The Magical Woodland: Relaxing Bedtime Story

Welcome to this slumberland sleep story.

I'll be your guide as you journey through a magical woodland,

Entering the peaceful wood,

Absorbing yourself in the natural surroundings before discovering a tranquil stream.

As night falls the woodland can take on a more mysterious quality as you relax by a campfire before taking a stroll through the night time woods to a clearing where you can be absorbed in the silvery glow of the moons light as it gently illuminates the meadow,

Until distant rain clouds slowly roll in and you head back to your camp and settle down for the night,

Listening to the relaxing sound of rain on your tent as you fall comfortably and relaxed asleep.

And I wish you the most peaceful nights sleep and pleasant dreams.

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

You can shift about a little if you need to,

To make yourself 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 breaths,

This triggers the body's natural relaxation response.

And as you relax you find yourself walking along a bridle way through the countryside,

Heading towards the magical woodland.

On either side of you are tall hedges separating you from the fields beyond.

You can feel the gentle weight of the backpack on your back,

The warmth of the midday sun and the slight breeze as it tickles at your face.

The bridle way has been well worn,

Dry,

Muddy and stony tyre tracks and a thick grassy mound down the centre of the path.

As you comfortably walk along this path you can hear birds singing in the hedgerows and occasionally you can catch a glimpse of birds as they dart in and out of those hedges,

Flying with almost impossible skill as they dive into those hedges to perch deep inside the mess of leaves and branches and exit as swiftly.

You gaze up and notice a few white candy floss clouds crawling peacefully across the pale blue sky.

While looking up towards the sky you can notice a large bird of prey slowly circling in an updraft of warm air,

Gazing down on that field below.

You try to take a closer look at that bird,

Trying to identify what it is,

Perhaps it's a red kite,

Maybe it's a buzzard.

You look closely at the tail,

The shape of that tail as it glides in the updraft,

The markings on the underside of its wings.

Watching how peaceful and graceful that bird looks as it quietly circles overhead.

After watching the bird for a while you continue your journey towards the entrance to the magical woodland,

Aware of the sounds of each footstep that you take as you walk along that central mound,

Through wild grasses,

Tall daisies and dandelions.

Occasionally you knock a dandelion puffball,

Dispersing many tiny wispy parachutes of seeds around your feet,

Some being captured by a random flurry of wind as you watch the delicate travellers being lifted high into the air as they float and dance with the air currents until they drift out of sight.

With each gentle breath of wind you can smell the fragrant,

Sweet,

Honeyed aroma of oilseed wafting from nearby fields.

The closer to the woodland that you walk,

The more you can notice woodland birds singing and the increased sound of rustling branches as the wind gently blows across the tops of the trees.

As you reach the edge of the woodland,

The hedgerows give way to trees and you can see between the hedges and the trees into the fields on either side of you,

Noticing that on one side there looks to be slender green leaves stretching delicately up from the dirt,

And a few rabbits nibbling at those leaves before they flash their tiny pom-pom like white tails,

Making a few hops and then settling down into another meal.

And many birds walking around the field,

Pecking at the soil.

Looking the other side you can see a field of the most vivid yellow oilseed plants,

With their clusters of delicate looking tiny four-petalled flowers atop sturdy stems.

You walk into the magical woodland,

The sounds around you changing almost in an instant.

The air becomes still as you meander through the dry,

Earthy tang hanging between the trees,

With the soft,

Cracking,

Crunching sound of leaves and twigs beneath each gentle footstep.

The birdsong echoing through the woodland,

While at the same time there seems to be a certain dullness to other sounds,

Like the same trees which are allowing the birdsong to echo and reverberate through the woods,

Absorbs other sounds and quietens sounds from outside the woodland,

Creating a feeling of an unusual paradox where the woods are both awash with the echoey sounds of birds and yet seem to be quiet due to other sounds being reduced.

While you gently walk slowly through the woodland,

As you pass close to trees,

You can occasionally find yourself running your fingers softly over the bark,

Feeling the texture of that bark beneath your fingertips,

Noticing the different sensations depending on the tree.

Some are soft and smooth,

Almost like running your fingertips over paper,

Others are craggy and uneven,

And yet more have bark almost peeling from the trees,

Sometimes revealing a beautiful mottled array of colours.

As you continue to walk deeper into the woodland,

You can notice the shafts of sunlight dancing to the sound of the gently rustling canopy in the finely mist filled spaces between the trees.

You descend deeper and deeper into the woodland with each step,

Then as you do so,

The woodland darkens a little as you get further from where you entered.

After walking for a while,

Catching a glimpse from time to time of colourful butterflies flying between the trees and landing on plants stretching up in the columns of light,

You begin to hear the distant trickle of a tranquil stream.

You walk in the direction of that gently flowing water,

And as you do so you can begin to smell the faint scent of that water in the air.

While heading towards that stream,

You continue to be observant of the woodland around you,

Noticing something out of the corner of your eye,

You stop,

Hold your breath,

Trying to be as quiet as possible as you carefully and slowly turn your head to look beside you.

What you see evokes a feeling of pleasure and excitement,

Only revealed by a slight gasp as you try to be as discreet as possible.

You notice the most beautiful young tawny owl,

Its fluffy downy feathers dappled with the faintest hint of brown,

Its gaze following you as you slowly move into position to photograph that young owl,

Looking like a soft puffball of fluff.

While taking a few photographs,

You discover that in the background,

Perched in the trees,

Camouflaged among the trunks and branches of the trees,

Is an adult tawny owl,

With its golden brown plumage watching you,

Watching that young owl.

You slowly and carefully photograph that owl,

Before continuing on your journey through this magical woodland.

While continuing to walk towards the stream,

You take a moment to appreciate how calm and relaxed this woodland helps you to feel and how healing woodland can be.

As you arrive at the stream,

You can decide to take some time to relax.

You clear an area near the stream,

Erect a small tent,

Then dig a small pit a short distance in front of that tent,

Build a campfire before gathering some wood and returning to your campfire.

You light that campfire and once it seems to be burning at a comfortable,

Stable rate,

You head into your tent and start to get some items out of your backpack.

You take out some items to use for cooking food and heating a drink.

And after you have eaten and made yourself a drink,

You settle down into your tent.

Here,

Next to the stream,

There is more sunlight,

Like a parting through the trees,

Stretching for the length of the stream and about twice as wide as the stream.

The tent is just in the shade,

But as you look out of the tent,

You can see the sunlight glistening on the surface of the bubbling water of that stream.

You can feel the most pleasant,

Cool breeze blowing gently into the tent and onto your face as you lay back and take a moment to relax.

You close your eyes,

Feel that breeze on your cheeks,

Can breathe in that fresh,

Cool woodland air and begin to drift into a reverie in your mind.

And as you drift into that reverie,

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

You focus on the top of your head,

Aware of what your head is resting on,

How comfortable your head feels,

Just resting there.

You imagine the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and relaxing.

You focus on what it's like for that relaxation to spread comfortably around your face,

Your ears and your cheeks,

Having the muscles in these areas soften and relax,

Before continuing to allow that relaxation to spread down around your mouth,

Relaxing your lips,

Then the upper back of your neck,

Around the sides of your neck and your throat,

Helping your jaw to relax and hang a little more loosely and comfortably as that relaxation continues to move down to your shoulders and upper back.

And I don't know whether that relaxation happens faster around the back of 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 and deeply.

And as those muscles soften and relax,

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

All the way down 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.

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,

So your mind begins to relax.

And you can have a sense of a healing light,

Almost like imagining the magical healing power of the woodland passing down through your body,

Like every breath you take,

You breathe in a little more healing,

Calm and relaxation.

This flows deeply throughout your body,

From the top of your head to the tips of your toes,

And you breathe out any stress or tension.

And as you do this with each breath,

You can find your mind drifting deeper into that reverie,

Imagining yourself floating on your back in the stream outside the tent,

With your arms and legs hanging loose in the water.

Realising that this is a stream of consciousness,

And becoming aware of how that consciousness is flowing past you,

And your attention is drawn to things you notice in that stream of consciousness.

You realise that you can't grab hold of anything your attention is drawn to,

All you can do is observe as that stream of consciousness flows by.

So you relax back in that stream,

And allow it to just flow by,

While you float on that stream of consciousness,

Just enjoying and relaxing with the experience.

And after being absorbed in your reverie for a while,

You begin to become aware of your surroundings again,

And you awaken in that tent,

Feeling so refreshed,

Revitalised and full of energy from this 20 minute or so moment of inner focus,

Taking that break from what you have been doing.

And on awakening from this reverie,

You discover that evening is setting in,

You can notice the gently reddening sky and how the daytime nature sounds are fading away to give way to the waking evening animals.

You leave the tent and decide to explore the evening woodland.

As you set off from your tent,

Illuminating your way with a torch,

You notice the way that the shadows of trees and branches travel and part around you,

Like shadow imps compelled to seek out the dark.

You crunch your way through the undergrowth,

Until you notice gently flashing green lights glowing in the distance,

Some remaining on for a while,

Others flashing in patterns,

But most softly fading in and out of illumination.

You walk towards those lights with curiosity.

As you approach,

You realise that they are on the edge of this magical woodland.

You turn off your torch to better see the flashing lights.

With the torch off,

You discover how much more magical this woodland becomes at night,

With the silver shards of light from the moon creeping down through the branches of the trees to dance around the interior of the woodland.

As your eyes continue to adapt to the dark,

So the green glowing orbs seem brighter and more vivid.

You rest against a tree for a while,

Just watching the beautiful spectacle unfold before you as the fireflies disperse.

You head out into a meadow.

You sit down in the meadow and notice the meadow is on a gentle hill.

There is a single large oak tree in this meadow.

You can see where the stream flows out from the woodland,

Meandering down the hill to a lake.

In the dark,

You can just about make out the hills on the horizon as the night sky is a little lighter than the silhouetted landscape in the distance.

The full moon is casting a silvery light across the dark blue scene,

Offering a soft silver accent to the tops of the gently undulating blades of grass,

And making the lake at the bottom of the meadow look like a pool of thousands of sparkling diamonds being jiggled in a black velvet bag.

You gently lie back on the grass,

Feeling those soft,

Cool feathers of grass tickling beside your ears as you look up at the night sky,

Stars winking and wandering slowly across the heavens,

And as you rest there,

Lying in this meadow,

You see a shooting star streak silently across the sky,

Although you feel like it made a fizzing sound.

You make a wish and smile.

As you lie there,

You begin to think about how magical this meadow looks,

With the silver glow of the moon and the dark blue of the night.

You can feel the cool nighttime breeze on your cheeks and the sensation of breathing in that fresh nighttime air.

You close your eyes and imagine what it would be like if this was a magical land.

Walking to that grand oak tree,

Running your fingers gently around the bark of the tree,

Discovering a secret tunnel in the tree,

Following that tunnel and finding a secret staircase with 20 steps,

And then slowly and carefully descending those steps from 20 to 19,

18,

17,

18,

16,

Going deeper and deeper beneath that tree,

15,

14,

13,

14,

Following that staircase all the way down,

12,

11,

10,

Deeper and deeper,

9,

8,

Finding the air so still and quiet down here under the tree,

7,

6,

5,

4,

Approaching the bottom of the steps,

Curious what you'll find when you reach the bottom,

3,

2,

All the way,

1,

Reaching the bottom of the steps and discovering a secret door,

Taking a few moments before then,

Walking through that door and into a room of peace and comfort.

And in this room,

You find a torch on the wall,

And on lighting that torch,

The room glows and reveals a golden scroll.

You walk to the scroll and carefully lift the scroll off of the plinth that it's sitting on.

The scroll smells like old books,

And as you carefully open that scroll and are surprised that somehow you can read it,

You read that scroll.

And with a feeling of aha and a slight smile of understanding,

You place that scroll back where you found it,

To be discovered again in the future,

Before heading back out of this tree.

As the night time continues,

So the air cools,

Feeling refreshed,

You awaken from your imagination and softly sit up.

You notice in the distance,

White rain clouds glowing in the moonlight.

As you watch those distant clouds,

You realise they're heading towards you and gradually filling more of the sky.

You decide that now would probably be a good time to head back to your tent.

You walk across the meadow and back into the magical woods.

You carefully navigate through the woodland and back to your tent.

And once you're back at your tent,

You douse the embers of your campfire,

Before settling down inside the entrance to your tent.

You relax,

Listening to the bubbling sound of the stream as you await the incoming rain.

When you begin to notice those first few drops of rain,

You close the entrance and relax back into your tent.

Inside your tent,

You decide to read for a while,

By the light of the moon.

As you read,

So you can hear the rain getting heavier on the outside of the tent.

Something about the rhythmic sound of the rain,

Almost constant pitter patter of rain on the fabric of the tent,

Makes it increasingly difficult to continue to focus on reading.

While reading,

You can also listen to the sound of the rain on the outside of your tent.

While reading,

Your eyes keep wanting to close.

The sound of the rain is making you feel sleepier and sleepier.

The sound of the rain is making your eyelids heavier and heavier.

You try in vain for a while to fight the unconscious urge to close your eyes and fall asleep.

You try in vain for a while to fight the unconscious urge to close your eyes and fall asleep.

Determined that you will make it to the end of the chapter that you're reading.

But eventually,

You give in.

You bookmark your page,

Before putting that book down,

Turning off the light,

And settling down into your sleeping bag.

Snuggling down,

Almost like you're wrapped in a comfortably warm and pleasant cocoon.

Snuggling down,

Almost like you're wrapped in a comfortably warm and pleasant cocoon.

And in this warm and pleasant,

Relaxed state,

You close your eyes,

Feeling so cosy,

As you listen to that rain,

Peacefully dancing on the outside of your tent.

And find yourself drifting and floating,

So deeply,

So relaxed asleep into slumberland.