Hello and welcome to an amazing night's sleep.
Thank you for being here for this series of bedtime tales written by June B and narrated by me,
Ruben.
Today's bedtime tale is called Nature Walk by the Stream.
Let's get into this.
Allow yourself to find your favourite sleeping position.
Making sure you are comfortable.
Allowing your eyes to relax.
Your muscles to relax.
And imagining that your body is melting into the bed.
Now let's get in touch with that familiar friend,
The companion that's always here for you.
You're breathing the rhythm of the breath.
Slowing down the heart rate and taking some time in connecting with the breath in this way.
The heart rate drops and the breathing itself nourishes your wellbeing.
Noticing the in-breath.
Noticing the out-breath.
Breathing in and watching this.
Breathing out and watching this.
The sound of your in-breath.
The sound of your out-breath.
The temperature of your in-breath.
The temperature of your out-breath.
The cool air as it comes in.
The warm air as it leaves.
Last time.
Breathing in and breathing out.
In preparation for our bedtime story.
Nice and settled.
Nice and comfortable.
Letting go of everything.
That happened today.
And allowing yourself to relax.
Right here and now.
More and more as this story unfolds.
And if your mind wanders,
That's part and parcel of a wandering mind.
Bringing it back to the sound of my voice.
And if you wish you can use your breath as an anchor.
Slow and steady.
Let's go on this journey together.
Today we are going to take a walk and see what we find.
So let's start at the beginning.
Why is walking in nature so good for you?
Reconnecting with nature reduces stress and calms your nerves.
It can lower your pulse rate and reduce blood pressure.
It is good and gentle exercise.
And the peace and quiet will allow a busy mind to settle.
And as this takes place,
Our mood can lift.
It can naturally lift our spirits.
Now that,
When we hear it like this,
Is an absolute win.
It's a win,
Win.
This is why it's so good to walk in nature.
So,
Can we imagine this scene together now?
The sights,
Sounds and feelings of being here in this majestic place together.
We are here in this beautiful clearing.
It is a nice day.
Not too hot or too cold.
It would be,
Fair to say,
T-shirt weather.
We are gently walking around in the grass with our shoes off.
The grass is soft and a deep shade of green.
Can you imagine that feeling of this soft grass tickling your feet through your toes?
It feels amazing,
Doesn't it?
It's lovely.
Look over there at that huge tree.
The trunk is so big that you couldn't wrap your arms around it and touch your hands together the other side.
The bark is rough under your fingertips and as you touch it,
Some of the bark is turning a shade of bright silver as it ages.
I wonder how old this tree actually is.
Maybe many decades by the looks of it.
The trunk goes way up in the sky and the leaves make a beautiful mosaic of different shades of green.
Can you see the spaces between the leaves?
It's a fun thing to do.
So simple and yet so profound.
Look at any tree and look for the spaces.
This really helps to turn your mind off with this enhanced focus.
Now as you look around you can hear first,
Then see the stream.
The forming of a stream is a wonderful and natural thing.
Water from different sources like springs,
Snow melts or even lakes start at very high points and begin to flow downwards to lower points.
As the water flows down it may pick up more water from other smaller streams,
Springs or from rain or snow melt.
These streams may slowly join together to form a larger stream or river.
The water in this stream is a very light shade of blue and so clear that you can see to the bottom of this stream.
There are even a few little fish popping up to say hello.
The water gently running,
Never stopping,
A constant flow of this life giving substance that will nourish many along its path.
The leaves that are dropping on the water are gently hurtled down the stream,
Never to be seen again by us.
Kind of like our worries,
We can allow our worries to drop on the stream and gently be taken away,
Never to be seen again.
How good is that?
There is also an endless symphony to the constantly flowing water.
It has a popping and gurgling sound that is calming and soothing at the same time.
Sometimes sounds like a serial we have in the UK.
The TV ad goes snap,
Crackle and pop.
This is the sound of the never ending flow of this beautiful stream.
Everything in harmony and a rhythm to relax to.
Listen closely to the sound.
How does it make you feel?
Now we can smell the freshness of the water as it dances along the stream.
We can also smell the wild flowers that are popping up at this time of the year.
Being delicately fed by the water of this stream.
The flowers come in pretty buttercup yellow and a creamy white colour,
With deep green leaves that gently sway in the breeze that is touching your face.
There are amazing honey bees that are doing their dance from one cute little flower to the next,
Gently caressing the golden pollen inside,
Spreading joy as they do their day's work.
What a lovely job,
Spreading joy in the form of pollen and making honey for us all to enjoy.
Lastly,
Lying down to relax on this soft and comforting grass and looking up at the sky.
The clouds look like candy floss that you used to get from the funfair when you were younger.
Sweet,
Fluffy and firm,
You could almost reach out and grab a cloud and snuggle up to it for the rest of the night.
I'm sure you never imagined so much you could notice from one little moment.
I'm not sure about you.
I'm getting sleepy even thinking about it.
So I'm ready to let go fully and surrender to the magic of a restful night's sleep.
Thank you for joining me tonight and as you slowly drift away,
Have yourself a great night's sleep.
And looking forward to seeing you again for another in this series of bedtime tales written by June B and narrated by me,
Ruben.
Good night.
