Relaxation... let's face it - we all need a little bit more of that! My children have always enjoyed guided relaxation stories but I found lately they have become a really valuable tool especially for my daughter who can sometimes suffer from anxiety.
I use guided relaxations in my Family Yoga classes and every single script is tested and approved by my children! My daughter has been a big help putting this script together. She told me what worked, what didn't work and what was missing (i.e. you obviously cannot go on a journey without bringing your favourite toys!)
We loved it so much that we wanted to share it so you will find a printable version at the end of the post!
A great time to relax is either after school (once they had a snack) or at bedtime to help them go to sleep. That's the time when they usually start processing the day and if the thoughts start going round and round in a loop it can be difficult to fall asleep (you might know the feeling!)
A few tips for the reader:
- make sure your child is comfortable, either in their bed or snuggled up with blankets on the floor
- before you start reading take a few deep breaths so you feel calm and relaxed
- s l o w i t d o w n (read much slower than you would read a normal story)
- talk about their experience afterwards
- obviously if you are reading this at bedtime leave out the last paragraph!
Magic Carpet Ride
Intention: feeling calm and happy
Take 3 long breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Make tight fists with the hands – relax (pause...) Lift the hips off the group - relax (pause...) Squeeze the toes - relax (pause...) Squeeze the face – relax (pause...)
Let your body sink into the yoga mat. Feeling a little bit heavier with every breath. Feeling a little bit more comfortable with every breath.
I’m going to take you on a little journey into your imagination now.
Imagine that you can see a door in front of you. You open the door, go through it into a room with an open window. In the room is a beautiful, colourful rug – just by the way it slightly wiggles and glows you know that this is not an ordinary rug - this is in fact a flying carpet.
As you would really like to go on adventure today, you take whatever you want to take with you, you sit down on it and make yourself comfortable. The carpet starts to gently lift off the ground and flies through the open window into the sky.
You love the feeling of flying – can you see the birds flying right beside you? Can you see the clouds that seem to be coming closer and closer and look like soft inviting cushions? You look down and see that you’re flying over your house, over your school, over your town. Everything looks so small and tiny – like a toy world.
You now tell the flying carpet where you would like to go. Maybe there is a place you’ve always wanted to visit, maybe it’s a place that only exists in your imagination. Maybe it’s a place that you know from a book or a place that you have been to before. You decide and the carpet will take you exactly where you want to go. It’s starts to gently descend and lands softly in your special place.
You get off the carpet and start to look around. What can you see? What can you hear? This is a place that makes you very happy. You can smell something wonderful. Is it flowers? Is it the seaside air? Or maybe it is chocolate? Take a few moments now to imagine every single detail of your special place. Who is with you? Are there any animals or magical creatures?
(Pause...)
Enjoy being in this place for a little longer. It’s such a wonderful, peaceful place that makes you feel really calm and happy.
(Long Pause...)
It’s time to come back from your adventure but you know you can come back to visit whenever you want to. You sit down on the flying carpet and it lifts off the ground to take you back. You fly through the air until you get to the open window. The magic carpet flies through and gently lands back in the room.
Let your breath become deeper. Gently start to wiggle your fingers and your toes. Bring your awareness back into the room. Bend you knees and bring them up into the chest, wrapping your arms around the legs. Then roll yourself to the side and come into sitting.
