Journey Into Sleep

This track is designed to help you to relax into your body, put aside the worries of the day and then use imagery to guide you into sleep. It can be used to get to sleep, to deepen the quality of your sleep or to help you to return to sleep if you have woken in the night, calming your brain wave patterns to allow the conscious mind to slip off into sleep.

Transcript

Sleep.

So we're going to talk about sleep.

I think the best thing to do is to make sure you're comfortable wherever you are,

Lying or sitting.

Just allowing yourself to notice where you're supported there.

Because right now I don't want to focus on sleep.

I want to focus on something else instead.

Because I don't know if you've noticed that when you think about sleep too much,

That's when it just won't appear.

So we're going to think about other things.

We're going to focus in just for a moment on your body and where it is and how it's supported.

And notice any support there.

Perhaps noticing that your eyes feel quite comfortable closed right now.

What a relief to have permission to have your eyes closed and have nothing to do.

No one expecting anything of you.

No one to let you down.

Just time for you.

Eyelids perhaps a little bit heavy and a little bit tired.

Let's move your attention for a moment right down to your feet.

It's interesting if we focus on the feet for a moment because there are no busy thoughts down there.

No racing chasing thoughts.

Just sensations.

I wonder what sensations you can feel there right now down in your feet.

Away from from your head that has all those thoughts racing around.

Just moving into sensation.

Just for a moment.

Or maybe you might like to notice the position of your hands.

The sensations in your hands.

Nothing more than that.

Not a hard thing to do.

Just giving yourself time to notice sensations.

And sensations can help us move away from thoughts.

So sitting with those feelings in your body there.

Just giving the muscles permission to do only as much as they have to and no more than that.

I don't want to dwell on this too long.

Just giving yourself some time to anchor into your body away from your mind.

It may be that as you rest there even anchoring into your body as we've been just doing.

There's still the odd thought popping into your mind.

I guess it's what the mind does.

But when we want to move into rest it can be a bit distracting.

You want your active conscious mind to unwind.

To slow down.

So maybe there are some things preoccupying you right now.

So what I'd like to suggest is you imagine that there's a bag in front of you.

It can be a large bag like a suitcase.

Or something smaller like the size of a computer bag.

Or maybe even a bag you'd carry in your hand.

A shoulder bag.

A carrier bag.

I don't mind it's up to you to choose something but something that's familiar to you.

So you can imagine it clearly.

If you don't find it easy to see things in your mind as an image.

Just holding on to the concept that you have a bag in front of you.

And we're going to put into this bag the items that symbolize anything that's been troubling you.

Anything that's worried you today.

If it's a person we can put a picture of that person in the bag.

A photograph.

It could be more than one person.

Putting representations of anyone that's troubled you that day in the bag.

And then symbols of anything that's bothered you.

If it's a work issue something that reminds you of work.

Putting it in the bag.

Your computer perhaps.

Use your imagination to make the appropriate links.

You might even find a toy,

A symbolic toy that would symbolize your work.

That could go into the bag.

If you feel weighed down at the moment you could put a dumbbell in that bag that you're going to put aside for the night.

It's interesting sometimes to see what the mind will come up with to represent the things that are troubling us.

So allowing your creative mind to find the things,

The symbols that we can put into that bag to put away for the night.

What you're doing here is finding a way to put your worries away for the night.

So they don't go around and around in your head.

They're in the bag.

So filling the bag with anything you want to leave behind for the night.

And then we're going to close up the bag now.

When you filled it we close up the bag and put it down at the side of the bed.

Everything's in there so you don't have to take this stuff to bed with you.

After all you can't deal with these situations whilst you're in bed.

They'll be there for you to pick up in the morning if you want to.

But you may even decide after you've been to sleep that you'd rather leave them there and just keep adding to the bag each night.

Filing away all the things day by day and once a week perhaps emptying the bag.

And by the time you do this the strain and the experience of the things that were in the bag will have reduced and they won't bother you anymore.

If it is something important you've put in the bag and you need to deal with it,

Just take it out in the morning.

It will feel easier once you've slept on it.

Your subconscious mind will have done some processing for you whilst you slept.

You know that part of your mind that takes care of you whilst you sleep is really powerful.

So much more powerful than your conscious mind.

So it's actually better at resolving problems for you than your conscious mind.

That's why it's good to allow yourself to rest to sleep and let the work be done whilst you sleep.

Allowing the processing to happen whilst you sleep and you may even find you wake in the morning with solutions and ideas.

Things that will help you in any situation you may face.

So putting it all away for the night but your subconscious mind can do some work for you whilst you sleep.

And to help you now having put away all those things that were holding you back.

We're going to use the power of your imagination to think about the seashore.

The blue of the sea and the blue of the sky.

The shades of blue relaxing you.

As you watch the sea,

Think about the sea,

Maybe even hear the sea as it laps the shore.

The sea rolling in and out.

Aware of the golden sand,

Soft and powdery to the touch.

I wonder if you've ever picked up the sand,

Held it in your hand and allowed it to flow through that golden soft sand.

Aware of the sand that's loose and soft where it's dry and firmer where the tide has lapped the shore,

Perhaps darker.

Aware of the sea and the sky and the sand.

Maybe a seagull might be swooping on the currents of the air,

Fresh sea air.

Perhaps aware of it as it touches your skin or the warmth,

The warmth of the Sun as it caresses your skin.

And then there's the sea,

The sea gently lapping the shore in and out,

In and out.

Some seaweed lies discarded by the waves upon the shore,

A deep brown like the brown of the earth but glistening there in the bright sunlight.

A sunlight that's glinting off the surface of the sea.

The Sun high in the sky,

Warm and comforting.

I wonder if you can remember a time lying in the Sun,

The warmth,

How drowsy it makes you feel.

Listening to the rhythm of the waves as you drift in and out of awareness.

And there's something floating on the surface of the water.

I wonder if you noticed,

Maybe not noticed it before,

Bobbing gently on the waves,

That rhythm lapping,

The water bringing.

Had you noticed the green glass bottle bobbing on the waves,

Being brought slowly into the shore,

Like it's being called in,

Pulled in so slowly as the tide rolls in and out,

Bobbing on the waves slowly.

With each wave that crashes upon the shore,

That bottle,

That green bottle gets nearer and nearer as you drift deeper and deeper into a quiet relaxed place.

Aware of this scene,

The warmth of the Sun and the rhythm of the sea.

And if you were there watching that bottle in the sunlight,

It might be a strain to keep your eyes open.

Watching the bottle as it comes nearer to the shore.

Too much effort to watch and to wait for the bottle to land upon the shore and lie next to the seaweed there.

Never mind if there's a message in the bottle,

It can wait until morning.

When you lie there and imagine the scene,

The sea and the sky and the blue of the sea and the blue of the sky and that hard blue line where sky and sea meet and you watch that green bottle being carried closer and closer to the shore.

This will quiet your mind and take you down into rest,

Into peace,

Before the bottle has touched the shore,

Rocked into sleep by the rhythm of the sea,

The heat of the Sun and that bobbing bottle out there.

The sign that your mind needs that it's time to sleep.

Time to rest and take that journey.

When you awake the bottle will have landed upon the shore.

But you know it'll always take you to sleep as you see it getting nearer and nearer to the shore in your mind.

Maybe just aware of it,

Just thinking about it.

Your mind knows now that it's time to rest.

The natural rhythm,

Like the rhythm of the sea,

Like the rhythm of your breath,

Like the rhythm of night and day.

Time to sleep and perhaps we could even be aware of the Sun moving down in the sky.

A Sun moving down in the sky,

Just hanging there a giant bauble at the end of a piece of string.

That Sun bright,

A bright disc being lowered down.

That's what it looks like sometimes,

Like it's being lowered down slowly,

Imperceptibly slowly,

Until it touches the horizon there.

That ball of the Sun balancing on that blue line of the horizon,

Just sitting there.

And then slowly,

Imperceptibly slowly,

That Sun slips down over the horizon as you let go,

As you drift ever deeper.

Watching that Sun or even just thinking about the Sun as it slips down over the horizon,

Taking you deeper.

A time to rest,

Giving yourself permission to follow the rhythm,

Night and day.

Time to sleep.

And it may be sometimes you need to sleep in the day.

Then that becomes your rhythm.

Your rhythm of when to sleep and when to be awake.

A natural rhythm,

Like the rhythm of the sea,

As it laps the shore.

And that bottle becomes ever closer with each wave as it crashes the shore.

And there's just a glow in the sky where the Sun has been,

As you drift and relax into sleep.

Now I'm not going to tell you when to awaken,

Because I'm imagining if you're listening to this now,

You need to sleep.

You need to rest perhaps,

So you will awaken when it's appropriate for you to do so.

If you're using this to sleep.

If you need to awaken,

You can awaken now,

If you use this just as a time to unwind.

I'll leave it with you,

Your mind knows what to do as you rest,

As you drift and you dream.

That's right.

Enjoying the peace and the calm that you found during this journey today.

That's right.

Reviews

Very good - the weave of the story, your voice and the imagery are so calming and mesmerizing. Thank you.

So restful! Thank you! ❤️👍❤️

Wonderful. Thank you. I drifted off for nearly 7 hours - fist time in over a week! I feel centred & reenergised. A real blessing. Xxx

I woke up 4 hours later with the headphones on. I remembered a few sentences from the beginning 😄