The Staircase

Take a deep breath in, hold it, and as you let it out, let your eyes relax. Take another deep breath in, and as you exhale, close your eyes.

In a moment, you’ll descend a staircase, and as you do so, you’ll start counting from ten down to one. For the first five steps, imagine you’re opening your eyes and then closing them. As you inhale, open them, and close them on the exhale.

Breathe gently. It’s easy once you get into the rhythm of it: inhale and imagine you’re opening your eyes, exhale and close.

See yourself at the top of a set of stairs. They might be made of wood, or stone, or metal, or some other material. There might be a handrail, and it might be ornate or simple. There are ten steps, and you’re standing at the top, looking down.

Inhale, and as you land on a step, exhale and imagine a wave of relaxation rolling down your body. Inhale and take another step down.

Starting at Ten, eyes open, inhale. As you go down to step

Nine, exhale and close your eyes, and feel that wave of relaxation.

Open eyes and another breath in. As you go down to

Eight, close your eyes and exhale. Feel another wave of relaxation.

Open your eyes, and breathe in. As you go down to

Seven, breathe out and close your eyes. See the wave of relaxation.

Six. Eyes open, breathe in, and on the out breath, close your eyes, down to

Five. More relaxed now, and with your next three, relaxing breaths, experience a wave of relaxation from the top of your head, down to the tips of your toes, and beyond. Down to

Four. Breathing comfortably now, deeply relaxed, down to

Three. Breathing in, and out. And inhale. Stepping down to

Two, and breathe out. As you get to

One. At the bottom of stairs, you’ll see a door before you. Notice the color of the door. Notice whether it pulls in or pushes out.

Open the door and enter your special place.