Why Are Meditative Bedtime Stories Healing?
Here is an excerpt from the introduction to my book Meditative Bedtime Stories
Our unique stories are written in the context of the unfolding of our lives. The difficult parts of these stories may become the main theme, playing out in our waking state, or submerged and stuck in our cells as body memories. Eventually, the stuck energy may manifest as illness and disease.
Like the Rumi poem so beautifully states, the power of the mind can eat away the heart. It is normal for our brain to default into these memories because it is simply wrestling to find a better outcome; instinctually returning to the looping thoughts to keep us aware of the danger signals. Unfortunately this can lead to hyperarousal, keeping us tense and vigilant. We become stuck in the past, mired in the quicksand of the mind’s obsessive thoughts.
So if our minds can’t transform this pathway of constriction and sabotage what is the answer? It is the power of our right brain’s creative imagination that unlocks the prison of our mind. Just as our right brain holds onto traumatic memories through sensory awareness, it also can create new images, feelings, sounds and smells that reframe and rewrite the stories. This process becomes an antidote to the old patterns that hold us back from healing.
Hearing a soothing voice sharing a meaningful story is a universal experience that works magic for most of us. Listening to stories and telling stories connects us, accesses our deepest emotions and helps us tap into the wisdom of the ages.
The storyteller gives the listener an opportunity to connect with their imagination as they travel in time and space. The listener can use the story as a vantage point for seeing their life from a new perspective.
Stories teach by nurturing imagination, accessing new resources and inspiring us to create solutions and new outcomes for our own lives. Stories were a primary form of teaching by spiritual leaders through ages. Parables shared by Jesus and Buddha are an example of how stories conveyed their message. The Confucian proverb states:
“Teach me and I will forget. Show me and I remember. But involve me and I will understand.”
Here is an excerpt from the introduction to my book Meditative Bedtime Stories
Our unique stories are written in the context of the unfolding of our lives. The difficult parts of these stories may become the main theme, playing out in our waking state, or submerged and stuck in our cells as body memories. Eventually, the stuck energy may manifest as illness and disease.
Like the Rumi poem so beautifully states, the power of the mind can eat away the heart. It is normal for our brain to default into these memories because it is simply wrestling to find a better outcome; instinctually returning to the looping thoughts to keep us aware of the danger signals. Unfortunately this can lead to hyperarousal, keeping us tense and vigilant. We become stuck in the past, mired in the quicksand of the mind’s obsessive thoughts.
So if our minds can’t transform this pathway of constriction and sabotage what is the answer? It is the power of our right brain’s creative imagination that unlocks the prison of our mind. Just as our right brain holds onto traumatic memories through sensory awareness, it also can create new images, feelings, sounds and smells that reframe and rewrite the stories. This process becomes an antidote to the old patterns that hold us back from healing.
Hearing a soothing voice sharing a meaningful story is a universal experience that works magic for most of us. Listening to stories and telling stories connects us, accesses our deepest emotions and helps us tap into the wisdom of the ages.
The storyteller gives the listener an opportunity to connect with their imagination as they travel in time and space. The listener can use the story as a vantage point for seeing their life from a new perspective.
Stories teach by nurturing imagination, accessing new resources and inspiring us to create solutions and new outcomes for our own lives. Stories were a primary form of teaching by spiritual leaders through ages. Parables shared by Jesus and Buddha are an example of how stories conveyed their message. The Confucian proverb states:
“Teach me and I will forget. Show me and I remember. But involve me and I will understand.”
A good healing story involves our head and our heart, bypassing resistance and accessing the part of the brain where deep change occurs. This is why Milton Erickson, the father of hypnosis regularly used metaphor and story in his practice with clients.
I remember my dad, a minister and dynamic speaker, telling me once that as the years went by, he learned that it was the stories he told within his sermons that people remembered the most.
Healing stories can change our brain chemistry, by triggering the empathic response, which in turn, increases our levels of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin reinforces a sense of connection and safety, builds compassion and calm and eventually brings the listener into a state of deep relaxation which then promotes the ability to fall sleep.
To hear Glenda's Claire Bedtime Stories visit:
To hear Glenda's Classic Bedtime Stories visit:
To learn more about Glenda's Meditative Bedtime Stories click here.
I remember my dad, a minister and dynamic speaker, telling me once that as the years went by, he learned that it was the stories he told within his sermons that people remembered the most.
Healing stories can change our brain chemistry, by triggering the empathic response, which in turn, increases our levels of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin reinforces a sense of connection and safety, builds compassion and calm and eventually brings the listener into a state of deep relaxation which then promotes the ability to fall sleep.
To hear Glenda's Claire Bedtime Stories visit:
To hear Glenda's Classic Bedtime Stories visit:
To learn more about Glenda's Meditative Bedtime Stories click here.