Relaxation Exercise: My Safety Spot

Invite players to form a group and choose a comfortable spot to either sit or lie down.

If comfortable, players can close their eyes. Otherwise, they can keep them open and focus on a fixed point.

Read out loud the following instructions accurately so that the players can relax:

• Place your hands on your belly and bring your attention to the rise and fall of your belly as you breathe in and out. Follow the air you inhale and exhale. Feel how your belly goes up and down. Breath in, breath out.
• Now think of a place where you feel safe and happy. It could be a familiar place or a fantasy setting. Maybe someone is with you, maybe you are just alone. Out in a forest ... in a meadow ... on top of a mountain... on a quiet beach ... it doesn't matter.

Explore this place in your mind:

- What do you see now?

- What do you like?

- Are there colours?

- Are there animals or people?

- Are there flowers, trees?

- Is there water?

- Is it light? Or rather dark?

What sounds do you hear there?

Is there wind, rustling leaves, sounds of birds, bees or other animals?

When you are outside...

Do you feel the wind in your hair?

The sun on your skin?

Is it warm or chilly?

How does the ground you sit or lie on feel?

Is it hard or soft?

Warm or cold?

While you lie there, feel how relaxed you are, in your own peacefull place.

Prompt players to gently return to the present by asking them to wiggle their fingers and toes and stretch their bodies.

When they are ready, the players can open their eyes , lay and rest a little bit and then rejoin the group.