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

The Related Muff by E. Nesbit — A Calming Christmas Bedtime Story for Sleep & Insomnia | Books at Bedtime

 

Drift off to sleep with this gentle bedtime story, a classic audiobook narrated aloud for insomnia relief and deep relaxation as part of Calming Anxiety's Books at Bedtime series. Tonight's sleep story is The Related Muff by E. Nesbit, the much-loved author of The Railway Children and The Story of the Treasure Seekers. It's a warm, funny Christmas tale about first impressions, quiet courage and a cousin nobody wanted. It was first published in her 1905 collection Oswald Bastable and Others and is long in the public domain: Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) died more than a century ago.

 

For more calming audiobooks and sleep stories whenever you need them, download Anchored, the free companion app to Calming Anxiety, with offline-ready relaxation and Books at Bedtime sessions for any hour of the night.

Get it on the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669 or on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored.

 

In this soothing narrated short story, it's Christmas Eve and there will be no proper Christmas this year: Aunt Ellie has come home ill from India, Mother has rushed to her side, and Father is away with his ship. Then Mother returns in a cab, not with presents, but with cousin Sydney, thin, quiet and buried in Treasure Island, who won't join in any of their games. Rupert, Hilda and Hugh decide he's nothing but a "related muff". But when a game of flying machines on the stairs goes badly wrong, it's Sydney who acts.

 

Tender, funny and full of Nesbit's sharp eye for how children really think, this is a story about kindness, getting people wrong, and the courage that sometimes hides in the quietest person in the room.

 

If you can't sleep, lie awake at night with a racing mind, or simply love classic children's literature read aloud, let this calm, unhurried bedtime reading ease anxiety and carry you softly towards rest.

 

Hosted and narrated by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, as part of Calming Anxiety's Coffee Break for the Soul and Books at Bedtime story readings.

 

And in everything, my friend, be kind.

 

 

Support the Show:

 

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

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety-guided-meditation-sleep-hypnosis-panic-attack-relief--4110266/support.

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.

Why Do I Feel Anxious When It Gets Dark Early? — A 10-Minute Guided Meditation for Dark Evenings & Winter Anxiety | 4-2-6 Breathing

 

Why do I feel anxious when it gets dark so early? You come out of the door in the afternoon and the light is already going, and something in you drops. It's not dramatic, just a small, quiet sinking under the ribs. Nothing has happened. It's the same evening, the same jobs, the same house. And yet it feels like the day is over and you haven't done enough with it. As the clocks go back and the nights draw in, this guided meditation is for that winter-evening anxiety.

 

If anxiety or panic sometimes catches you when you least expect it, download Anchored, Calming Anxiety's companion app, now while you're feeling okay.

The big blue Instant Calm button is completely free, works offline and needs no signing up. Search "Anchored: Panic & Anxiety", or get it on the App Store at
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669 or on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored.

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, this episode uses 4-2-6 breathing: in through the nose for four, a gentle rest for two, and out through the mouth for six. Then comes a gentle reframe. You haven't run out of the day, only the light. The early dark isn't a verdict, a deadline or a judgement on what you've done. It's simply the planet doing what it does every year, and the evening ahead is more of your day, just happening after dark. Calming affirmations and three simple caring tips for darker evenings follow.

 

Want more support? Download Martin's free Five Things to Try When Anxiety Hits at https://calminganxiety.org/calm.

 

⏱️ Time Chapters

* 00:00 – When the Light Goes Early

* 00:41 – Welcome & Anchored's Instant Calm Button

* 01:27 – Finding Your Quiet Place

* 01:47 – 4-2-6 Breathing

* 04:08 – You Haven't Run Out of the Day

* 04:26 – The Dark Is Not a Verdict

* 05:27 – Affirmations for Dark Evenings

* 06:34 – Drifting Deeper

* 07:57 – Three Daily Caring Tips

* 09:12 – Coming Back Gently

* 09:42 – A Note From Martin

 

🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations

Settle in and whisper these softly after Martin, if you wish:

* I have not lost anything.

* The light not being here is only information.

* I am allowed a slow and calm evening.

* Being anxious when it gets dark so early doesn't mean anything is wrong with me.

* I do not have to prove my worth this evening.

 

💡 3 Daily Caring Tips

1. Let it be about the light: When the light goes today, notice the small drop and let it be about the light. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to argue with it either. Just watch it arrive and let it go through you.

2. One lamp on early: Put one lamp on early, while it's still only getting dark. Not to be organised, just so the change arrives gradually, rather than all at once when the curtains are drawn.

3. Move something you like into the dark: Take one thing you actually like and move it into a dark part of the evening on purpose. Not a job, but something you would choose. The evenings are long now. Let a piece of one belong to you.

 

📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere

Download Anchored on iOS at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669 or on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored. The Instant Calm button is free, works offline and needs no sign-up, and you'll also find over 2,500 searchable audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the long dark evenings. And grab Martin's free Five Things to Try When Anxiety Hits at https://calminganxiety.org/calm. If this episode helped, please share it and leave a quick rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people find their way here.

 

And in everything, my friend, be kind.

 

 

Support the Show:

 

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

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety-guided-meditation-sleep-hypnosis-panic-attack-relief--4110266/support.

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 White Cat by E. Nesbit — A Calming Bedtime Story for Sleep & Insomnia | Books at Bedtime

 

Drift off to sleep with this gentle bedtime story, a classic audiobook narrated aloud for insomnia relief and deep relaxation as part of Calming Anxiety's Books at Bedtime series. Tonight's sleep story is The White Cat by E. Nesbit, the much-loved author of The Railway Children and Five Children and It. It's a warm, magical fairy tale about a little boy, a chipped china cat and a family secret hidden for 150 years. It was first published in her 1912 collection The Magic World and is long in the public domain: Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) died more than a century ago.

 

For more calming audiobooks and sleep stories whenever you need them, download Anchored, the free companion app to Calming Anxiety, with offline-ready relaxation and Books at Bedtime sessions for any hour of the night.

 Get it on the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669 or on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored.

 

In this soothing narrated short story, young Tavvy has had a wonderfully wicked afternoon. Last of all, he knocks a little white china cat off its shelf in the forbidden attic. When his mother lets him keep it for his very own, the china cat begins to speak, and each night she carries him away to her enchanted castle of gold and ivory, with invisible hands serving supper and a bed with a counterpane of butterfly wings.

 

But Tavvy's mother has troubles of her own, and the family may have to leave their beloved old house. What happens next is pure Nesbit: tender, funny and full of quiet magic, with an ending that will leave you smiling.

 

If you can't sleep, lie awake at night with a racing mind, or simply love classic children's literature read aloud, let this calm, unhurried bedtime reading ease anxiety and carry you softly towards rest.

 

Hosted and narrated by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, as part of Calming Anxiety's Coffee Break for the Soul and Books at Bedtime story readings.

 

And in everything, my friend, be kind.

 

 

Support the Show:

 

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

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety-guided-meditation-sleep-hypnosis-panic-attack-relief--4110266/support.

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.

Panic Attack Relief — Ride the Wave Until It Passes | Box Breathing Guided Meditation

 

If your heart is hammering, your hands are tingling and some frightened part of you is certain something terrible is about to happen — start here. This is Panic Attack Relief: a 10-minute guided meditation to help you float through a panic attack instead of fighting it. You are not dying, you are not going mad, you are not losing control. A panic attack is a wave — it rises, it peaks, and every single time, it falls.

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, this session uses box breathing (also called square breathing or tactical breathing) — the breath taught to soldiers, divers and emergency responders to keep a clear head while the body is screaming to run. We start with gentle counts of three, ease into fours, then settle into warm golden-light affirmations to remind your nervous system that the adrenaline is already finishing its journey and cannot stay.

 

Whether you're on the bathroom floor right now or building your daily calm, this is anxiety relief for panic attacks, breathwork and nervous-system reset — and a reminder that your record is perfect: you have survived every panic attack you have ever had.

 

⏱️ Time Chapters

 

* 00:00 – You are not dying: a panic attack is a wave

* 00:55 – Welcome (your host Martin, clinical hypnotherapist & former paramedic)

* 01:24 – Anchored: the always-there Instant Calm button

* 01:57 – Box breathing — threes, then fours (in through the nose, out through the mouth)

* 04:44 – The tide goes out: adrenaline has a shelf life

* 05:21 – Warm golden light & panic-attack affirmations

* 08:35 – Your three daily caring tips

* 09:28 – Gently coming back into the room

* 10:08 – Outro, share & be kind

 

🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations

 

Say these with me, in your mind or out loud — they are yours:

 

* I am having a panic attack, and a panic attack cannot hurt me.

* This will pass. It always passes.

* I do not have to fight this feeling. I can let it move through me.

* The tight band around my ribs begins to melt.

* My heart is strong. My heart is doing its job. My heart is safe.

* I have survived every panic attack I have ever had. My record is perfect.

* I am safe in my body, and I am safe in this moment.

* I am anchored.

 

💡 3 Daily Caring Tips

 

1. Name it. The moment you feel panic beginning, say out loud, "this is adrenaline and it peaks in 10 minutes." Naming stops your brain adding a second fear on top of the first.

 

2. Cool the reflex. Put something cold on the back of your neck, or hold your wrists under a cold tap — the drop in skin temperature triggers your body's own calming reflex within seconds.

 

3. Refuel after. Once the wave passes, drink a full glass of water and eat something small — panic burns real fuel, and your body needs telling that the emergency is over.

 

📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere

 

If you'd like this session waiting for you next time, come and find it within Anchored — make it a favourite, download it forever, no searching and no scrolling. On the very first page there's a button called Instant Calm: nine minutes of guided talking, baked into the code, no signal needed and no premium upgrade. Tap it as often as you need, and I'm there with you.

 

To take Calming Anxiety with you anywhere, 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. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store Today: https://apps.apple.com

 

And if today helped you, please share this episode with someone you love, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts — somebody out there is sitting on a bathroom floor right now, believing they're the only one. You could be the person who tells them they're not.

 

…be kind.

 

 

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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.

Silence — A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe — A Classic Gothic Bedtime Story, Narrated Audiobook | Books at Bedtime

 

A classic audiobook narrated aloud as part of Calming Anxiety's Books at Bedtime series. Tonight's bedtime story is Silence — A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe, a strange, dreamlike prose poem and one of his least known and most hypnotic works, perfect for the long October nights leading up to Halloween. It was first published in 1838 under the title "Siope — A Fable" and is long in the public domain: Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) died more than 175 years ago.

 

For more calming audiobooks and gentler sleep stories whenever you need them, download Anchored, the free companion app to Calming Anxiety, with offline-ready relaxation and Books at Bedtime sessions for any hour of the night.

Get it on the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669 or on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.martinhewlett.anchored.

 

"Listen to me," said the Demon, as he placed his hand upon my head.

 

In this narrated fable, a demon describes a dreary land beside the river Zaire, where the waters never rest, pale water lilies sigh one unto the other, and the tall primeval trees rock forever though there is no wind. Beneath a crimson moon, a solitary man sits upon a great grey rock, and the demon sets out to unsettle him with storm, thunder and tumult. Nothing moves him, until the demon tries something far stranger.

 

With its rolling, repeating rhythms and rich, incantatory language, this is Poe at his most musical. It's a haunting meditation on solitude, stillness and the power of silence itself, and an unusual choice for anyone who loves classic literature read aloud and a little gothic atmosphere before sleep.

 

Please note: this is an eerie gothic piece, a little darker in mood than our usual gentle sleep stories. If you're feeling anxious or fragile tonight, you may prefer one of our calmer Books at Bedtime readings.

 

Hosted and narrated by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, as part of Calming Anxiety's Coffee Break for the Soul and Books at Bedtime story readings.

 

And in everything, my friend, be kind.

 

 

Support the Show:

 

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

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety-guided-meditation-sleep-hypnosis-panic-attack-relief--4110266/support.

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.