Recently we've travelled from Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta and are working from Alberta for a month.  Our daughter is expecting our second Grandchild, so we had to figure out a way to travel across the country while maintaining isolation. This includes not using public restrooms, using masks in any public place and seriously maintaining social distancing.

We didn't want to fly because we would have to isolate again for two weeks after arriving and we didn't want to take the risk of doing that.  The solution was to purchase a 5th wheel trailer and a truck for our trip.

We took 4.5 days to make the drive. Towing a 12,000LB of trailer certainly makes the drive more challenging that just the family car as uneven roads and steep hills directly affect speed and handling of the vehicle and trailer.  

This is our first time RVing and it's exciting to have the comforts of home when we stop for the evening. Being able to use our own bathroom along the way has been pretty convenient as well.

We are now parked in a RV park in Edmonton and are enjoying visiting with our 1st grandchild, our daughter and her husband.  In a few days our second daughter will be joining us in Edmonton after travelling (isolated) from Vancouver Island. 

The day before we left, our laptop crashed during an update and we've had to find a place in Edmonton to get it repaired, we'll be back to editing and creating new meditations today with a bit of luck!  We're currently editing our sleep story edition of Chapter 1 of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and hope to release it in the next day or two, so if you're not a yet a Patron, head over to patreon and sign up :)  With a Silver or Gold membership you'll get access to over 100 sleep meditations and our sleep stories as well.  Visit  www.Patreon.com/trackstorelax for details.

Our daughter is due to have the baby on July 6th, so we are excited to see if he appears on time or comes a bit early.  We're excited to meet our new grandson!  Stay tuned for updates!

The better you sleep the better you feel. The better you feel the more energy you have to achieve your goals, no matter how big or small they are.  If you're not getting the quality sleep you deserve, then you owe it to yourself to give Tracks To Relax a try. 

​You can start listening for free HERE and if you like what you're hearing then we hope you'll join our online family by becoming a Patron and getting access to many more sleep meditation sessions.

To say we are in challenging times in an understatement. So many of us are stuck inside, watching the news way to much and wondering just how bad things will get.  This of course increases our level of stress and worry which in turn causes our adrenal glands to produce adrenalin.  When we stay stressed for a long period of time, our adrenal glands can become depleted and this then makes us feel even more worn out, tired and less resourceful.

In order to avoid this state of adrenal trickle (where you adrenal glands are constantly active) you need to take regular breaks from stress.  One of the best ways to do this is to listen to a Tracks To Relax Nap or Bedtime meditation. These meditations can distract your mind and relax you deeply so you can enter into a parasympathetic state. This is the state of rest and repair where your body can replenish it's resources instead of depleting them.

Luckily as human beings we have imaginations and that allow us to pretend that we are somewhere else, doing something fun or relaxing. We can imagine a future when this event is a thing of the past and life gets back to "Normal".  We can imagine ourselves having a massage at the beach, or walking along the Ocean shore collecting shells or doing just about anything else that's relaxing.

With a soothing voice and wonderful meditation experiences, we can help you relax deeply. Whether you join our online family by becoming a patron on Patreon, or just listen to our free podcast, our meditations can help you take that break you need. It's like a hug for your mind in a challenging time.

Join our online family at by becoming a patron HERE.
​
Or listen to our free meditation podcast HERE. 

​Well for now, this existence we call life, is a whole new ball game. Here in the great white north and pretty much anywhere north of Virginia, the weather is still cool and snowy or rainy, so it’s not all that enjoyable to get outside. That will change soon and this social distancing thing will become a little less isolating. Plus we’re all bound to get used to the idea after the first month or two of this Covid-19 right?

Virtual Walks and Runs

So lately I (Alan) have been running on the treadmill for exercise and playing music while doing so (thank you Spotify). Recently I started also watching Virtual Runs on YouTube while running. It’s surprising how easy it is to trick your brain into thinking your doing something you’re not actually doing. One of the runs is along a pathway that leads along the shorelines of a Hawaiian Island and it’s amazing how uplifting it is and how much it felt like I was outside running! If you can’t get outside right now and you want the illusion of being there, try a virtual walk on youtube and immerse yourself in the experience. Even if you’re just walking in place, or sitting down and watching it on your TV or at your computer, I think it might help you feel better!
Here are two virtual walks/runs we enjoy:
https://youtu.be/K_UUpS1IGzI
https://youtu.be/1aJ2NikmHnc
https://youtu.be/lh5-eXzMZrA 

Date Night

What’s a married or any couple to do when everything is closed and you’re stuck at home? Have a date night in! Make a special dinner together and then get dressed up in fancy clothes, play some lovely music and even have a dance! After dinner, retreat to your TV room for a movie and be sure to make some popcorn too! Nikki’s been making some home made fruit rollups with fresh strawberries and other fruit and since we don’t have any NIBS, these fruit rollups will be on the snack menu too. We love movies with tropical settings, like Captain Ron, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 50 First Dates and Into The Blue. Choose something fun that you know you’ll enjoy and forget about everything else except that special person for awhile. Our new WiFi connected lights in the bedroom will be in OCEAN Mode to finish off the evening. ;)

Wii Bowling

We love the Wii. We know there are more up to date video game systems out there, but the Wii lets us bowl at home. If you have friends that still have a Wii and you can video chat with them, it might be fun to have a virtual Wii bowling night. Play three games for top average and have fun almost like you would if you were together. and the bonus? You won’t need to worry about your friends drinking all your beer! :)

Dehydrated

Another thing we are doing to keep busy is dehydrating stuff! When I say we, I mean Nikki because I’m just mainly eating the stuff that she has dehydrated! We recently bought a food dehydrator and have been shredding and dehydrating potatoes to make hash browns, making dried fruit, zucchini slices with taco seasoning and are about to make our own beef jerky. We may be stuck inside, but our goal is to never run out of healthy snacks! Plus it’s a great way to preserve your perishables.
We hope you are finding creative ways to keep busy and take your mind off all the negativity right now. We’re going to be releasing a couple of daytime sessions over the next few days so that when you want to take a break you can with a wonderful NAP Meditation.  

You can now search our meditations on Patreon using your Browser (not the patreon app) at www.patreon.com/trackstorelax You’ll now see a new search box at the top right. If you want to get started wth some of the NAP Sessions we already have you can find them by entering the search word “nap”. We’re going to release a daytime version of “Riding out the storm” so you can use that session during the day or at night as well.

Don’t forget to end your day with a Tracks To Relax Sleep Meditation! Sleep is one of the cornerstones of health and wellness. Getting a good night’s sleep can help boost your immune system, improve your mood and give you the energy you need to stay positive! 

We'll be here, continuing to create for you. Take care everyone and stay safe!

Sending you peace and love,
Alan & Nikki
www.TracksToRelax.com

We have finally finished the recording studio! It was a learning process installing a drop ceiling and sound insulation for the first time. It took some time to complete but we’re really happy with the way it turned out. We’ve used wifi connected pot lights that can change colour with the Alexa app. So if we are recording a meditation about a beautiful summer meadow, we can make the room green. If we’re making a session about water, we can change the room to blue. It definitely helps us be in the right mood for the meditation we’re working on and we hope that comes through in all of the new meditations to come.

With spring around the corner, we’ll be able to get out and do nature recordings for some more “Speechless” sessions for Gold Patrons. Now that we live in the country we have several great spots to do some recording, including a couple of nearby waterfalls for some great white noise sessions.

Meditations in the works:

Pain Mitigation - Get temporary relief from pain and discomfort as you relax and fall
asleep. This session uses powerful self hypnosis techniques to help you feel
comfortable and disassociate from the discomfort.

Attract What You Want - It’s easier to use the law of attraction when you clearly
define and visualize what you want to attract! This sleep meditation will help you
relax and focus on what you want while you fall asleep.

Give Less F#!KS - Do you take on other people problems, issues or challenges? Do
you worry about things you can’t do anything about? Stop giving so many F#!ks and
get re-focused on your own stuff! You’ll enjoy feeling a lot less burdened and relaxed
after you listen to this powerful guided sleep meditation.

Instagram Relaunch

Did you know that TracksToRelax is on Instagram? That’s okay, we’re still learning
about social media ourselves. Come visit us to see what goes on behind the
microphone. You’ll not only be able to sample meditations as they are released,
you’ll see how we put the meditations together, listen in on upcoming meditations,
catch the latest sleep comic, watch funny outtakes, as well as little blurbs to help you
get to know us a littler better. You can also read our public blog at www.TracksToRelax.com/sleepblog

New Ways To Subscribe

We’re pretty excited to announce that membership to Tracks To Relax is now
available on YouTube. Yes! You can now become a premium member on YouTube
by visiting www.BedtimeMeditations.com. Membership is available at the Bronze,
Silver or Gold level and you’ll get access to the same great meditations you do at the
equivalent level on Patreon. We are still in the process of uploading our complete
sleep meditation library to YouTube and we expect this to be completed over the
next week or so.

Additionally, you can also subscribe to our Premium Podcast on Libsyn at
www.TracksToRelax.NET Memberships here are at the Gold Level at $9.99 per
month and there’s also an option to join for 3 months at $24.95 which offers a
savings of about $5.

Breaker Audio Discontinued

We recently received a notification from Breaker Audio that Patreon will no longer be
supported on their platform. If you’ve been using Breaker to listen, then you may
wish to change to using your Private RSS feed instead. For a list of compatible
podcast APPs that will work with your Private RSS feed, check out this article:
Support for Breaker will end Feb 29th.

What our listeners are saying

I use a Tracks to Relax meditation every night when going to sleep. I love deciding
on which meditation to use every night. I vary them depending on mood. I have lost
some weight and resolved some health issues recently, so I started yoga again last
week. Thursday I went for the second time. Had a blast. Started walking to my car
and thought... oh, I must have pulled a muscle. Nope. 9 hours later after a trip in an
ambulance to the hospital I was home diagnosed with a kidney stone... my first.

I didn't really sleep that first night because of the meds I took. I sat in a chair and just
tried to doze., but once it was gone and I was needing to get back to normal sleep
on Friday, I felt rather nervous about trying to sleep. I was afraid I would wake up in
pain again. So I picked a very comforting to me meditation (I honestly don't
remember which one) and slept just fine.

Sleep has been good since then, If I wake in the middle of the night, which I do given
the intake in water I'm drinking now, I pick another to listen to to go back to sleep.
I'm kind of frustrated that I don't know what happens in most of the meditations
because I fall asleep long before the end. But I am so thankful to have them.
Thank you. - Ellen

I began listening to this podcast at the beginning of this year. Never have I found
someone with such a calming & relaxing voice to listen to before. I was so
impressed that I joined as a silver patron & have been enjoying listening so much
you don't even know. Last October I sustained an injury, coming home in complete
darkness, and tripping and falling down on my face on the pavement. I could literally
see nothing, and my foot got caught on something and I fell.

It turned out I ended up getting a concussion, and with it a lot of pain, anxiety, worry,
and stress on my mind and body. Worry and anxiety would flood my body in the
middle of the night, and for quite a while I could find nothing to prevent it or to help
me. Then I found this podcast, and every time I play a meditation or podcast, it is so
relaxing that I am usually out within seconds. For a healing mind and body the rest
and relaxation is so very important.

I am so Grateful that I found this podcast. It has become a key part of my healing
journey, and I make sure to mention TTR as often as possible in order to help this
podcast gain followers, and to guide people to help themselves on their own healing
journeys whatever they might look like. Thank you so much again, what you do is So
very appreciated. - Bee

My husband and I fall asleep to your voice every night. I have my favourites (without
crickets or birds) that are 30 minutes or longer. I have listened to many relaxation
recordings before I found you, and now I don’t have to search any further. Thank you
so much for your work. - Laurie


We can’t thank you enough for your kind words & having the courage to share your
struggles and stories with us. Thank you !

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support. We literally could not do this
without you and we appreciate you all more than we could ever say in words. We
hope you can sense our gratitude for your support in each of the sleep meditations
we create. Until our next newsletter, we wish you a relaxing and peaceful sleep.
​
Alan & Nikki

It's no wonder people are tossing and turning as they try to fall asleep at bedtime. With so much stress in our lives, getting to sleep can be a challenge sometimes. When warm milk and counting sheep fail to end your insomnia, it's time to use the most powerful sleep aid available, your mind! 

Bedtime stories are nice and can provide some distraction, but they aren't really designed to calm you mind and body or help you fall asleep.  Sleep meditations can be much more effective for bringing about a state of relaxation and there are more sleep meditation podcasts available online now, than ever before.  The problem is that many of these podcasts are just providing audio stories that vary in their effectiveness to help you fall asleep. 

Tracks To Relax Sleep Meditations are written by a Master NLP Practitioner/Master Hypnotist so that both your conscious and subconscious mind are engaged in the process of calming your mind and body.  Basically, our sleep meditations are occupying your conscious mind while we provided positive suggestions for relaxation and sleep to your subconscious using a soothing tone that encourages these responses.  The bottom line is that there's much more to our audio sessions that meets the ear. 

If you haven't had the opportunity to listen to a Tracks To Relax Sleep Meditation, you can enjoy one of our free sessions on our podcast at  www.TracksToRelaxPodcast.com  If you'd like to support what we're doing and also get access to our sleep meditation collection, you can subscribe to our premium content on Patreon, YouTube or Libsyn, the links to each of these is below.  A special thanks to all our wonderful members, we are grateful for your support everyday and we feel privileged that you let us help you sleep better! 

YouTube Channel:  Tracks To Relax on YouTube   -  Membership Signup Page
Patreon:  www.Patreon.com/trackstorelax
Libsyn Podcasts:   www.TracksToRelax.net

Just because it's "bedtime" doesn't mean your ready for bed.  For many people it can be a bit of a challenge to calm our mind when it's time to go to sleep.  One of the benefits of using Tracks To Relax Sleep Meditations is that it re-directs you focus and attention to more relaxing thoughts so that you mind can calm down.  It doesn't take long before all those thoughts about your worries, problems and challenges fade away and are replaced by a beautiful beach, a relaxing waterfall, or a relaxing nature scene.  These powerful meditations engage your senses and whisk you away from reality for a while, allowing you to relax completely and drift off to sleep in the process.  Just slip on your headphones and click play on a Tracks To Relax Sleep Meditation and start looking forward to bedtime again.  It really is the most relaxing way to end your day.

Free Podcast:  www.TracksToRelaxPodcast.com
Become a Patron (130+ meditations) :  www.patreon.com/trackstorelax
Become a member on YouTube:   YouTube Memebership 

Happy November to all of our listeners! We want to begin by apologizing for the delay in releasing this newsletter as well as making you wait longer than usual for new releases.

When we sold our condo and moved to our new home in the country in September, we thought it would result in a couple of weeks of disruption to our normal schedule However, this proved to be a fantasy.  The truth was, there was so much to be done around this house before snow & cold temperatures set in.  There were things that had to be updated, fixed or dealt with before the weather turned and judging by how November has been so far in Ontario, it’s a good thing we got stuff done.

Lately it’s been snowy and cold here, but we are nice and warm with our new propane furnace (we changed from oil) and our very large wood burning stove in the basement.

Finally things are mostly settled and we’re back to doing what we love, creating new sleep meditations for our subscribers!
Thank you all for your support, your patience and your understanding during this longer than expected transition!

What we are working on

Tis The Season - A Christmas sleep meditation featuring Christmas music and an original poem to warm your heart while helping you relax.

Motivation to Exercise -  This long play intensive sleep meditation will help you discover the benefits of exercising versus the potential pitfalls of not exercising. We hope it will help you look at exercise time as a more positive experience and give you the encouragement you need to make it a priority in your life. This meditation will be released early for gold subscribers.

Back To Sleep - Cozy Ramble  - Suggestions to help you relax more and more deeply so you can get the deepest sleep possible before you need to wake up in the morning.

More Fables - We’re searching our archives for the perfect fable to help you fall asleep and will be releasing the next episode in this series very soon.

Bereavement Session

We are doing research and in consultation with one of our associates who is training to help people with bereavement issues. We will be using what we learn to create a unique session to help people dealing with these feelings in the near future.

New way to listen…

We’ve added a couple of new ways to subscribe and listen to Tracks To Relax Sleep Meditations!

TracksToRelax.net

Hosted by Libsyn, this podcast platform makes listening to our sleep meditations straight forward and easy.  Just become a subscriber and you’ll be able to stream all of the premium episodes easily in your browser.

We also have plans to create a Tracks To Relax APP using the Libsyn Platform!  When the app becomes available, our subscribers on this platform will be able to download it from the App Store or Google Play and listen or download episodes using the exclusive Tracks To Relax APP.

Subscriptions are available for $9.99 per month or $24.95 for 3 months.  Visit www.TracksToRelax.net  for more details.

You can also CHECK OUT ALL THE WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE HERE!

What our listeners say

Ellen’s Story

“I have dealt with anxiety and depression for most of my life. When it's really bad, especially the anxiety, I have a very difficult time getting to sleep. I have found that guided meditations really help in this process. I used to make my own. However, since finding Tracks to Relax, I am not concerned about finding time to do that. The quality and variety of the sleep meditations are wonderful. There are so many to choose from that I have the ability to pick what resonates just for that evening. Whether it is the Positive Affirmations 3 meditation or the Campfire meditation, I can find something that feels appropriate. I really like that are meditations of various lengths too. I tend to head for the long ones because, until recently, I would wake a number of times before truly settling into the night's sleep. I'm having success with improving my sleep though, so I'm getting ready to try some of the shorter meditations. Looking forward to that.”

Thank you for everything! - Ellen (Gold Patron)


Brooke’s Story

“I have PTSD and anxiety, along with those I have had years of insomnia. I listen every night! I don’t go anywhere without my headphones! TTR on Patreon has gotten me through rough flights, hospital stays, and sickness. I honestly don’t know how I survived without my meditations before.”  - Brooke (Gold Patron)

Until our next newsletter, we wish you peace, love, relaxation and an amazing sleep.

Warm Regards

Alan & Nikki
www.TracksToRelax.com

Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have any problems or stress? Imagine climbing into bed every night, closing your eyes and instantly drifting off into a deep sleep. Then, in the morning, you awaken to enjoy another perfect problem and worry free day.  Unfortunately, that's just a dream. 

The reality is that we do have worries, stress, anxiety and problems.  During the day, we're so busy that we don't have time to focus on everything that's wrong or stresses us out, but for many of us, bedtime has become a time when all that worry, stress and anxiety fills our heads. Since we having nothing else to do but try and fall asleep, most people think about it a lot. Soon your mind is racing, your muscles are getting more tense instead of more relaxed and for some perplexing reason, you just can't get to sleep.

You need something to distract your mind and channel your thoughts in positive ways that are conductive to helping you fall asleep and that's what our Guided Sleep Meditations are all about.

Our thoughts and imagination are more powerful than you know and can affect our physical bodies in either negative or positive ways.  When we focus our thoughts on our problems and worries, we get tense and agitated. But, if we re-direct our thoughts through guided meditation to relaxing and positive experiences, then our physical bodies will respond to those thoughts in ways that help us relax and fall asleep much more easily.

When you listen to our guided sleep meditations at bedtime, your thoughts will be directed to positive experiences, thoughts and feelings that will allow you to take a break from stress and worry and relax more deeply than you may have thought possible. You may not know exactly when you fall asleep while you're listening to Tracks To Relax, but you'll awaken in the morning refreshed and alert with a more positive mindset and ready to handle whatever challenges come your way more easily.

Here's what some of our Real Patreon Patrons have to say this month about how Tracks To Relax has helped them sleep better. Learn more about becoming a Patron and get instant access to up to 115 guided sleep meditations by visiting TracksToRelax.com

​From our Patrons:

"I first heard of Tracks to Relax while searching for sleep podcasts on the Apple Podcast app. I just fell in love with the voice and the soothing stories that I had to become a Patron. Tracks to Relax has helped me so much through my pregnancy, and the first couple months of my new son's life. Instead of fretting over every little thing, I can turn my mind into peaceful mush and drift off quickly and easily. Thank you!" - Kaeli D.

Become a Tracks To Relax Patron and start sleeping better tonight! Click here for more info.

iPads. iPhones. Androids. Laptops. 60 inch TVs. Work. Commutes. Layoffs. House moves. Screaming kids. Husbands. Wives. Divorces. Families. Even just writing this list is stressing me out! Stress is all around us, 24/7 – heck, if your reading this then you must be on some kind of device right now (don’t click off though…not yet!).

The American Medical Association has ‘noted’ that stress is the basic cause of all human illness and disease. That’s insane. That puts it up there with alcohol, prescription drugs, illegal drugs, cigarettes and crappy food. We need to chill the F out.

But its tricky. It can be all but impossible to get away from this stress. It never really goes away. We can just try to ignore it and deal with it as best we can. Try and calm down once in a while. Try to get some really good, deep, restful sleep.

That’s what I needed. A proper nights sleep. Relaxation. It was like I had forgotten HOW to relax.

I honestly can’t remember what triggered me to try looking up this stuff. I must have had a bad day. I can’t even remember what I typed into search on Spotify. But somehow, the Tracks To Relax Guided Meditation Podcast found me.

Obviously, I was dubious and skeptical the moment I heard the word ‘Meditation’. I’m not a hippy. I can’t cross my legs. I have no desire to explore my subconscious. I don’t give a shit if I breathe out of my nose or my mouth.

But I gave it a shot. What the heck.

It was pretty cool. A guys voice began telling me to relax. There was quiet, peaceful background music. Very tranquil.

I rolled with it and played along. And as I did, I began to feel myself relaxing into the bed. He continued describing a journey down an escalator, describing the lighting, describing a walk down a corridor, down another escalator – all the while reminding me that I was feeling more and more relaxed.
​
And – incredibly – I was...

Read the full article on  The Gem Detective by clicking here