Instead Of Worry

Worry and stress can keep us awake at night. This track is meant to help alleviate the stress around sleeping or the lack thereof. We tend to get irritated when we want nothing more than to sleep, so allow this track to help you drift off into a place of calm, rest, and peace.

Transcript

Anxiety is your body's response to things even when there's no actual physical threat in your surroundings.

That response can vary in intensity,

Reaction,

And duration.

It can be a low-level experience in the form of feeling tension that will not go away,

A headache that seems to keep nagging you,

Or even as small as chronic yawning throughout your day.

Some experience it in higher forms where the heart races and it becomes difficult to breathe.

Worry is an activity that we do to help remember the dangers that we've been in and is good at running these memories or the creation of them repetitively.

It helps us to create a story of future threats,

Events,

Or past experiences or situations,

A feeling or action that causes these moments in your life to be on replay over and over again,

Only to keep you awake at night,

Never truly letting you find the space of comfort.

Once it reaches the physical point of uncomfortableness and denies you relaxation in your body,

Your bed,

And your mind,

That is what I would call worry.

The worry state is not a normal or comfortable state for our bodies to be in.

You might have learned at some point that this worry response is normal because it was the one that your mind and body go into every night,

Until tonight.

Tonight is when you begin to learn a new response for your body and for sleep.

You may have lived for a very long time continually running these fearful and worrisome stories in your mind,

Keeping your body in its stressful state throughout your days and into your nights,

But there's a normal response for your body allowing you to finally be able to find peace long enough for sleep.

It's called relaxation.

It's about memories of peaceful places of yesterday,

Happy stories about tomorrow,

And pleasant bodily sensations tonight,

All because your muscles are finally relaxed and your mind can imagine a world in which you find peaceful places and happy words surrounding you.

It is best for you to now be lying down in a comfortable position,

Feeling the weight of your body on your bed,

The way the sheets feel on your skin,

How loose or tight your clothing that you have chosen to carry you to the dreamlands feels as it gently constricts you,

Making you feel warm,

Safe,

Or as it allows you the freedom to choose to be safe,

No matter how close it's fitting you.

To deal with your worry and your insomnia,

You first need to let your mind become quiet,

Turning your attention inwards as you focus on relaxing your body,

Allowing all of your muscles to relax from your head to your feet.

I'd like you to imagine a calming color.

It could be any color that you choose.

Just make it one that feels right and calming for you.

And on each breath in,

I want you to imagine that color swirling through you,

First surrounding your head,

Swimming in the space between your ears,

Tracing its way down through your throat,

Your mouth,

And on the exhale,

Taking anything with it that no longer is serving you,

Releasing all of the stress of your day,

The worry of the story that you've been telling yourself,

And each exhale pulling you further into the comfort of your body and your bed.

Imagine that color making its way down through your shoulders,

Your chest,

Your stomach,

Swirling around your lower back,

Your hips,

Down to your thighs.

Each breath you take in,

That color becomes amplified,

Brighter,

Warmer,

Calmer,

And more relaxing.

Each breath out,

Releasing more and more tension from your body,

And taking with it all the things that are no longer meant for you or your highest good.

Each relaxing second,

Causing you to feel more and more at ease.

That color is now making its way down your legs,

Easing all of the tension in your knees,

Your ankles,

And all the way down to your toes.

Your whole body is now totally relaxed.

The gentle rise and fall of your chest as you resume regular breathing,

Allowing you to become calmer,

More relaxed than ever,

And heavy with sleep.

Notice just how relaxed you feel,

As you can feel the nice,

Comfy weight of relaxation on your skin,

Swirling its way just like the color you bathed yourself in through your body.

Any remaining tension continues to leave your body as you breathe,

Becoming more and more relaxed with each breath,

And with time passing,

You relax even more.

Nighttime is for you to relax and rest and sleep.

Any sleep at this point is good,

And if this sleep is short,

And if it can be worthwhile,

Then that's great.

Even a short,

Shallow sleep is helpful.

Even just the act of helping your body to relax helps you to feel refreshed,

Helps restore your mind and your body.

It does not matter if sleep comes to you now or how long you sleep for.

Just the simple act of relaxing and taking the time you can for sleep to relax,

Be in the space of calm,

Comfortable,

Heavy,

And sleep-filled space.

It is okay if you do not sleep right now,

And it's okay if you do.

In this moment,

I just want you to relax.

You can wake up quickly if you need to,

And you will be alert when you have things to do,

But right now,

You can pleasantly drift off,

More relaxed,

Serene,

And peaceful than ever.

Let's provide a mental vacation from your worries using a bit of visualization.

When worry thoughts about your day or the next morning come back,

And they will,

Recall the feeling that you had in your body when you heard the words breathe,

The rise and fall of your chest,

Relax.

Then know that this visualization continues with those three things.

Imagine that worry is like dark,

And peace is like light.

Worry has a message.

It is full of darkness and feels like muscle tension even when you're lying in bed.

It says,

Stay awake because of me.

This is what worry does to you.

It wants you to stay awake for hours.

If you're afraid to go to bed because bedtime means a time to worry in the dark,

Put words about light and peace in your mind and relaxation into your body with calm breathing and the awareness of the warmth of the space around you and the heaviness of the sleep on your skin.

Now peace of mind is like light and sleepy words.

The sleepy words call you and they say,

Come with us.

We'll bring you to a cozy place,

A nice bed,

And we say only good things are in the place where we lead you now.

You can relax when you're lying in that bed.

Be aware of what it feels like.

Arms and legs are heavy and warm.

Imagine a peaceful place.

This may be one that you've never been to,

One that you remember,

Or one that may even be in movies or a story.

Imagine that you were there in that peaceful place,

Bringing peaceful and relaxing words or music to yourself.

If you wake up and cannot get back to sleep,

Or if the worry starts to creep back and take you away from your peaceful place,

Say to yourself,

I can do something about this by putting peaceful words in my mind.

I listen to calming phrases or calming music until I can imagine the peaceful place again.

I am in my bed,

Surrounded by my pillows.

My sleep becomes deeper.

Here in the quiet of the night,

I can picture many happy things with my imagination.

I can recall peaceful words that I've heard or read today,

And I can listen to new,

Peaceful,

Sleepy words that take me to super dreamy places.

Reviews

Love this. Love listening to your soothing voice Holly

Very nice, thank you!