Hello and welcome to another episode of silent superheroes.
Where we use the power of silent breathing to get real-world superpowers.
Today we're going to talk about dealing with some scary dreams.
So take a big slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Sometimes we can wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning and we feel a little bit scared or frightened.
Because we've had a dream that was maybe a little bit crazy or a little bit freaky and things happened in it that scared us.
But do you know what we can do when we wake up from a scary dream or a nightmare?
That's right,
We just take a couple of slow calm breaths in through our nose and out through our mouth.
Let's do it right now.
Let's do three.
You ready?
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Very good.
It's important to remember that dreams aren't real.
They might feel real at the time.
It might feel like you're stuck in a world.
It might feel like you're trapped.
It might feel dangerous.
But what's important to really remember is that when you wake up,
You're back in your bed.
You're completely safe.
And your mum or your dad or your grandparents or your carer or your friends or your siblings,
Someone will be in the house with you.
And you can just simply take a couple of slow breaths and go over to them and say,
Hey,
I had a bad dream.
I need a hug.
Or,
Can I tell you about my dream?
It scared me a little bit.
Because do you know what?
When you talk about it,
When you express it,
When you say,
Hey,
This is what happened,
It can help get rid of some of those fears.
It can help ground you in reality.
It can help make you feel awake again.
There's a couple of other things you can do to feel a little bit better when you've had a scary dream.
Like I said,
We make sure that we're doing some calm,
Slow breaths.
But we can also move our bodies,
Connect back into our bodies.
So what you're going to do is,
When we're breathing,
We're going to lift our hands up and up and up to the sky.
We're going to stretch our bodies nice and big.
If you're laying down,
You can do it in bed.
Or if you're standing up,
You can reach to the roof.
It's up to you.
So,
When we're breathing in,
We're big,
Big,
Big,
Big,
Big up in the air.
And when we're breathing out,
We're letting our hands fall.
Let's do that right now.
Are you ready?
Breathe in.
Hands up,
Up,
Up.
And breathe out.
Let those hands drop.
You ready to rise them up again?
And up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
And down.
Okay,
For this last breath,
I want you to raise your hands as big as possible and make your feet go as long as possible.
Make yourself as tall as possible.
Are you ready?
And up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up.
And relax.
You are doing so good.
And you know what?
I reckon by now,
You're looking around your room,
You're noticing that you're feeling calm and safe and happy and warm and all of those good things.
I bet you that scary dream is disappearing.
I bet you you're going to forget about it very,
Very soon.
Do you know what happens with dreams?
Over time,
Throughout the day,
Eventually,
And even very quickly,
You forget what happened.
And that's okay.
Because do you know what?
Now you're awake.
Now you're ready to play and have fun and go to kinder or school.
Now you're ready to enjoy yourself,
To have breakfast and just have fun.
But if you're still feeling a little bit upset,
That's right.
Do you know what you do?
The same thing that we've been doing.
We just become silent superheroes.
We just do some slow,
Calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Let's do two more together.
Are you ready?
One more.
So.
If you ever wake up and you're feeling a little bit scared,
Just ask for this recording to be played again.
Anytime you have a scary dream or you wake up feeling a little bit dishevelled or upset or just worried in general,
Play this recording and take a big slow breath and you will feel a lot better.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
This talk was taken from the book Mindfulness,
A guidebook to the present moment.
