Calming Anxiety | Guided Meditation, Sleep Hypnosis & Panic Attack Relief

How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana by Lord Dunsany — A Dark Fantasy Fable for Sleep & Insomnia | Books at Bedtime

 

Drift off with How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana by Lord Dunsany, a short, spellbinding fantasy fable of prophecy, magicians and a dreaded secret, read aloud by Martin Hewlett on Books at Bedtime, the sleep story series from Calming Anxiety.

 

It was foretold in ancient days that an enemy would come upon Thlunrana. The date of its doom was known, and so was the gate by which the enemy would enter. Yet no prophecy said who the enemy was, only that he was of the gods, though he dwelt with men. Meanwhile Thlunrana, the great secret cathedral of wizardry, remained the terror of the valley, its narrow windows glowing strangely in the night, and its magicians veiled, hooded and cloaked in black.

 

On the last night of all, a man from a black thatched cottage by the five pine trees climbs the dark valley for one final look at the place. Afraid but determined, he walks in through the southward door named the Gate of Doom. He passes the whispering magicians and their lighted tapers, and comes at last to a silk pavilion in a chamber of black marble, the holy of holies, where the deepest mystery of Thlunrana lies behind drawn curtains. What he finds there, and who the enemy really is, Dunsany saves for the final lines.

 

This classic short story for adults is a rich, atmospheric wind-down for a busy mind, with Dunsany's dreamlike, mythic prose, a surprisingly satisfying ending and Martin's calm, unhurried narration. It's an ideal short sleep audiobook for fantasy lovers and for anyone with insomnia who finds it hard to switch off at night.

 

If you enjoyed it, you'll find more Lord Dunsany on Books at Bedtime, including The Hen, The Return of the Exiles and The True History of the Hare and the Tortoise, all from the same collection.

 

How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana was first published in Fifty-One Tales (London: Elkin Mathews; New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1915). Lord Dunsany (1878–1957).

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett.

 

📱 Listen to Books at Bedtime in the Anchored app, offline and with the screen off, so you can fall asleep without a bright phone in your hand:

 

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669

 

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored

 

🧡 For Martin's calming tips, visit: https://calminganxiety.org/calm

 

🌱 Try Thole, Martin's new health and wellness app, in beta on iPhone: https://testflight.apple.com/join/aUKB8W7N

 

Sleep well, my friend. And in everything, be kind.

 

 

Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins at Indie Music Box

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Money Anxiety Relief — Calm Financial Stress & Worry | Guided Meditation with the Extended Exhale

 

Money anxiety rarely arrives when you are busy — it waits for the quiet: the moment before sleep, the beep of the card machine, the envelope on the mat. This 10-minute guided meditation is here to calm that financial stress in your body, settle a racing mind, and remind your nervous system that in this moment you are safe.

 

Today we use the extended exhale, sometimes called the one-to-two breath, where the out breath is twice as long as the in breath. It is a simple, powerful way to press the body's own brake pedal through the vagus nerve — because money worry lives in the future, but the breath lives in the body, and the body is always here.

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, this session asks nothing of you but to breathe. Nothing to solve, nothing to fix — just ten minutes to release the financial stress you have been carrying and come back to yourself with a clearer, steadier chest.

 

⏱️ Time Chapters

 

* 00:00 – When money worry arrives in the quiet

* 00:39 – Why it's your nervous system, not the numbers

* 01:02 – Welcome — Martin & the Anchored app

* 01:48 – Settling down: shoulders, jaw, eyes

* 02:09 – The extended exhale (the one-to-two breath) & the science

* 03:09 – Guided breathing rounds

* 04:48 – Noticing what shifted

* 05:08 – Calming affirmations & visualization

* 06:56 – Breath awareness and deepening

* 08:32 – Today's 3 Daily Caring Tips

* 09:14 – Gently coming back

* 09:40 – Closing & a word on the loneliest worry

* 10:24 – Be kind

 

🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations

 

Let these settle as you breathe:

 

* I am safe in this moment.

* Any worry is a feeling in my body. It is not a fact about my future.

* I can be calm and still be responsible.

* I release the financial stress I have been carrying in my body.

* I have survived every difficult day so far — every single one.

* I do not have to solve this today.

* I have survived 100% of my worst days.

* Tomorrow, I will act with a clear head and a steady chest.

 

💡 3 Daily Caring Tips

 

1. Choose one fixed ten-minute slot today to look at your finances, and keep the worry inside that window. Outside it, you are off duty.

 

2. Write down the single smallest money action you could take this week — and do only that one thing.

 

3. Move your body for ten minutes before you open any bill or banking app, so that your nervous system is already steady when you look.

 

📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere

 

If today landed for you, everything I've ever recorded lives in one place. Download Anchored on iOS. Access over 3,000 searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the small hours — and it remembers exactly where you left off. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store Today: https://apps.apple.com

 

If this episode helped, please share it with one person who's been quiet lately about their money worries — it's the loneliest worry there is, and it shouldn't be. And if you have 30 seconds, a rating and review on Apple Podcasts helps another anxious mind find us.

 

You're doing better than you think. Smile often, positive thoughts whenever you can, and then to yourself…

 

…be kind.

 

 

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Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

The Guest by Lord Dunsany — A Dark, Mysterious Short Story for Sleep & Insomnia | Books at Bedtime

 

Settle in with The Guest by Lord Dunsany, a short, strange and haunting classic story about a dinner for two in London, read aloud by Martin Hewlett on Books at Bedtime, the sleep story series from Calming Anxiety.

 

Please note: this story touches on suicide, so it may not be the right listen for everyone. If you're finding things hard, please talk to someone you trust or contact a local crisis line. In the UK, Samaritans are free on 116 123. In the US, call or text 988.

 

At eight o'clock one evening, a young man walks alone into a London restaurant. Two places have been laid at his table, and he chose the dinner carefully by letter a week before. When a waiter asks about the other guest, he says only, "You probably won't see him till the coffee comes."

 

So he is served alone, and all through his elaborate dinner he talks politely to the empty chair. It seems the guest knew his father. They have acquaintances in common too, among them King Seti of Thebes, Helen of Troy and Cleopatra. And the young man is sure he saw his guest only the other day, on a motor bus going down Ludgate Hill. Who is the visitor nobody else can see? Dunsany keeps the answer back until the very last line.

 

This classic short story for adults is a thoughtful listen rather than a cosy one, with Dunsany's dry wit, his mythic imagination and Martin's calm, unhurried narration. It suits anyone who loves old-fashioned mystery and dark fables, and who's awake with insomnia and looking for a short audiobook story before sleep.

 

If you'd prefer something gentler at bedtime, you'll find more Lord Dunsany on Books at Bedtime, including The Hen, Alone the Immortals and The True History of the Hare and the Tortoise, all from the same collection.

 

The Guest was first published in Fifty-One Tales (London: Elkin Mathews; New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1915). Lord Dunsany (1878–1957).

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett.

 

📱 Listen to Books at Bedtime in the Anchored app, offline and with the screen off, so you can fall asleep without a bright phone in your hand:

 

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669

 

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored

 

🧡 For Martin's calming tips, visit: https://calminganxiety.org/calm

 

🌱 Try Thole, Martin's new health and wellness app, in beta on iPhone: https://testflight.apple.com/join/aUKB8W7N

 

Sleep well, my friend. And in everything, be kind.

 

 

Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins at Indie Music Box

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Feeling Nervous When Something Unexpected Happens? — Guided Meditation for Sudden Anxiety & Change of Plans | No Counting

 

Feeling nervous when something unexpected happens? A change of plans, a message you weren't expecting, or something small that suddenly leaves you unsettled, and you feel anxious before you've even had a moment to understand why. This 10-minute guided meditation for sudden anxiety doesn't ask you to explain that feeling. We simply make a little room around it and give you time to settle.

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett. Martin's Anchored app gives you over 2,500 guided sessions, the ambient night light, box breathing exercises and Books at Bedtime to help you fall gently asleep. Download it on iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669 and Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored. And try Thole, Martin's new health app, in beta on iPhone: https://testflight.apple.com/join/aUKB8W7N

 

There's no counting today and no need for a deep breath. We simply notice the gentle out-breath, soften the hands, jaw and eyes, and let the questions wait: What does this mean? What happens next? What should I do? You're allowed a moment between something happening and deciding what to do. You'll receive five affirmations for coping with the unexpected and three daily caring tips.

 

⏱️ Time Chapters

* 00:00 – Welcome from Martin

* 00:10 – When something unexpected unsettles you

* 00:42 – Anchored: 2,500+ sessions and more

* 01:11 – Finding your quiet place

* 01:37 – No counting, just the out-breath

* 02:31 – When you try to work it all out at once

* 02:54 – Softening the hands and jaw

* 03:07 – A moment between happening and deciding

* 03:37 – Returning to the support beneath you

* 04:03 – Understanding it gradually

* 04:45 – Relax, unwind, and be kind to yourself

* 04:56 – Five affirmations for the unexpected

* 06:19 – Softening around the eyes

* 06:43 – Affirmations, once more

* 07:48 – You are worthy

* 08:14 – Your 3 daily caring tips

* 09:23 – Gently returning to the room

* 09:43 – Anchored, Premium and calminganxiety.org

* 10:26 – In every way, be kind

 

🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations

Repeat them silently or simply listen, and let them find their place within:

* I can give myself time to adjust to something unexpected.

* I can feel nervous and still choose my next step.

* I do not need to work out every possibility right now.

* I can meet uncertainty with patience and kindness towards myself.

* I am allowed to pause, ask questions and accept support.

 

💡 3 Daily Caring Tips

1. Give yourself a gentle pause: When something unexpected happens, feel your feet against the floor or allow a comfortable breath to leave your body.

2. Separate what you know from what you are imagining: Ask yourself, "What has actually happened, and what am I worried might happen?" Then seek the information you need before trying to solve every possibility.

3. Choose one caring next step: You might ask someone to explain something, write down what needs doing, or take a short break before replying. Choose something small enough to manage.

 

📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere

You don't need an immediate answer simply because something arrived unexpectedly. You can understand it gradually, and decide what's needed when you have a clearer picture. Martin wrote Anchored for moments like this. No big corporation, and most of it is completely free:

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored

 

To support the show and turn off the ads, Anchored Premium is just 5.99 a month or 49.99 for the year. Thank you. Find out more at https://calminganxiety.org, and Martin's calming tips at https://calminganxiety.org/calm

 

🌱 Help test Thole, Martin's new health and wellness app. iPhone beta: https://testflight.apple.com/join/aUKB8W7N

 

If this helped, please share it with someone who's easily thrown by change, and leave a 30-second review on Apple Podcasts.

 

Thank you for putting your faith and trust in all Martin does. And in every single way, my friend, it's so simple: be kind.

 

 

Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins at Indie Music Box

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.