my little cousin was finding it hard to get to sleep this evening, so I created a story/guided adventure for her so she could. (and so I could too) it worked amazingly well. I'm so pleased with myself and what i did, and I wanted to share it with you, so here it is:

"are you in a comfy position? if not nows the time." (pause for a moment) "all set?" (if answer is no just wait until they are, or find a way to fix it) "ok, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing, try to breathe in through your mouth and out through your nose" (pause, but not for too long) "now picture swimming, in a crystal clear ocean, you don't need to hold your breath, or go to the surface, because you can breathe underwater." (if it is appropriate, say that they are a mermaid) "visualize your hands reaching out, and your arms gently pushing the water aside, moving you forward. soon you see a dolphin, you reach out, and touch it's smooth skin, the dolphin doesn't mind, you are safe, you protect the ocean and all it'd creatures, and in return the creatures protect you. the dolphin offers his fin to you, you gently grasp it, and the dolphin starts swimming.  the dolphin takes you down, down, down. to the bottom of the ocean, where you se many underwater volcanoes, called hydrothermal vents, there are so many different sizes, with so many different creatures. you are fascinated my the large hairy crabs, and the tall rad and white tube worms, but you must go now, and the dolphin takes you up." (pause for a moment, giving the person a sense of time) "next you see a giant squid, you look at it's brilliantly red skin, and wide, knowledgeable eyes. those eyes tell stories, stories of many things, you see in it's eyes, that it's peaceful, and will do you no harm. the dolphin keeps swimming. next you see a giant blue whale. you stare in awe at the sheer size of this being, and you notice the tiny krill around it, these krill you see, are what is feeds on, you are amazed that such a ginormous beast could live off of lives so tiny. the dolphin keeps swimming, further and further until all you can see in any direction, is a vast blue world. but the dolphin keeps swimming, on and on he swims, until into view comes a huge kelp forest.  the kelp rises from the sandy ocean floor and says back and forth in the current, you see tiny rock caves with octopuses crawling around inside, small crabs scurrying long the sand, and fish of all sizes darting in and out of the kelp. the dolphin takes you through the kelp, and you see a big turtle, the turtle is old, but happy, you smile at the wonderful animal, and it bobs it's head as if in greeting. soon the dolphin has brought you all the way home, you say goodbye to him, stroking his side gently, you thank him for taking you on such a wondrous adventure, and watch him swim away." (this is where I stopped, because she was asleep, and I was (am) almost there too.  so good night, and may anybody reading this have a splendorous rest of their day.)