Zac's Hoodie | Kids Sleep Story

Are you ready to meditate with Kari?

Lie down in your bed and get super comfortable.

Make sure that you're wearing your cozy,

Comfy pajamas and that way you can relax your body.

Hopefully you'll fall fast asleep as you listen to the story.

Zach woke up to the sound of rain.

He could hear it belting on his window in his bedroom.

It sounded like really heavy rain.

The type of rain that if it's warm outside you want to run and play in,

Where you would get wet through really quickly.

But it would feel so good to just be running and playing in the rain.

But it wasn't warm outside.

It was September and it was cold,

Cold rain.

And even though Zach still liked cold rain,

He wasn't too excited about having to wait down the road for his bus to pick him up for school in the rain.

While he was getting dressed though,

He decided he was going to wear the hoodie that his grandma bought him for his birthday.

It was his birthday last month and she bought him a hoodie and until now it had not been cool enough for him to wear his sweatshirt.

It was just a big,

Plain navy blue hoodie,

But he really liked it.

He liked the sweatshirt a lot because his grandma knew that he was really sensitive to how things felt on his skin and the sweatshirt was super soft and fluffy on the inside.

It wasn't too heavy,

It didn't feel like it was squeezing him and it didn't feel like he was carrying a big heavy weight around.

It was light,

But it was soft.

And he really liked it.

He had one particular thing that he especially liked about the hoodie.

And that was that when he put the hood up,

He felt like the rest of the world would disappear.

He couldn't explain it.

He did it with all of his hoodies.

As soon as he put his hood up on his sweatshirts,

It was like no one else could see him.

He became unnoticeable,

Boring,

Invisible to the rest of the world.

He could put his hood up,

Look down,

And walk through his life and it was like people didn't see him.

Even though that wasn't true,

Of course they still saw him.

Of course he wasn't actually invisible.

Of course he was still there.

But there was something about putting a hood up on his hoodie that made the rest of the world just disappear.

And when Zach was having one of those days where he wanted the world to disappear,

He wanted to be quiet.

He wanted to be left alone.

He wanted to withdraw and not have to talk to people.

His hood on his hoodie was perfect.

He put just a simple pair of blue jeans on.

He pulled on his sneakers.

He wore a t-shirt under his hoodie in case the weather changed and it got too warm.

Just in case he needed to take it off,

So he had a t-shirt on.

On his hoodie.

Zach went downstairs,

He grabbed his breakfast.

He put all of his folders and his books into his backpack.

He got everything ready for school.

And then he left to go walk to the bus stop.

Luckily the rain had changed a lot.

It was barely raining,

Just a little bit of drizzle still.

That wasn't too bad.

But still,

Zach put up his hood on his hoodie as he walked to the bus stop.

There was a couple of kids already at the bus stop.

Zach put his earbuds in and turned on one of his favorite songs on his phone.

He gave one of the boys that was at the bus stop just a simple,

Quick nod as if to say hi,

But he didn't actually say hi.

He didn't feel like it.

And then the hood did its magic.

It kind of covered his forehead,

Came quite low over his eyes.

And he went inside.

Like a turtle going inside of his shell.

Zach actually had that thought and it made him smile.

He listened to two songs while he was waiting for the bus,

But then the bus came.

So when it was his turn to get on the bus,

He took out one of his earbuds and got on the bus.

He put the hood down on his sweatshirt,

Sat down in front of two of his friends that he normally talks to on the bus.

They get on at a different stop,

But right now he didn't need the hood.

Right now he felt like talking.

Right now he was comfortable.

He knew these friends really well and he wanted to talk.

So he felt like the turtle,

He was coming out of his shell and he was going to talk and he was going to enjoy it and be comfortable and happy.

Of course,

He didn't have his hood up during his lessons at school because he would have probably got into trouble with the teacher.

But as soon as he went to recess,

For the morning break,

He wanted to go inside of his shell again.

And he was in control of that and it felt really good that he could control whether he felt like talking to people or not.

And the hood was like a barrier for him.

So he would put his hoodie up and he would just disappear away from the rest of the world.

It wasn't like Zach was sad.

He wasn't sad at all.

He was really happy.

He wasn't like he was super shy or super introvert.

He wasn't really because when he wanted to,

He was outgoing and extroverted.

He could talk to people whenever he felt like it.

It wasn't any of that stuff.

It was just his hoodie.

His hoodie gave him this extra ability to choose whether he wanted to be protected by it or if he wanted to be exposed without it to the rest of the world.

And it was just a hoodie.

It wasn't like he was hiding with a bag over his head or anything.

But hoodies can be magical.

Hoodies can be the best thing in the world when you feel like you need to step inside.

Like you want to go into your shell.

You don't want to be bothered by the rest of the world for a while.

Or maybe you feel shy and you just want to put your hoodie up so that you feel safer inside of your hoodie.

And yes,

It sounds crazy that a hoodie,

A sweatshirt could make a difference like that.

A big difference.

But it can.

You should try it.

And Zach definitely believed in the power of the hoodie.

Especially this one that his grandma bought him because he really liked it.

He felt really comfortable when he wore it and being comfortable made Zach feel even more confident because he felt safe to be himself.

He felt safe to be talkative when he wanted to.

And he felt safe to be quiet when he wanted to.

And the hoodie helped him to come in or be out.

At lunchtime,

Zach went to a special spot on the grass that he liked to go to when he felt like being alone.

He put his hoodie up,

Put his earbuds in and played some of his favorite music.

The day had turned out to be quite a nice day and the grass had already dried out.

It wasn't wet from raining this morning so he laid back on the grass and he just listened to his music.

This music was like classical kind of piano music and it always made him feel really really relaxed.

He felt chilled when he listened to this particular music.

That's right,

Zach just chilled out to this music.

It was one of his favorites.

So that's what he did.

He just listened to the music with his hoodie up in his own little world.

And that's what you can do right now.

You can just chill out and relax.

Maybe you'll get sleepy and fall to sleep as you listen to the music.

Or maybe you'll just listen for a few minutes.

Or maybe you'll listen for 10 minutes and just let your body get heavier and heavier and deeper and deeper into your bed.

Either way,

You can be just like Zach.

Night night my little friend.