Circus Spectacular

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Welcome to the greatest show on earth: Circus Spectacular, starring YOU! Join us as we use our body and mind to imagine ourselves being contortionists, clowning around, and flying through the air on a trapeze! A fun relaxation story to wind down to in the classroom or at home.

A mindfulness story suitable for children aged 5 – 12 years old.

Transcript

Hi! We're winding down our first season, just three more episodes to go! I'm coming up to my summer break here in Canada, so I'll be spending time with my daughters, swimming, running, reading, and also writing and recording Season 2 of Peace Out for September. The Bedtime FM team is already helping me line up ideas and writing stories for that, so I'm so excited about where Peace Out is going and hope you subscribe to us so that you don't miss it! Thanks!

Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us today here at Peace Out, stories for calming down and relaxation.

I'm Chanel and today we're going to the circus!

[CIRCUS MUSIC PLAYS]

Let's start by sitting down. Cross your legs and close your eyes. Let's start with the Calm Down Countdown. Breathe in and out. Keep breathing as I count down…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Keep your eyes closed and use your imagination to picture this: a huge tent with red and white stripes.

[CIRCUS MUSIC FADES IN]

There are little triangle flags strung up all around the tent. What colour are they? The flags are gently waving in the breeze. Let's wave our bodies too. Gently rock from side to side, side to side.

And there are bright spotlights shining, circles of light moving around. Can you see them? Sit up tall and lift your chin up a little. And now, keeping your eyes closed, turn your head to one side, like you're looking over your shoulder. Now turn your head back to the middle, facing forward. Turn your head to the other side, looking over your shoulder. Do a few more turns on your own, and picture the spotlights roving around the circus tent with its flags. One of the lights has just passed the big banner hanging right over the tent entrance. It says "CIRCUS SPECTACULAR" in big letters. What else can you see?

Very nice, everyone! This is helping us warm up for the main event, because guess what, I just heard that Circus Spectacular is looking for kids to be part of today's special performance! How amazing is that?

Oh, look over there. It's the ringmaster. She's got a black top hat on and a coat with long tails on it. She's holding a microphone and announcing that it's time for Circus Spectacular's new mini performers—that's us!

Our first performance is with the Contortionist. The contortionist is able to bend his body in different ways. Let's try. Keep your eyes closed and stretch up one arm to the sky. Reach over with that arm to the opposite side, so that your arm is across your chest. Keep it in place by using your other hand or arm to hold it gently in place. Now, look over the shoulder that's being stretched right now, so that you're looking at one side, and your outstretched hand is reaching towards the other. Breathe in deeply a few times, in and out, holding this pose. Let it go.

Let's try the same thing with our other arm. Reach it up high and then across your chest. Hold it up gently with your opposite hand. And now look over the shoulder that's being stretched. Take a few breaths…and let it go.

Nice! Now that you're arms are all nice and warmed up, you can reach over and give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done! Okay, now we're moving on to the Clown! All circuses need clowns to make us laugh! Laughing is not only fun, but it's good for us too! We're stretching the muscles in our face and we begin to breathe faster, which sends more oxygen to our bodies. We're going to stretch our face muscles now. Keep your eyes closed…and now make a really silly face, the silliest face you can make! Scrunch up your nose, stick out your tongue, whatever you want to do! And hold that silly face for three breathes. And now relax your face muscles so that they feel loose, no tension at all.

Let's try that one more time. This time, think of another funny face to make. Keep your eyes closed and…make your funny face! Hold that face for another three breaths…and relax your face muscles. Ahh!

You all make great clowns!

Alright, are you ready for the last challenge? This one's going to take a lot of imagination, but I know that you have an amazing imagination after coming along with me through our other Peace Out stories! We've imagined ourselves going to the moon, underwater, walking through the woods, and flying around the world! So turn that imagination on one more time as we fly through the air with the greatest of ease on the…trapeze!

A trapeze looks like a swing, with a bar for a seat. The trapeze is high, high up at the top of the circus tent…