The Magical Beach: Long Bedtime Sleep Story

Welcome to this slumberland sleep story.

I'll be your guide as you take a trip to the magical beach,

Finding your way down to the seafront,

Walking along a beautiful sandy beach,

Settling down on the beach before snorkeling in the sea and then sitting up a tent and campfire,

Watching the Sun set before settling down in the tent and drifting peacefully asleep.

I would like to take this moment to wish you the most peaceful night's sleep and pleasant dreams as you fall asleep to this story.

Before we begin the story you can take a few moments to settle down comfortably,

You can shift about a little if you need to,

To make yourself even more comfortable and when you're ready you can let your eyes gently close.

And as this story unfolds you can take a few deep relaxing breaths,

Allowing the out-breaths to be a little longer than the in-breath.

This triggers the body's natural relaxation response and as you relax you can find yourself heading out of woodland at the top of a hill,

Leading down to the ocean below.

As you head out of the woodland you can hear the sound of the sea in the distance while perhaps noticing the rustling of the leaves of the trees here in the woods and the way the light dances as thin strips of light penetrate the canopy.

As you maneuver past some of the trees to exit the woodland you touch the bark of a tree,

Feeling the slight coolness of that rough bark,

The way it feels under your fingertips and the palm of your hand,

While pushing a branch out of your way with your other hand and arm to reveal the light of the hill and the unobstructed view down to the sea and off to the horizon.

As you walk out of the woodland and into the meadow on this hill you can find yourself walking through the tall grasses and wildflowers of the meadow,

Feeling the warmth of the sun on your cheeks.

You can hear the sound of the sea below and notice the waving,

Almost pulsing movement of the grasses and flowers as the breeze blows across the meadow.

Perhaps you can see the birds flying high overhead and hear the distant rustling of the trees of the woodland you've just passed through.

You can notice the way that the hilltop rises and transforms into a cliff a little further along the coast where the hills seem to almost wrap around the incoming ocean,

Where the hills have gotten steeper and steeper and then in places the front of the hills has been eroded away by the sea,

Creating a cliff face and a little way in the distance along the cliff is a lighthouse standing tall and strong.

You watch for a moment to see whether it has its light on.

You see the faint pulse of light,

Perhaps surprised at how dim it seems when viewed during the daytime,

But aware of the beam that it will project across the ocean when night falls.

As you explore this meadow on a hillside,

Listening to the beach sounds in the background,

Really absorbing yourself in the experience and making the most of this experience.

You can notice the way the sun is glistening and shimmering over the surface of the sea beyond the golden sand.

From up here you can see the shapes and regular patterns which are often invisible to those viewing the sea from the beach.

You notice the straight rows of waves undulating gently towards the shore and how those waves seem to be grouped together into sets of waves at a time.

As you look off a little way into the distance along the coast you can see an area where the waves nearing the shore are making a lattice shaped wave pattern and a little bit beyond that the waves are rolling taller and curling over sooner as they approach the beach.

As you look down across the beautiful golden sandy beach you can spot the occasional person walking their dog,

The way some of the dogs just walk along with their human companions and other dogs seem to get excited by the sea.

They run and jump into the water,

Splashing among the waves before running wet back into the sand and rolling around.

There are also some couples walking hand in hand,

A few individuals and people dotted around on the sand enjoying the sun.

You take your time to enjoy the journey to the seafront,

Rather than rushing past all of the beauty.

You notice butterflies flying from flower to flower,

Sometimes stopping a while on a single flower with their wings folded up while drinking from the plant,

Before slowly moving their wings and then launching back into the air in an instant.

You watch as bees bob from flower to flower,

Sometimes walking around on the outside of a bulbous plant with many small,

Delicate,

Densely packed flowers.

Other times they push themselves deep into the head of a flower before backing out again,

Often covered in pollen.

Songbirds hop around the meadow and land in bushes,

Hopping along and moving quickly from place to place.

You find a suitable location to rest for a bit up here in this meadow on a hill.

Unroll a sheet over a patch of clear meadow,

Place your backpack on the back of the sheet and sit down.

You lay back with your head resting on your backpack and gaze up towards the sky.

You can watch the way the clouds move across your field of view,

The fluffy clouds forming shapes which stimulate memories and ideas of different animals.

And as those clouds float past,

Those imaginary cloud animals start to morph and shift,

Often into other variations of the same animal and then into other animals entirely.

You may watch as a bunny rabbit,

Sitting upright,

Morphs into a rabbit leaping and then transforms from the leaping bunny into a swan before becoming an abstract image.

Other clouds are lighter and wispier and there are the small fluffy clouds.

These clouds slowly form and disappear before your eyes as they pass across the sky.

You can select one of these clouds and imagine that you're erasing that cloud and as you do you can see it fading and disappearing as if you're rubbing the cloud out.

This can feel like an unusual but interesting experience.

While watching the clouds and feeling the warmth of the sun on your cheeks and how you adapt to that warmth,

Almost becoming unaware of it until another cloud passes over the sun and you notice the absence of the sun's warmth on your cheeks.

Then after the cloud passes,

You feel the sun's rays tickling and warming your cheeks again.

You find that your mind drifts and wanders.

And you start to daydream.

And as you daydream and you begin to drift and float so peacefully and comfortably into a reverie,

You can have a sense of relaxing your mind and body.

You focus on the top of your head,

Noticing how your head's resting gently on that backpack,

How it is supported gently in place,

The comfort in and around your head resting there,

Having a sense of the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and relaxing,

Drawing in peace and comfort with each breath that you take,

Before moving your awareness around your face,

Focusing on what it's like for that relaxation to spread around your face,

Your ears and your cheeks,

Having the muscles in these areas soften and relax,

Relaxing the muscles around your eyes and across your forehead,

While the muscles around the side of your head and over the top of your head begin to relax,

Deeper and deeper,

Noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolves without paying it any attention at all,

And you can continue to allow that relaxation to spread down around your mouth,

Relaxing your lips and your jaw,

Relaxing the muscles around the side of your neck,

Around to the back of your neck and around your throat,

As your jaw relaxes and hangs slightly loose,

Limp,

And that relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and upper back,

And I don't know whether that relaxation happens fastest around your shoulders or in the upper back or perhaps down the tops or the front of your shoulders,

As that relaxation progresses around your back and your chest,

Softening and relaxing those muscles fully,

Deeply and comfortably,

And as those muscles soften and relax while you rest there,

That relaxation can begin to spread down the arms to the hands,

All the way to the tips of your fingers,

And I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest,

Whether it'll be the left arm or the right arm,

Or whether the arms will relax at the same rate and speed as each other,

And as that relaxation continues through those arms,

It can flow down through your stomach,

Sides and lower back,

All the way down to your bottom,

Before extending deeply down through your legs to the tips of your toes,

And as your body becomes deeper and deeper relaxed while you drift into the most pleasant sleep,

So your mind begins to relax,

You begin to have a sense of a healing light touching your forehead,

Enveloping your face and head with healing deep relaxation,

Absorbing comfortably and gently into you with each in-breath that you take,

Filling you with healing peace and calm,

Spreading that healing,

Restorative,

Recuperative light down through your body,

Breathing in healing,

Calm,

Relaxation and breathing out any stress or tension,

Aware of that healing light passing down your neck,

Softening and relaxing those muscles,

Spreading that healing light through the neck as it spreads down with the next breath to your shoulders,

Around the back of your neck and down into your arm,

Gradually continuing that flow of healing light all the way down to the tips of the fingers and with another in-breath,

The healing light can spread down through the body,

Softening and relaxing muscles,

Healing deep within the body,

Filling the body with pleasure and deep relaxation as the light journeys down around your stomach,

Your lower back and side,

Into your buttocks and all the way down your legs to the soles of your feet,

Filling your whole body with that healing,

Restorative light and as you allow that light to flow with each breath,

You can find your mind drifting deeper and deeper into a reverie and as your mind drifts deeper and deeper into a reverie,

So resting here,

Lying on that sheet,

In that meadow on that hillside,

A short distance from the ocean,

Hearing the sound of the ocean,

The sound of those waves rolling in onto the shore,

Can evoke certain pleasant memories and ideas and you can find something soothing and peaceful and relaxing about resting on this sheet,

On this hillside,

Aware of the way that the clouds pass across the sun,

By the shadows that pass across your field of view,

Through your closed eyelids,

Aware of the texture of the sheet,

Beneath you,

Perhaps having your hands down beside you,

The palms of your hands and your fingertips touching the sheet,

Feeling the gradual increase in warmth of the sheet as it warms up under the sun's light,

Hearing that gentle rustle that you get in a meadow full of grasses and plants as they sway and rub together in the breeze and almost creating a mental representation in your mind of this meadow that you're resting back in,

On this hillside,

Imagining in your mind's eye,

Those bees and butterflies,

Travelling from plant to plant,

Imagining in your mind's eye,

Off along the coast,

That lighthouse that's standing tall and strong,

That woodland at the top of the hill,

Stretching back far into the distance,

Enjoying just being in the moment,

Resting here on this sheet,

In this meadow,

On this hillside,

Listening to the sound of the sea,

Aware that shortly you'll be heading down to the seafront,

Seafront,

Really absorbing yourself in the moment,

In this experience,

Hearing the sound of the waves rolling in,

Pulling back out,

Rolling in,

Pulling back out,

That regularity of the sea,

Feeling the warmth of the sun on your cheeks and on your hands,

And perhaps the sun is warming you as a person that little bit more,

And having a sense almost like the sun is projecting more of that healing light into you as you drift deeper and deeper,

Healing deeper and deeper and deeper inside,

Hearing the occasional distant sound of someone whistling or calling for a dog,

And other occasional sounds in the distance,

Sometimes the sound of a bird overhead,

And an interesting thing about resting here with your eyes closed on the side of a hill in a meadow,

Is that the moment can almost seem to become timeless,

Where you begin to lose track of time,

Where it doesn't feel like you've been resting here that long,

But you don't know how long that time has been,

And after a while of resting here on this sheet,

Really enjoying the experience,

You drift back from this reverie,

Gently opening your eyes and packing away the sheet,

Shaking that sheet off before you put it into your backpack,

Just to shake off the loose grass and other debris that's got onto the sheet while it's been on the ground,

And then you continue to head down through this meadow on this hillside,

Down towards the beach,

And as you head down towards the beach,

So you discover that the ground begins to get a little steeper,

And at the point that it gets steeper,

There's a path for you to follow,

And the path consists of a number of steps,

And the path takes you diagonally down to that seafront,

Rather than heading straight down,

And it weaves diagonally one way,

With each step being almost like a platform,

That you step on the step,

And then have to walk to the end of the step,

To step down to the next step,

And then walk to the end of the step,

To step down to the next step,

And then walk to the end of the step,

To step down to the next step,

Before following a path around,

Zigzagging heading back the other direction,

Walking to the edge of the step,

Stepping down to the next step,

And the zigzag happens about four times from the top to the bottom,

Before stepping onto the beach,

And so you begin to descend those steps,

Stepping onto step 20,

And 19,

Walking to the edge of the step,

Then down to step 18,

And 17,

And 18,

Finding yourself becoming deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience with each step that you take,

Stepping onto step 16,

And then 15,

Where you have to follow the step around,

To face down the next run of steps,

Stepping onto step 14,

Slowly,

Carefully,

Softly descending,

Really enjoying the experience,

Looking around you as you descend,

Looking out over that beach,

Stepping onto step 13,

And 12,

And 11,

All the way deeper and deeper,

Noticing the way that you feel deeper absorbed and more relaxed with each step that you take,

Stepping onto step 10,

And heading around to the next set of steps,

Stepping onto step 9,

Step 8,

Slowly,

Deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience,

Onto step 7,

6,

5,

Heading around to descend the last set of steps,

Relaxing so peacefully and comfortably,

As you step onto step 4,

3,

2,

And then stepping onto step 1,

Before stepping off onto the beach,

Feeling that soft golden sand beneath your feet,

Noticing how it makes walking different when you're walking on incredibly soft powdery golden sand,

With your feet sinking with each step into that sand so gently,

So comfortably,

So peacefully,

And you walk away from the hill that you've just descended,

And you can see a little way up from the ocean is a wavy row of seaweed and sticks and other bits and pieces that have been washed up onto the shore,

That marks the barrier between the high tide as far as the sea reaches,

And the dry sand beyond the reach of the sea here,

And you walk along the beach a little way,

And you head in the opposite direction to where most of the people are,

Aware that most dog walkers,

Most people as you come down to this beach,

Just sit and enjoy the experience of resting on a beach,

Families coming and playing on the beach,

They all stick down the other end of the beach,

Whereas not so many people come to this end of the beach,

Where it's only really accessible from walking through the woodland,

Cutting across that meadow and the hill,

Descending those steps,

And even when people do take this route,

They normally are circling around,

Perhaps on a walk,

And so they turn and head in the opposite direction to the direction you're taking,

And so you walk along that beach,

You find the ideal spot to set up a camp,

And you're some distance away from the hills and cliffs,

But also well above that line of the reach of the sea,

You set up a small tent on this beach,

You prepare a campfire for lighting later,

Getting changed ready to go into the sea,

You grab your snorkel,

And you walk barefoot through that soft golden sand,

And you can really feel the warmth of that sand under each foot,

The tickling feeling of the loose dry sand between your toes,

And the way the sand is a lot cooler just beneath the surface,

You can notice the thickening up and the more solid sand as you get closer and closer to the water's edge,

And as you reach the water's edge,

You gently walk into the water,

Noticing how warm that sea water is,

Almost like walking into a comfortable bath,

You place the snorkel in your mouth,

The mask over your eyes,

You continue walking until you're at waist height,

Feeling the sensation of the water around your lower body,

Around your waist,

Almost like feeling that tension of the surface of the water against your waist,

And that sensation as waves rise and fall so gently up and down your body as they pass you by,

And when you're just over waist height into the water,

You lift your legs off the bottom and lean forward slightly,

And begin to swim,

Placing your face looking down through the water,

As you gently kick your feet,

Swimming along,

Looking down through that clear water,

Seeing tiny fish swimming around,

Some colourful,

Some groups of fish,

Which are a light brown colour,

Seeming to swim on the spot,

Before darting away from your shadow as your shadow moves across that small shawl of fish,

Feeling the peace and calmness of this underwater world,

While your ears are hearing the surface world,

That sea rolling into the shore,

And yet everything seems so much more still and peaceful underwater,

And after a while of enjoying that feeling of weightlessness,

Floating,

Resting there,

Almost like floating in space,

Where when you just close your eyes while you float on the surface of the water,

It brings a deep sense of peace and calm,

Noticing how floating on the water with your face submerged,

Seems to trigger a deep relaxation,

Seems to slow your breathing,

And deepen your breathing,

So comfortably,

So relaxed,

Deepening deeper and deeper,

Then after a while,

You swim back towards the shore,

And at first you continue to swim back towards the shore,

Feeling that sensation of the waves almost pushing you towards the shore as they roll in,

Until you're aware that you're very close to the shore,

And so you just place your feet down,

Stand up,

Feel that water as it runs down the face mask,

Down your face,

Down your body,

So cool compared to the warmth of the sun,

And you take the face mask and the snorkel off from your head,

You head over to your tent,

Pick up a towel and dry your face,

And dab the towel over your head and around your body to dry you off,

Feeling a slight tension to your skin from that salty water as it dries,

Knowing that this will pass in a short moment,

Then placing that towel on the ground from the entrance to the tent,

While the clothes you're wearing are still damp from being in the sea,

And sitting down on that towel,

And as you sit on that towel,

So you make preparations to light that campfire,

And then you lean forward and you light the campfire,

Hearing it crackle to life,

Forming a steady crackling popping sound,

And then you have something to eat and something to drink while you see that the sun is beginning to gently set,

And while the sun is beginning to set peacefully and comfortably over the horizon,

You notice the way it casts the most beautiful hue across the ocean,

How the sound of the ocean seems to change because of the change of the atmosphere,

The temperature,

Or perhaps just because of the change of the setting,

With it being evening and night time approaching,

And it makes you feel slightly different in a calm and pleasant way to the environment,

To how you felt before,

How there seems to be something deeply relaxing,

Almost like drifting asleep,

Just in the nature of seeing the setting sun,

And as the sun fully sets,

So you can see the sky change in colour,

From reds and oranges,

Through blues to dark blue,

And eventually to an almost black coloured sky,

With the twinkling stars overhead,

And that fire,

As the night gets later and later,

Burns gently down to embers,

And as it burns gently to embers,

With the most beautiful orange glow on the sand,

Flickering light and shadows,

You settle back into your tent,

Still listening to the sea in the background,

You read a book for a little while,

Before discovering that your eyes keep wanting to shut,

At which point,

You place that book down,

You zip up the tent,

And with that fire so softly crackling as embers outside the tent,

And that sea just gently lapping onto the shore,

You drift and begin to float so peacefully,

So deeply asleep,

Finding it so easy and effortless to honestly and fully drift asleep,

So deeply relaxed,

Asleep into slumberland,