Everyday Practices
Stories for Sleep
For Travelling Into Sleep
US$8 6 practices · 8 tracks · listen or download
Get the pack · US$8Some nights we don’t want to be told to relax. We’d rather be somewhere else for a while. Walking the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, maybe, or sitting by a fire while the rain runs down the window.
A story gives the mind something to follow. It’ll still wander, and that’s fine. That’s what minds do. Each time it does, the story is there to come back to, and little by little the thinking drifts further into the background.
Two of these stories are set in Scotland, where I was born, and they’re close to my heart. The others take you into ancient forests and a warm room on a rainy night. A few have small moments of mindfulness in them, like watching your thoughts come and go as if they were a film on a screen.
There are six stories here. Orkney and Rain on a Window also come in shorter versions, for when you’d like to be asleep sooner.
What’s inside
Sensational Scotland: Edinburgh and the Highlands
25 min
For travelling somewhere close to my heart. After a short settling meditation, ‘All is well… and I am safe’, you arrive in Scotland at sunset. You wander the cobbled Royal Mile with distant bagpipes and the smell of shortbread, and watch the city lights from Arthur’s Seat. The next day you head into the Highlands, through Glen Coe and out on a boat across Loch Ness. It ends in a cosy cottage, wrapped in a tartan blanket with a cup of tea, as you drift off.
Sensational Scotland: Orkney
2 versions
Full version · 30 minShorter version · 16 min
For a trip to the islands where I was born. After the same short settling meditation, you float from island to island, from the Ring of Brodgar glowing in the twilight to the towering cliffs of Hoy. There the aurora dances across the sky in ribbons of green, pink and violet. Then you go back to a stone cottage with the fire crackling, and the sound of the sea lulls you to sleep. The shorter version skips Rousay and the Tomb of the Eagles, and the closing words.
The Wisdom of the Ancient Trees
24 min
For walking into sleep through a forest at twilight. You sit by a clear pond and watch the ripples, some like the thoughts in your mind, ‘simply letting them come and go’. As the stars come out you lie back on the grass and feel your body melt into the earth. Then you find a meadow full of flowers you’ve chosen yourself, cross a little wooden bridge, and sit beneath an ancient tree whose message is simple: all is well.
The Guardian’s Awakening
26 min
For when you’d like a little magic before sleep. You stand at the edge of an enchanted forest, with fireflies glowing and the trees whispering. By a stream you find a carved wooden box with a key inside. It leads you through an archway to a hidden valley, and a small door at the base of a great golden tree. Below is a chamber of ancient books, and one tells of a guardian waiting to be woken. It ends with the guardian’s blessing as you drift into sleep.
Rain on a Window
2 versions
Full version · 22 minShorter version · 11 min
For a cosy night in. You stand at the window of a warm room and take a simple phrase: ‘There is no peace of mind in my mind.’ As the rain starts, your attention narrows to its sound. You close your eyes and watch your thoughts like a film on a screen. The smell of rain brings back a sweet childhood memory, and it ends with a knowing half smile. The shorter version goes from the sound of the rain straight to that ending.
It Never Left Me
40 min
For settling into your own body as home. This one is more meditation than story. You let your awareness take in everything around you, then the stillness within, while I talk about the body’s natural relaxation response. You drop into the rise and fall of your breath, then notice each sense in turn, with the reminder that ‘there is a you that notices this’. Deep in the stillness comes a sense of knowing: ‘I never left you. Whenever you need me, I am here.’