And I invite you now to welcome this process of relaxation,
As you find that comfortable position and just allow yourself to listen to the sound of my voice.
Let us start with drawing your attention to your breathing for a few moments,
The rise and the fall of your chest.
And how in these passing moments,
Your breathing will steady and even out,
As you welcome this feeling of relaxation.
I wonder indeed if you can perhaps sense the beating of your own heart.
Just seeing whether you can use the power of your mind to slow that heartbeat down,
Just a touch.
Just seeing whether you can use the power of your mind to slow that heartbeat down,
Just a little.
And feeling your whole body slowing down,
Becoming lazier and more comfortable,
Softer and easier,
Because there is nothing more pressing than this.
There's nobody that needs anything from you right now,
There's nothing for you to do.
No one expecting anything.
So you are free to allow your whole body to settle and to steady,
Until it's just ticking over like a well-maintained machine,
Without any effort on your part,
And becoming gradually more aware of your whole self,
Your physical self,
Aware of your arms and your hands,
Just sensing how they feel,
Aware of your legs and feet,
Again just sensing how they feel,
And wondering if it's perhaps possible to relax them even more,
Being so in touch with your physical self,
That you can actually change your levels of relaxation,
Like turning down the dial on life,
And turning up the dial of comfort and relaxation,
Letting go of all those tensions that were there,
Perhaps completely unnoticed beneath your skin,
Feeling your face and those muscles in your face just settling,
Just smoothing out now,
Wondering just how long all that tension had been there,
Where it all came from in the first place,
And then realising that you simply couldn't care less,
Because you can feel it draining away,
Draining away from you now,
And that feels good,
That feels welcome,
And your body from the top of your head to the tips of your fingers and toes,
Comfortable and soft,
That you simply can't be bothered to even try to move even one single muscle,
Even though you know you absolutely could if you wanted to,
You simply can't be bothered to try,
As you welcome and allow this feeling of deepening,
As lazy,
As relaxed as anyone could ever wish to be right now,
And I wonder if it's possible just to find any last tiny traces of tension,
Any last residue of stress in your body,
And simply allow it to go,
With each easy and gentle breath,
Allowing every muscle,
Every fibre,
Every cell of your entire body to be as beautifully relaxed as anyone could ever wish to be,
And whilst you relax there,
I would like to tell you a story,
It's a story about a man whose life had become big,
His time was limited,
His responsibilities were high,
But his downtime was almost non-existent,
But that man remembered days when he was free,
Days when he had the summers ahead of him,
Days when he had the countryside in front of him,
And what seemed like all the time in the world,
Those days felt so long ago now,
His body was different,
Heavier,
Older,
Tired,
But that man he remembered something he used to love doing in his youth,
Climbing hills and mountains in the countryside with his friends,
He remembered packing up rucksacks for everything they needed to endure a steep day of climbing,
The right clothes of course,
The right food of course,
Plenty of drinks and maps and compasses and they were ready to trudge their youthful bodies over miles and miles of rolling hills,
He remembered the feeling of hope,
Feeling full of hope,
He remembered the fullness of conversation,
The fullness of life,
And the views were always stunning,
Aside of course from those rainy or overcast days at the tops of the summits,
But even this did nothing to dampen their spirits and sense of achievement,
But that now older man decided to take a week away,
He booked himself a cozy cottage by a bubbling brook in the shadow of a series of mighty hills,
And his plan was quite simply to observe,
To sit,
To take in the majesty of those mighty peaks from a beautiful garden at the foot of his cottage,
His out of office was placed on and he sat there in the sunshine,
Watching as the gentle warmth of the sunlight lit up the mountainside,
Enchanted to it by it,
His book remaining closed beside him,
The following day on waking he was intoxicated by the breathtaking views from his small cottage window,
And he remembered how this looked like one of those perfect days that he had treasured as a youth,
He packed up a backpack with a rambler's map that he'd found in the cottage,
Gathered up as much of the nourishing drinks and snacks that he could find,
Dug out his most comfortable clothes and decided to take a stroll to the foot of the hill,
Just to look,
Just to observe,
He thought,
The majesty of that mighty hill,
On beginning his stroll he passed familiar sights,
Grazing sheep,
Lush grass,
Bubbling streams and those familiar dry stone walls,
And he greeted ramblers cheerfully as they passed him by,
Noticing how energized and buoyant they appeared,
The more he strolled,
The more he began to enjoy that comfortable familiar rhythmic motion of placing one foot in front of the other,
Following the ascending path and climbing gradually higher with every single step,
The more he climbed one foot in front of the other,
The more he wanted to climb,
His body though weary from any kind of exercise,
In recent times felt suddenly alive and compelled,
And the more he climbed the more he wanted to climb,
One sure foot in front of the other,
After several hours the man eventually reached the summit,
A glorious breathtaking view welcomed him,
Over valleys and lakes lit up by sunshine,
And he was welcomed at the summit by a walking group,
And being friendly and chatty he decided to sit and enjoy his picnic with them,
And they shared stories of other fells and hills and mountains that they'd all explored,
And he could recount stories from his youth,
Stories he thought he'd long forgotten,
He returned in that moment to his younger,
Freer,
Time-rich self,
Full of hope,
Full of purpose,
Full of adventure,
He was actually there all along,
He had never really left,
And as he descended the mountain in the company of those other like-minded souls,
He felt he knew exactly what he needed to do from that point,
The solution had actually been there all along,
He just had to take a few challenging upward steps,
And place them one after the other,
To find it.
