Butterfly Dreams

It's time to snuggle down now.

Time to cuddle your favorite toy,

Whether that be a teddy bear,

A bunny,

A dog,

A dinosaur,

Whatever it is.

Just hold that lovely toy nice and close.

Give it a nice lovely cuddle.

Close your eyes and begin squeezing that toy tightly as this is your time.

Time for you to enjoy and to do nothing else but listen to the sound of my voice.

Now when we relax,

When we really relax,

What you'll notice is that your breathing slows down.

You might notice now that as you're getting more comfortable,

More and more relaxed,

That your breathing tends to slow down.

And when you start to breathe nice and slowly,

You'll find that you can get more comfortable,

More relaxed,

Feeling safe and secure.

Because now is bedtime and bedtime should be a time when you really,

Really feel safe,

Secure,

Happy and relaxed and ready for a good night's sleep.

So let's start that wonderful process of relaxing and letting go by taking in a couple of nice deep breaths.

And as you take in those lovely deep breaths,

I want you to breathe in through the nose and breathe out through the mouth.

And when you breathe out,

Allow yourself to make a nice sighing noise because this can really help us to relax.

So breathe in through your nose when you're ready and take a nice sigh out to breathe out.

And just keep that going.

Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.

And hold and cuddle your lovely toy.

Just keep it close,

Breathe and squeeze your bedtime toy nice and tight.

That's right.

And keep squeezing,

Keep hugging that toy until you naturally feel like relaxing your arms.

And just allow yourself to feel nice and floppy on the bed.

This is you in that process of relaxing,

That gentle steady relaxation.

And it can be so enjoyable just to allow yourself to relax until you drift off into a wonderful night's sleep.

Now of course,

Nighttime can be a time for adventures.

We can dream the most wonderful dreams.

And tonight,

That's what's going to happen for you.

I'm going to take you on a wonderful journey and you're going to take your favorite cuddly toy with you.

Because tonight,

Your toy,

Your special toy has got magic powers.

I bet you never knew that,

Did you?

Or maybe you did.

But as you begin to relax,

To really relax now,

You begin to slow things down before gently drifting off to sleep.

You've begun that lovely process already of calming down,

Enjoying lying in your bed,

Snuggling with your toy,

Feeling comfortable,

Happy,

Snug and warm.

It's time to allow all the worries of the day to just be forgotten as this is your time to feel calm and safe.

So I wonder now if you can imagine for me a lovely feeling of relaxation,

Like a wave of relaxation,

Just traveling down through your body,

Starting at the very top of your head and imagine that wave being a color,

Any color,

Choose the first color that comes into your mind,

A color that makes you feel calm,

Makes you feel secure,

Relaxed and comfortable.

And that colorful wave,

Like water on the beach,

Is washing away any worries or any anxious feelings from you.

And that wonderful,

Beautiful,

Colorful wave moves down through your neck,

Across your shoulders,

Down through your arms,

Through your elbows,

Into your forearms,

Down through your wrists,

Into your hands,

And then right the way down to the very tips of your fingers and tips of your thumbs.

And that relaxing wave of color then moves into your chest,

Your breathing becomes steadier and slower,

Each breath that you breathe you feel more relaxed,

Breathing out any worries,

Any tight feelings,

Because this is your time to relax and to let go.

And that wave of color travels down into your tummy,

Any tightness in the tummy muscles lets go,

Making you feel even more relaxed,

Calm and comfortable.

As you think down into your back now,

That color cascading down your spine,

Making you feeling even more calm,

Even more relaxed.

As you think down into your waist,

Down into your hips,

Through your thigh muscles,

Into your knees,

And then down into your shins and calves,

Through your ankles,

Into your feet,

And then to the very tips of your toes.

Just wiggle your toes for me now,

And imagine that relaxing color filling your feet.

Making you feel relaxed and comfortable and very sleepy.

Now your bedtime friend,

Your bear,

Rabbit,

Dinosaur,

Dragon,

Whatever it is,

Is actually a magical special nighttime friend who is so excited when it gets to bedtime,

Because that is when the magic happens.

Now the magic only happens when you're asleep,

And your bedtime toy can't wait for this to happen,

Because this is their favorite time of day.

They get to go on a dream adventure with their best friend,

Which of course is you.

You're so lucky to have each other,

So lucky to go on these adventures together,

Adventures which you can choose,

And tonight is a special adventure.

So I want you to imagine for me that you're standing on the top of a lovely hill.

You've got your best friend with you by your side,

And you're looking down the other side of the hill,

And just a little way down the hill,

You can see a lovely forest,

And the forest looks so gorgeous.

All the trees are really green,

And there's a little winding path leading down from where you're standing down to that forest.

But before it gets to the forest,

There are 10 steps,

And so you take hold of your best friend's hand,

And you skip down the hill towards those steps.

And as I count you down those steps,

Because there are 10 of them,

As I count you down those steps from 10 down to zero,

I want you to imagine that you're jumping down onto each step,

And each step you take makes you feel more and more relaxed.

So take a little wander down now,

Down that path towards those steps,

And when you get there,

Just pause for a minute.

And now I'm going to count you down from 10 down to zero.

Are you ready to jump down each step?

So let's start now with 10,

9,

8,

Feeling more and more relaxed,

7,

6,

5,

Feeling more and more comfortable,

4,

3,

Feeling snoozy,

2,

1,

All the way down now to zero.

And now you find yourself in this most beautiful forest,

And the sun is shining in through the trees,

Creating wonderful patches of warm light,

And it feels so warm in there too.

You and your best friend look at each other and smile,

How exciting.

You just know that this is where all the magic happens,

And you begin to take a wander around.

You end up playing lots of games together,

Play hide and seek,

You jump over logs,

You climb trees,

And generally have a jolly nice time.

Finally,

You both sit on a fallen mossy log,

And notice a little way off in the distance that there is a stone wall and a little brightly colored wooden door in the wall.

So you both run over to investigate further.

You turn the handle and you walk through this door.

And to your surprise,

You walk into another part of the wood.

But this part of the wood is different.

It feels different.

It feels really magical.

You notice that the trees look somehow brighter,

Almost like they're shining,

And the leaves seem to be this amazing green.

You can't quite put your finger on it,

But everything seems to be glowing.

And then you realize that you're very,

Very small.

The trees are so much bigger than you are.

Everything looks so much bigger.

And you see the most beautiful,

Brightly colored butterfly.

And the butterfly flies down and lands a little way ahead of you.

She bows her head politely and says,

So glad you could come.

I've been waiting for you.

Can I take you for a ride on my back?

All the animals in the woods know that you're brave and strong,

And I know you can do it.

Will you fly with me?

Will you please?

You look at your friend in delight,

And you both nod.

We'd love to,

You both say.

The butterfly walks closer to you.

She bows her head,

Lowers her body,

And you both climb onto her back and hold onto her beautiful wings that are blue and purple and tipped with black.

The black is so black,

It almost looks like velvet.

You absolutely marvel at the colors of her wings,

And you remark on them and tell her how beautiful she is.

She blushes with delight and thanks you for the lovely comments.

You feel so confident,

So happy.

What an amazing adventure you're having.

Going to sleep really is fun when you walk down those steps.

Are you ready?

Says the butterfly.

Yes,

You both cry.

And with a beat of her fabulous wings,

She lifts off.

You fly up and up and up into the sunlight.

You fly around the wood,

Under and over the branches of magnificent tall trees,

Their green leaves so bright and vibrant.

And you fly down over a river,

And she goes so low that your feet touch the water.

Oh,

What a thrill it is.

You're having such a magical time.

Then with a mighty beat of her wings again,

You fly up and up,

High into the sky,

High above the wood,

Up into the blue sky above.

And there are big fluffy white clouds that look like cotton wool.

And you fly through the clouds,

Zooming this way and that.

You can feel the warmth of the sun and the wind ruffles your hair.

It is so lovely.

You're flying.

You are actually flying.

You feel confident,

Strong,

Calm and relaxed.

And eventually the butterfly flies down to the ground and you gently land as light as a feather.

She lowers her body to the ground again and you slip from her back onto the soft mossy carpet of the ground and you hug each other and you give the butterfly a great big hug too.

What a wonderful adventure you've had together.

You thank her gracefully and she says,

You're most welcome.

Please come and see me again soon.

You both agree.

Maybe tomorrow night,

You say.

The butterfly winks at you both.

Many of my friends in the wood want to meet you too.

So do come back whenever you can.

There are many adventures here.

And with that and another strong beat of her sparkling wings,

She flies off.

You've had such a lovely time.

You both think how lucky,

Confident,

Strong and pleased you are to have walked down those steps into that lovely dreamland that is yours to visit whenever you can.

You both walk together back to the brightly colored door in the stone wall and notice there's a little sign by the door saying night time is where the magic happens.

So night,

Night and sweet dreams.