Calm and Ready for the Stage

Before we begin, find a comfortable position lying down in your bed. Let your arms rest gently at your sides, or place your hands softly on your belly — whichever feels most natural. You don't need to do anything special tonight. You don't need to perform. You don't need to be on. This session is yours. In a few moments you'll close your eyes, and we'll move through a gentle awareness practice together — noticing sensations, sounds, and the feeling of this present moment. From there, we'll use that calm, focused state to do something powerful: we'll walk through your opening tomorrow, slowly and clearly, inside your mind. Research shows that vivid mental rehearsal activates the same neural pathways as the real thing — so what you practice tonight, your body and mind will remember in the morning. After that rehearsal, this session will gently guide you into deep, natural sleep. There is nothing you need to force. There is no right or wrong way to experience this. Simply allow. When you're ready, close your eyes now, and let's begin.

Bring your attention to this present moment. [5 second pause] Notice what you can hear right now. [6 second pause] Perhaps the quiet hum of the room around you. [6 second pause] Perhaps the soft sound of your own breathing. [7 second pause] Just notice. Without needing to change anything. [6 second pause] Now notice what you can feel. [6 second pause] The weight of your body against the mattress or the surface beneath you. [7 second pause] The temperature of the air on your skin. [6 second pause] The rise and fall of your chest. [8 second pause] You don't need to deepen your breath. Just observe it. [7 second pause] Notice how the breath moves on its own. [8 second pause] It has always known what to do. [9 second pause] And now, notice your thoughts. [6 second pause] If your mind is busy right now — if there are thoughts about tomorrow, about the room, about the words you'll say — that's perfectly fine. [7 second pause] Just notice those thoughts the way you'd notice clouds passing across an open sky. [8 second pause] They are there. And they move. [9 second pause] You are not those thoughts. You are the sky they move through. [10 second pause] With each breath out, the sky grows a little wider. [8 second pause] A little quieter. [9 second pause] A little more still. [10 second pause] You are already here. Already present. Already beginning to let go. [10 second pause]

I want you to imagine, for a moment, that it is very early morning. [7 second pause] Not yet 9am. Not yet time. [8 second pause] You are backstage. [6 second pause] Or perhaps in a quiet corridor just outside the room. [7 second pause] The lights are low where you are. [8 second pause] The air is cool and still. [9 second pause] You can hear, just faintly in the distance, the soft murmur of people finding their seats. [8 second pause] But where you are, it is calm. [9 second pause] You are wearing exactly what you planned to wear. [7 second pause] You feel it on your body — comfortable, right, yours. [9 second pause] And you notice something surprising. [7 second pause] You feel steady. [8 second pause] Not the stillness of someone suppressing nerves — but the stillness of someone who has prepared. [9 second pause] Someone who knows. [10 second pause] Your feet are flat on the floor. [7 second pause] Your shoulders are easy. [8 second pause] Your breath is slow and even. [10 second pause] And in this quiet corridor, before the moment arrives, you simply wait. [9 second pause] Present. Grounded. Ready. [12 second pause]

And as you rest in that quiet place, I want you to allow your body to sink even deeper now. [8 second pause] Starting at the top of your head. [7 second pause] Feel any tension there simply dissolve. [9 second pause] Like morning frost melting in early light. [10 second pause] Moving down across your forehead. [7 second pause] Your eyes. [6 second pause] Your jaw. [8 second pause] Let your jaw drop just slightly. [9 second pause] Feel the muscles there release. [10 second pause] Down through your neck and shoulders. [8 second pause] Heavier now. [9 second pause] More deeply relaxed. [10 second pause] Down through your arms. [7 second pause] Your hands. [8 second pause] Your fingers. [10 second pause] All the way to the tips of your fingers. [11 second pause] Down through your chest. [8 second pause] Your belly. [9 second pause] With every breath out, sinking deeper. [12 second pause] Down through your hips. [8 second pause] Your thighs. [9 second pause] Your knees. [10 second pause] Your calves. [9 second pause] Your ankles. [10 second pause] Down through the soles of your feet. [11 second pause] All the way to the very tips of your toes. [13 second pause] Your whole body now completely at rest. [12 second pause] Heavy and warm and still. [14 second pause] And your mind — quieter now than when we began. [12 second pause] Drifting gently. [13 second pause] Like a leaf on still water. [15 second pause] I'm going to count down from ten to one now. [6 second pause] And with each number, you'll drift twice as deep. [8 second pause] Ten. [10 second pause] Sinking deeper. [9 second pause] Nine. [10 second pause] Deeper still. [10 second pause] Eight. [11 second pause] Every muscle letting go. [10 second pause] Seven. [11 second pause] So deeply relaxed. [11 second pause] Six. [12 second pause] Drifting down. [11 second pause] Five. [12 second pause] Halfway there. [11 second pause] Four. [13 second pause] Deeper and deeper. [12 second pause] Three. [13 second pause] Almost there now. [12 second pause] Two. [14 second pause] Nearly all the way down. [13 second pause] One. [15 second pause] Deeply, peacefully, completely relaxed. [16 second pause]

Good. And now, from this deep and restful place, your unconscious mind is wide open. [10 second pause] And I want to take you through tomorrow morning. [9 second pause] Slowly. Clearly. With every detail vivid and real. [11 second pause] You wake tomorrow feeling rested. [8 second pause] There is a clarity in your body that surprises you. [9 second pause] A quiet alertness. [10 second pause] Like the air just before sunrise — clean and full of possibility. [12 second pause] You move through your morning with ease. [9 second pause] Each step intentional. [10 second pause] Each moment yours. [11 second pause] And when you arrive at the venue — when you step into that space — something settles in you. [10 second pause] A recognition. [9 second pause] This is the moment you've been building toward. [11 second pause] And you are ready for it. [12 second pause] Now. In your mind's eye, see yourself walking toward the stage. [10 second pause] Feel the floor beneath your feet. [9 second pause] Solid. Steady. Real. [11 second pause] You walk with a pace that is unhurried. [9 second pause] Not rushed. Not performing. [10 second pause] Simply moving with purpose. [12 second pause] You reach the front of the room. [9 second pause] You pause. [10 second pause] Just for a breath. [11 second pause] And in that pause — in that single quiet breath — you feel it. [10 second pause] The room is with you. [11 second pause] And then you speak. [9 second pause] Your opening line. [10 second pause] Hear it now, in your own voice, exactly as you intend it to land. [14 second pause] Clear. [8 second pause] Grounded. [9 second pause] Strong. [12 second pause] Not rushed. Not tight. [10 second pause] The words come from somewhere deep and certain inside you. [11 second pause] And the room receives them. [12 second pause] You feel the energy shift. [10 second pause] The attention lock in. [11 second pause] And you know — in that first moment — that you have them. [14 second pause] This is the version of you that shows up tomorrow. [10 second pause] The one who pauses before speaking. [9 second pause] The one who lets the silence work. [11 second pause] The one who knows that the opening line is not a sprint — it is an arrival. [13 second pause] You arrive. [12 second pause] And the room arrives with you. [15 second pause] Let that feeling settle into your body now. [12 second pause] That sense of calm authority. [11 second pause] Of being exactly where you are meant to be. [13 second pause] Your nervous system is learning this tonight. [10 second pause] Storing it. [11 second pause] Making it familiar. [12 second pause] So that tomorrow, when you walk onto that stage, your body already knows this feeling. [13 second pause] It has been here before. [14 second pause]

And now, let the image of the stage gently fade. [10 second pause] Like a scene in a film dissolving slowly to black. [11 second pause] What remains is not the image — but the feeling. [12 second pause] That steady, open, ready feeling. [13 second pause] That is yours. [12 second pause] It travels with you into sleep tonight. [11 second pause] It is there when you wake tomorrow. [12 second pause] It is there in the corridor before you walk out. [13 second pause] It is there in the pause before you speak. [14 second pause] And it is there in every word that follows. [15 second pause] You have done the work. [12 second pause] Tonight, your mind rehearsed what your body will deliver. [13 second pause] And now, there is nothing left to do. [12 second pause] Only to rest. [14 second pause] Only to sleep. [15 second pause] Only to let your whole system restore itself completely. [16 second pause] So that tomorrow, you rise full. [13 second pause] Clear. [12 second pause] Ready. [18 second pause]

And now, there is only rest. [14 second pause] Let every thought about tomorrow dissolve into the quiet. [15 second pause] There is nothing more to prepare. [16 second pause] Nothing more to rehearse. [17 second pause] You have given your mind what it needs. [18 second pause] And now, your only task is to sleep. [20 second pause] Feel the weight of your body, heavy and warm. [20 second pause] Sinking deeper into the surface beneath you. [22 second pause] Each breath slower than the last. [22 second pause] Each exhale carrying you further down. [24 second pause] Into the deep. [25 second pause] Into the still. [26 second pause] Into the quiet dark where the body heals. [28 second pause] And the mind rests. [30 second pause] There is nothing to hold onto now. [30 second pause] Nothing to figure out. [32 second pause] Just this breath. [35 second pause] And then the next. [38 second pause] Slower. [40 second pause] Quieter. [45 second pause] Drifting. [50 second pause] Deeper. [55 second pause] And deeper still. [60 second pause]

Down. [60 second pause] All the way down. [65 second pause] Into sleep. [70 second pause] Deep, restorative sleep. [75 second pause] Good night. [90 second pause]