wings bringing them to a new place and town,
Spreading beauty across the land.
Monarch butterflies serving as nature's finest hand painted canvas.
And just as they are awaited,
There are people in the future that welcome and await you as you grow and transform on your own personal journey.
You are free to explore the intuitive urges and the sacred inner voice that is within us all.
And with the peaceful hum of the forest,
The sacred sound of crickets and a babbling rook,
You are welcome to find peace and respite,
To find sleep,
To get cozy and relax,
To get all the rest you need to continue to grow and transform.
Feel at the blank canvas of your dreams that await you tonight,
To be painted with the same beauty that has accompanied the journey so far.
You have earned this moment.
You deserve this.
You are worthy of the peace and stillness that accompanies you as you are ready to let go and slip into a dream world of bliss.
And I am going to count you down to this place for healing sleep,
Feeling so heavy and relaxed.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Finding rest.
Finding stillness.
Finding sleep.
It's time to dream away.
Good night.
