Hypnotic Bedtime Story: Winnie-The-Pooh
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Hi, I'm Jessica Porter and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Thank you everyone for being here. I love the new year. The pressure's off, the holidays are over, and we just get to sink back into our regular lives. It's one of my favorite times of year.

I just want to thank some listeners that have been giving me feedback on Spotify. Bree, thanks for writing. I'm really glad it's helping. I heard from Annalise, a dancer who's feeling more connected to her body because of sleep magic, which is great. Someone named LobstersGF, who's getting so much from the podcast and has written a few times. Thank you for your comments.

Maeve has written and offered great suggestions for episodes. And Jim has been listening for eight months as he goes through some very difficult times. And then someone wrote to me through the Supercast link in the show notes, Liz from Ireland, who says she's rested, no longer worried at night, and no longer blames herself for things outside of her control. I love that.

Thank you so much for letting me know that, for letting all of us know that getting better rest, getting better sleep helps us keep perspective and really equilibrium. So thank you, Liz, for sharing that, for letting us all know the power of relaxation and self-care. It's really huge.

It's impossible to mention everyone who writes, but I want you to know that I read every comment, and I really appreciate them all. So thank you. Before we get started, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors who make this free content possible. Tonight, Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. I didn't know much about A.A. Milne before doing research for this episode, but he was an interesting guy. Alan Alexander Milne was born in London in 1882.

He went to an elementary school run by his father, and one of his teachers was a young H.G. Wells, author of War of the Worlds. Although Milne studied mathematics at Cambridge, he ended up writing for a university publication and later wrote for a popular British humor magazine called Punch. So he was a funny dude. He was also a cricket player, and he played on an amateur team composed exclusively of writers.

Some of his teammates included, get this, Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, P.G. Wodehouse, who went on to be a famous humorist, and J.M. Barrie, author of a little book called Peter Pan. I'd love to get a pint with those guys after practice. Milne was good at a lot of things. He was a husband, a devoted father to his son, Christopher Robin,

served in both world wars, and wrote several novels, plays, and screenplays. But he made his mark in 1926 with his children's book, Winnie the Pooh. Based on a teddy bear that he'd bought for Christopher at Harrods and who the boy had named Winnipeg, sidebar after a Canadian black bear donated to the London Zoo. I had to get that in there because it's about Canada.

Winnie the Pooh waddled from Milne's imagination right into the heart of the whole world. So tonight, I will be reading from Winnie the Pooh. We'll start with some hypnosis, and then I encourage you to just allow your mind to relax into my voice as you sink deeper into the lovely world that A.A. Milne has created for us. So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position, and let's begin.

Allow your eyes to close easily and gently. And just bring your awareness to your breathing. Your awareness which has been floating out in the world all day, focusing on things, trying, moving, pushing. It's just coming home now to the breath. Just resting on the breath. And it feels nice to come home to the breath. You don't have to do anything fancy with it. Just let your awareness hang out for a moment.

Now, let's bring your awareness up into your eyelids and imagine that the little muscles of your eyelids are feeling heavy, heavy, heavy, sleepy. Your eyes feel so heavy. And now, I'd like you to accept that the muscles of your eyelids are so relaxed that they simply will not open.

And now I'd like you to test your eyelids to make sure they won't open by wiggling your eyebrows. And you're just pretending now that you can't open your eyes, but pretend so hard that you don't open them. Good. Now you've accessed your imagination, which is exactly where we want to be tonight. So let's imagine the relaxation around your eyes now moving back into your head. Let's just imagine that a woman missed a relaxation.

is taking over every single cell of your brain, circulating inside your head, softening, softening, softening everything. Your head is feeling heavy on the pillow. Your face is relaxing. And now that warm mist of relaxation is moving down into your neck and shoulders. Now deep down into your arms and hands.

Imagine your arms are feeling so heavy. It feels so nice to allow your arms to relax and feel loose and heavy. Good. Now during this episode, you may be aware of the sounds going on around you, but from this moment on, no sound that you hear will bother or disturb you in any way. In fact, from this moment on, any sound that you hear

like noises from within your bedroom, a TV next door, cars on the street. Those sounds will actually cause you to go deeper and deeper into relaxation. So bring your awareness to those sounds going on around you right now and let them take you deeper. They're just vibrations and as they enter your body, they're taking you deeper. Great.

So let's imagine that mist of relaxation is moving down now into your torso. And there's this lovely heaviness taking over your whole torso as you feel heavy on the bed. The muscles of your back, your lower back, your buttocks, all releasing and relaxing. The muscles deep within your belly, muscles that you may hold unconsciously during the day, are letting go.

As that mist of relaxation moves down your legs, and your legs are feeling so relaxed and heavy. As you go deeper and deeper, and your feet are letting go, your toes are letting go. As my voice takes you deeper and deeper. Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now. Bump, bump. On the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.

It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs. But sometimes he feels that there really is another way. If only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't. Anyhow, here he is at the bottom and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie the Pooh. When I first heard his name, I said, "Just as you were going to say." But I thought he was a boy. So did I.

said Christopher Robin. "Then you can't call him Winnie?" "I don't." "But you said, 'He's Winnie the Pooh. Don't you know what 'thur' means?" "Ah, ah, yes. Now I do," I said quickly. "And I hope you do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get. Sometimes Winnie the Pooh likes a game of some sort when he comes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly in front of the fire and listen to a story."

This evening. What about a story? Said Christopher Robin. What about a story? I said. Could you very sweetly tell Winnie the Pooh one? I suppose I could. I said. What sort of stories does he like? About himself. Because he's that sort of bear. Oh, I see. So could you, very sweetly? I'll try, I said. So I tried. Once upon a time, a very long time ago now,

About last Friday, Winnie the Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders. "What does under the name mean?" asked Christopher Robin. "It means he had the name over the door in gold letters and lived under it." "Winnie the Pooh wasn't quite sure," said Christopher Robin. "Now I am," said a growly voice. "Then I will go on," said I. "One day,

When he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest. And in the middle of this place was a large oak tree. And from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing noise. Winnie the Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between his paws, and began to think. First of all, he said to himself, "That buzzing noise means something."

"You don't get a buzzing noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing noise, somebody's making a buzzing noise. And the only reason for making a buzzing noise that I know of is because you're a bee." Then he thought another long time and said, "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey." And then he got up and said,

And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it. So he began to climb the tree. He climbed and he climbed and he climbed. And as he climbed, he sang a little song to himself. It went like this. Isn't it funny how a bear likes honey? Buzz, buzz, buzz. I wonder why he does. Then he climbed a little further and a little further.

and then just a little further. By that time he'd thought of another song. It's a very funny thought that if bears were bees, they'd build their nest at the bottom of trees. And that being so, if the bees were bears, we shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs. He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang a complaining song. He was nearly there now,

And if he just stood on that branch... Crack! Oh, help! said Pooh as he dropped ten feet on the branch below him. If only I hadn't... he said as he bounced twenty feet onto the next branch. You see what I meant to do? he explained as he turned head over heels and crashed onto another branch thirty feet below. What I meant to do...

"'Of course it was rather—' he admitted as he slithered very quickly through the next six branches. "'It all comes, I suppose,' he decided. As he said goodbye to the last branch, it spun round three times and flew gracefully into a gorse bush. "'It all comes of liking honey so much. Oh, help!' He crawled out of the gorse bush, brushed the prickles from his nose, and began to think again."

and the first person he thought of was Christopher Robin. "Was that me?" said Christopher Robin in an awed voice, hardly daring to believe it. "That was you." Christopher Robin said nothing, but his eyes got larger and larger, and his face got pinker and pinker. So Winnie the Pooh went round to his friend Christopher Robin, who lived behind a green door in another part of the forest. "Good morning, Christopher Robin."

He said. "'Good morning, Winnie the Pooh,' said you. "'I wonder if you've got such a thing as a balloon about you?' "'A balloon?' "'Yes. I just said to myself, coming along, "'I wonder if Christopher Robin has such a thing as a balloon about him.' "'I just said it to myself, thinking of balloons, and wondering, "'What do you want a balloon for?' you said. "'Winnie the Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening.'

put his paw to his mouth and said in a deep whisper, Honey. But you don't get honey with balloons. I do, said Pooh. Well, it just happened that you had been to a party the day before at the house of your friend Piglet and you had balloons at the party. You had had a big green balloon

and one of Rabbit's relations had had a big blue one and had left it behind, being really too young to go to a party at all, and so you had brought the green one and the blue one home with you. "Which one would you like?" you asked Pooh. He put his head between his paws and thought very carefully. "It's like this," he said, "when you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming,

Now, if you have a green balloon, they might think you are only part of the tree and not notice you. And if you have a blue balloon, they might think you are only part of the sky and not notice you. And the question is, which is more likely? Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon? You asked. They might or they might not, said Winnie the Pooh. You never can tell with bees.

He thought for a moment and said, "I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them." "Then you'd better have the blue balloon," you said, and so it was decided. Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and Winnie the Pooh went to a very muddy place that he knew of and rolled and rolled until he was black all over. And then, when the balloon was blown up as big as big,

and you and Pooh were both holding onto the string, you let go suddenly, and Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky and stayed there, level with the top of the tree and about 20 feet away from it. "Hooray!" you shouted. "Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie the Pooh down to you. "What do I look like?" "You look like a bear holding onto a balloon," you said.

"Not," said Pooh anxiously, "not like a small black cloud in a blue sky?" "Not very much." "Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And as I say, you never can tell with bees." There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so there he stayed. He could see the honey. He could smell the honey. But he couldn't quite reach the honey.

After a little while, he called down to you. "Christopher Robin?" he said in a loud whisper. "Hello?" "I think the bees suspect something." "What sort of thing?" "I don't know, but something tells me that they're suspicious." "Perhaps they think that you're after their honey?" "Maybe that. You never can tell with bees." There was another little silence.

And then he called down to you again. Christopher Robin? Yes? Have you an umbrella in your house? I think so. I wish you would bring it out here and walk up and down with it and look up at me every now and then and say, tut tut, it looks like rain. I think if you did that,

It would help the deception which we are practicing on these bees." Well, you laughed to yourself. "Silly old bear." But you didn't say it aloud because you were so fond of him. And you went home for your umbrella. "Oh, there you are," called Winnie the Pooh as soon as you got back to the tree. "I was beginning to get anxious.

I've discovered that the bees are now definitely suspicious. Shall I put my umbrella up, you said? Yes, but wait a moment. We must be practical. The important bee to deceive is the queen. Can you see which is the queen bee from down there? No. A pity. Well, now, if you walk up and down with your umbrella saying, tut tut,

It looks like rain. I shall do what I can by singing a little cloud song. Such as a cloud might sing, go. So while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain, Winnie the Pooh sang this song. How sweet to be a cloud floating in the blue. Every little cloud sings aloud.

How sweet to be a cloud floating in the It makes him very proud to be a little cloud The bees were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Some of them indeed left their nests and flew all round the cloud as it began the second verse of this song. And one bee sat down on the nose of the cloud for a moment

and then got up again. "Christopher..." "Ow!" Robin called the cloud. "Yes?" "I have just been thinking, and I have come to a very important decision. These are the wrong sort of bees." "Are they?" "Quite the wrong sort. So I should think they would make the wrong sort of honey. Shouldn't you?" "Would they?" "Yes."

So I think I shall come down. How? asked Hugh. Winnie the Pooh hadn't thought about this. If he let go of the string, he would fall. And he didn't like the idea of that. So he thought for a long time. And then he said, Christopher Robin, you must pop the balloon with a stone. Have you got a stone? Well, yes, Hugh said. But if I do that, it will spoil the balloon.

you said. "But if you don't," said Pooh, "I shall have to let go, and that would spoil me." When he put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed very carefully at the balloon and threw. "Ow," said Pooh. "Did I miss?" you asked. "You didn't exactly miss," said Pooh, "but you missed the balloon." "I'm so sorry," you said.

and you threw again, and this time you hit the balloon, and the air came out slowly, and Winnie the Pooh floated down to the ground. But his arms were so stiff from holding onto the string of the balloon all that time that they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week. And whenever a fly came and settled on his nose,

He had to blow it off. And I think, but I'm not sure, that that is why he was always called Pooh. Is that the end of the story? Asked Christopher Robin. That's the end of that one. There are others. About Pooh and me? And Piglet? And Rabbit? And all of you? Don't you remember? I do remember. And then when I try to remember, I forget.

That day when Pooh and Piglet tried to catch the heffalump. They didn't catch it, did they? No, Pooh couldn't because he hasn't any brain. Did I catch it? Well, that comes into the story. Christopher Robin nodded. I do remember, he said. Only Pooh doesn't very well. So that's why he likes having it told to him again. Because then it's a real story and not just...

a remembering. "That's just how I feel," I said. Christopher Robin gave a deep sigh, picked up his bear by the leg, and walked off to the door, trailing Pooh behind him. At the door he turned and said, "Coming to see me have my bath?" "I might," I said. "I didn't hurt him when I hit him with the stone, did I?" "Not a bit," he nodded and went out, and in a moment

I heard Winnie the Pooh bump going up the stairs behind him.