Relaxation Story For Children

This 30 minute, guided visualization story for children is based on progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). Using playful and peaceful imagery, this story can assist you in noticing the difference between the sensation of tensed muscles and relaxed muscles, which can help with relaxation and shifting emotion. I hope the slow pace and peaceful tone have you drifting off to sleep in no time!

Written and read by Susan Guttridge, adapted from the script originally created by the Department of Clinical Psychology, Manchester Children’s Hospital (1998). Photo credit: Katrina Vorozheeva. Music credit: Liborio Conti (Just Relax, Floating, The Deep)

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Susan Guttridge and today I'm going to tell you a story that can help your body feel calm and cozy.

The story I'm going to share with you is based on something called progressive muscle relaxation.

That just means we'll focus attention on one muscle group in your body at a time,

Tightening it within your comfort level and then releasing it.

You see,

Sometimes when we feel stressed or worried,

We don't even realize that we're tensing or that we're bracing our muscles.

I hope you find that this story relaxes your body so you can drift off into a peaceful sleep.

Let's take a moment to make sure you're in a safe place where you won't have a lot of interruptions.

If you're cozy in bed,

Getting ready to settle in for sleep,

Take a moment to adjust your pillow and your sheets just right.

Take a moment,

Getting comfortable where you are.

See if you can notice the weight of your body on the bed,

The sheets around you like a gentle hug and start to bring your attention to your breathing.

As you breathe in and out,

Can you feel your chest rise like a balloon filling up and then fall as it gently lets the air out?

If you feel it's okay,

Let your eyes close.

As I tell this story,

Try to imagine yourself in it.

As I describe images for tightening and releasing your muscles,

Just give each one a go to the best of your ability.

If your mind wanders,

That's okay,

It happens to everyone from time to time.

If you notice yourself thinking of something other than the story,

Just come on back to my voice when you notice,

Anchoring yourself into the image we're playfully picturing and focus back on your body.

Alright,

Now that you're comfy cozy in bed and your breathing is nice and slow and deep,

Let's start your story.

Imagine you're walking along a path in a peaceful field.

As you walk,

You notice the grass growing beside the path,

Tall trees on either side stretching their branches up to the sky,

Full of lush green leaves.

The sun is shining,

You feel warm,

Relaxed,

Peaceful.

Your path is wherever you want it to be,

In a place that is peaceful and safe and familiar and where you feel completely at ease.

It's not tiring at all to walk along it,

You feel comfortable just going at your own pace.

As you walk along,

You notice a grove of healthy-looking lemon trees.

The tree branches look so full and the fruits so ripe,

You can't help but walk over to one of the trees and you reach out with your left arm and you pluck a lemon from its branch.

And then you reach out with your right hand and you pluck another lemon.

Now imagine a lemon in each hand and you curl your fingers closed around that lemon.

Give it a try,

Curl your fingers into a fist,

Keeping all the muscles in your hand as tight as you can.

Picture you're squeezing those lemons,

Breathing in deeply,

And as you exhale you release the lemons and you notice your grip relaxes,

Your fingers relax.

Give your fingers a little wiggle,

Letting go of all that tension.

Notice what's there now in your hands and fingers in place of all that tension from squeezing.

And just letting both arms slide down to your sides as all the bits of tension leave your hands.

And you start to walk away from the lemon grove.

You find yourself back walking along the path,

Curious to see where it leads next.

You walk along,

Taking in the scenery,

A few trees in the distance,

Patches of clover line the path,

A clear blue sky above you.

And as you walk,

You find yourself approaching a small cat with long soft fur.

The cat was napping in the sun,

But now it sees you and it starts to awaken by blinking its eyes.

The cat looks up intently at you,

Then it stands,

It takes a few steps forward,

And then begins to stretch.

It must have been napping for some time,

Such a long drawn out stretch she's doing.

Let's stretch alongside the cat,

Reach your arms out in front of you,

And then move them right up over your head.

As you reach up,

Let your arms shift ever so slightly back so you feel the stretch in your back.

Breathing in.

And as you breathe out,

Let your arms drop back down to your sides.

Notice what's there now in your shoulders and upper arms as all those muscles relax.

Maybe your shoulders feel more relaxed.

Maybe you feel like they're even resting a little lower than before you started.

Now that you've had such a long stretch with that cat,

She meows softly to you as if to say thank you and farewell.

The cat stands,

Wanders back to the patch of sun,

And goes about cleaning itself with its tongue as cats do.

And now parting ways with the cat,

You continue walking along the path.

You follow it as it begins to wind through tall trees,

Their branches sheltering you from the sun,

Creating a canopy high up overhead.

You can hear the sound of birds softly chirping to each other.

Now and then you spot one swooping between leaves to find a perch in the shade.

As you walk along,

You notice the path turning,

And as you round the bend,

You see a pond a few feet from where you stand.

You walk over and crouch by a rock at the edge of the pond.

The water looks so calm,

So still.

A ripple here and a ripple there as a bug lands on the surface and then flies away.

You feel the gentle warmth of sun on your shoulders,

The tickle of grass on your ankles as you peacefully watch the water.

To your delight,

You spot a turtle swimming over,

And you watch as it slowly pulls itself up onto a rock.

The turtle then sits so still on the rock,

In the sun,

Just like you,

Crouched on your rock.

It feels nice and warm and safe here.

Breathing in the calmness of the moment.

Breathing out tension.

The turtle moves its head as quickly as a turtle can move its head,

And then pulls its head into its shell.

Let's try that with the turtle.

Tuck your chin down and pull your shoulders up.

Try to pull your shoulders up all the way to your ears.

Keep your chin tucked,

Just like the turtle in its shell.

Hold it tight.

Taking that big breath in and breathing out,

Release your shoulders and relax your neck and let go of all the tension you were just holding.

Shifting your neck as it feels comfortable,

Letting all those muscles relax.

It sure was nice to spend some time by the pond with the turtle.

I guess the turtle is all finished with sunbathing and has a slow slide as it eases back into the water with a very small splash.

You watch as it swims away just beneath the surface of the water.

You watch until it disappears from sight.

And then standing,

You stretch your legs,

Beginning at your feet,

Your ankles,

And then your calves,

Feeling that little stretch all the way up your body.

Then relaxing and returning to the path to continue along your way.

As you walk,

A smile spreads across your face as you remember that you brought a giant jawbreaker bubblegum ball with you.

Reaching into your pocket,

You unwrap it and pop it into your mouth.

Immediately you notice all the flavors releasing as you chew it.

Imagine carefully biting down on that giant gumball.

Tense your jaw.

The tighter you imagine biting down,

The more flavor that gumball releases.

And relax your jaw.

Let it loosen as you breathe in and out.

Maybe even wiggle your jaw from side to side just gently.

Noticing the sensations in your mouth and jaw,

How good it feels to let those muscles relax.

Just settling in and noticing any sensations of relaxing that you feel now in your jaw.

Now that it's not so tight,

Now that the gumball is softer,

You decide to save it for later.

You return it to the wrapper,

Making sure you wrap it up tight and pop it back into your pocket.

Your attention returns to the path and you notice that the trees have thinned out.

The path is now lined with lush green grass.

You can see the occasional clover patch peeking through the greenery.

And fluttering above the tall grass are several butterflies,

Their wings constantly moving,

Landing here,

Landing on a wildflower over there.

As you walk,

You notice that one of the butterflies is getting closer,

Almost dancing around your head while you walk.

Oh,

It's landed right on your nose.

It feels so tickly.

Try to get the butterfly off your nose without using your hands.

Scrunch up your nose.

You could even try scrunching your cheeks and crinkling your forehead.

Move as many parts of your face as you can to try to get that butterfly off your nose.

Scrunching your face.

Breathing in.

And as you exhale out,

There it goes,

Fluttering off to join its butterfly friends among the grasses and clover.

You can let your whole face relax.

Relax your nose,

Your forehead,

Your whole face.

Noticing what's there now.

Taking a nice big breath in.

Exhale out relief.

Thank goodness that butterfly has returned to its friends.

It was so tickly on your nose.

You continue walking along the path.

Noticing the grass on either side gets a bit shorter and you notice now that the path is starting to loop back on itself,

Leading you back to where you started.

That makes you feel even more relaxed,

Knowing that you won't have to walk back the whole way you came.

You do notice you're starting to feel a bit tired,

So you take a break on the grass.

Shifting your weight,

Settling into a comfortable spot on the grass.

The earth like a cushion beneath you.

Far off in the distance,

You can see ponies grazing among the grass.

You sit and watch them.

Then you lay back down in the grass,

Feeling its gentle tickle on the back of your neck,

On your shoulders and back,

The backs of your legs and ankles.

Just feeling relaxed and peaceful,

Watching the ponies in the distance.

And you're not going to believe this,

But a foal has wandered away from its herd.

It is a beautiful chestnut color,

That young pony,

And so playful.

You watch as it jumps and frolics among the grass.

Wow,

It's coming straight towards you.

I don't think it sees you there.

Nope.

He definitely does not see you laying there.

It looks like it might step right on your belly.

But don't move,

You don't have time to get out of the way.

You have to get ready for him.

Make your stomach muscles as tight and hard as you can.

Tighten your stomach muscles.

And as you exhale,

Release your tummy muscles.

That pony turned around.

It's not going to step on you.

It looks like a butterfly distracted it.

And that foal has galloped away after the butterfly.

Relax your muscles.

Let your belly go soft.

You're safe.

Let all your muscles relax.

Notice how it feels now in your abdomen compared to how tight it just was.

Now it feels relaxed and soft and settled.

That little pony must have just realized how far it strayed from its herd because there it goes,

Galloping back to join the others.

You watch its long lanky pony legs amid the tall grasses.

Letting yourself completely relax.

You're safe.

Everything is okay.

You feel relaxed.

Breathing in.

Well,

We'd better get on our way back now.

So returning to the path,

Notice how you feel.

Notice where your body feels relaxed.

Your body is starting to feel more tired and ready for sleep.

As you walk,

You notice there's a fork in the path ahead.

A place where the path splits and goes into two different directions.

It looks like one end of the path will be a shortcut home.

Turning,

You choose to take the shortcut.

The path narrows and becomes a bit more bumpy.

As you look over the meadow,

You can see the ponies clearer now.

You can even hear their soft whinnying.

Ahead,

There's a wooden fence blocking your way.

It's a long one,

Too.

Too far for you to wander around.

But in front of you,

It looks like there's a board missing.

It looks like the hole left by that board is big enough for you to squeeze through.

But you're going to have to make your body as small as possible if you're going to squeeze through.

Here we go.

Pull in your stomach.

Try to squeeze your belly button to your spine.

Pull your shoulders in.

Try to make yourself as narrow as you possibly can.

Tighten.

Squeeze through that fence.

And exhaling out,

You are through.

You can let those muscles relax.

Notice how your body feels warm and loose.

Just relaxing.

Feeling your whole body relax.

It does look like we're starting to near the end of the path now that we're through that fence.

We've almost got you home,

Where you can drift off into a cozy sleep in your soft bed.

It's just that before we get there,

There's a large mud puddle in the path now.

Really the only thing in the way of you returning home.

I guess we've got to just go through it.

Go ahead.

Step into the mud puddle.

Imagine squishing your toes down into the mud,

Trying to get your feet right down to the very bottom of the mud puddle.

Use your legs to push,

Squeezing your toes.

Imagine that mud oozing between your toes.

It feels so squishy.

Push down.

Wiggle your toes.

Try to spread your toes apart,

Letting the mud squish.

Push.

Wiggle.

Stretch.

Breathe in deeply.

Exhale.

Relax your feet as you step out of the mud puddle.

Letting your feet be still and relaxed.

Noticing all the tension leave your legs,

Your feet and your toes.

Notice how good that feels.

Your legs and feet and toes loose and relaxed.

Maybe it feels tingly,

Maybe warm as that tension leaves.

Breathing in calm,

Breathing out tension.

And just finishing the walk.

All the mud just drips and dries off your feet.

And you realize we're back to where we started from.

Where you can settle in for sleep in your cozy bed.

In a moment,

I'll count backwards from four to one.

If you've used this story as just a break from your day,

Then when we get to number one,

Open your eyes if they've been closed.

Give a wiggle in your spot and then get up and go on with your day.

But if you've been using this story to help you fall asleep,

Then I invite you to just stay cozy in your bed.

Let the beautiful images from the story carry you off into a peaceful sleep.

And draw your attention to your whole body.

The weight of your body in your bed.

The sheets around you like a gentle hug.

The pillow completely supporting your head comfortably.

Just noticing the connection in the bed supporting you,

Holding you.

Three.

Breathe in.

Slow,

Deep and steady.

And breathe out.

Slow,

Deep and steady.

Let your awareness drift to your muscles.

Noticing how relaxed you feel.

Two.

Notice the connection between your head and your pillow.

The softness and support of that pillow so comfortably supporting the weight of your head.

And just breathing in and exhaling out.

One.

Notice the heaviness of your eyelids.

The sense of relaxation throughout your face,

Your neck,

Your shoulders.

Thinking back of the walk along the path.

And thinking of the images that were really your favorites.

Perhaps the cat,

The butterfly,

The ponies,

Or just the lush forest around you.

Keep these images with you as you doze off into the sweetness of dreams.

And as tonight turns into tomorrow,

Take with you how good it feels to be relaxed in your body.

Know that sometimes you've got to tighten your muscles to notice that they were tight.

And then to relax,

Just as you did tonight.

Try practicing this again and as often as you need.

Good night,

And thank you for spending this time with me.

Sweet dreams.