Giving Thanks This Thanksgiving | Sleep Hypnosis with Gratitude Practice

Summary

Sleep Magic: "Giving Thanks This Thanksgiving" | Sleep Hypnosis with Gratitude Practice

Sleepiest: Hypnosis for Sleep Podcast
Host: Jessica Porter
Episode Date: November 25, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this soothing Thanksgiving-themed episode, host and hypnotherapist Jessica Porter welcomes listeners into a gentle, gratitude-focused sleep hypnosis. Jessica uses her signature calming tone to guide audiences into deep relaxation while exploring the nurturing power of gratitude. Journeying through her personal gratitude list, she blends hypnotic suggestion, mindfulness meditation, and poetic reflection, inviting listeners to cultivate their own gratitude for the season and for sleep itself.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Community Gratitude and Listener Shout-outs

[00:24–02:16]

• Jessica opens by expressing sincere appreciation for her global audience, offering personalized shout-outs to listeners from Canada, Australia, the UK, Iran, and South Africa.
  • Notably, she highlights the diversity and the age range of her listeners, including children.
  • Memorable moment: “It feels so good...to know that this relaxing energy is going in all directions, literally all over the world. That's the most satisfying feeling I’ve ever had, and without you guys, it wouldn't be happening.” (Jessica Porter, 01:54)

2. Gratitude as a Transformative Practice

[02:21–04:02]

• Jessica introduces the core theme: gratitude as a year-round practice.
  • She notes the importance and universal accessibility of gratitude, and its proven ability to uplift mood and well-being.
  • Shares her perspective: “I find reminding myself of what I’m grateful for, and saying it out loud, is one of the most powerful practices I have ever come across.”
  • Discusses how gratitude physically affects the brain—lighting up neural pathways and releasing “happy chemicals.”

3. Transition into Guided Sleep Hypnosis

[08:15–09:35]

• Jessica gently instructs listeners to prepare for restful sleep, initiating a body scan and relaxation exercise.
  • She encourages presence: “Your awareness is coming home to your breath, coming home to your body. Because this is your time.” (09:38)

4. Progressive Relaxation Induction

[09:38–18:19]

• Listeners are led through a detailed muscle relaxation exercise, using sensory imagery (“warm chocolate”) to promote deep calm.
  • “Pretend that your eyelids are so relaxed they will not open...This lovely relaxation you have around your eyes, this is the same quality of relaxation you will soon have throughout your entire body.” (Jessica Porter, 09:53–10:10)

5. Guided Gratitude List

[20:31–47:46]

• Jessica shares her own gratitude list, encouraging listeners to notice both the grand and subtle joys in life:
  • Nature & the Season – She reflects on the darkness of late fall and winter as an opportunity for introspection and contrasts: “This cloak of darkness forces me to go inside myself, to slow down, to perceive things differently. But perhaps my favorite thing about this time of darkness is that it makes me appreciate its opposite. It makes me appreciate the light.” (21:49–22:10)
  • Physical Senses – She moves through each sense, appreciating smells, tastes, sights, sounds, and the “sense of balance.”
  • Friendship – Joy in the variety and connection she shares with friends.
    • “It’s amazing that life gives us people who were strangers, but now they’re not. We’re connected to them.” (Jessica Porter, 26:40)
  • Quiet & Meditation – Affirms the nourishing effect of meditation and “quiet time.”
    • “I tune into that core world inside of me...it’s like I prune the garden inside of me, letting go of things, fertilizing things, creating things, planting seeds.” (Jessica Porter, 28:20–28:50)
  • Pets – Describes her cats in loving detail, observing their ability to teach relaxation.
  • Relaxation as Power – Emphasizes relaxation as a “secret key” to love, creativity, and intuition.
  • Nature & Nurture – Talks about nurturing her lemon and kumquat trees, appreciating growth and patience.
    • “Connecting to them is like connecting to everything. Connecting to life itself.” (Jessica Porter, 43:20)
  • Inner Being – Recognizes the energetic, creative aspect of self, beyond the physical body.
  • Sleep – Closes the gratitude list with an ode to the necessity and healing power of sleep.
    • “We all surrender to sleep...We let them go in sleep. And it feels so good. Sleep is a lovely, humbling reminder. The gentleness of life, Of our simple, basic needs.” (Jessica Porter, 46:40–47:46)

6. Final Induction and Affirmation

[48:06–End]

• Jessica gently reiterates her gratitude for sleep and encourages complete surrender to the rhythm of rest.
  • “As we surrender to the rhythm of sleep. Its perfect rhythm. As perfect as the tides, as perfect as the heartbeat, as perfect as the breath. I am grateful for sleep. As I drift and float and dream.” (Jessica Porter, 48:06–End)

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Notable Quotes

• “Cultivate gratitude. Rarely is something so powerful free, available all the time, while also being a total pleasure to do.”
  — Jessica Porter, [02:34–03:00]

• “Pretend that your eyelids are so relaxed they will not open...We’re gonna pretend. So pretending that your eyelids are so relaxed they will not open, wiggle your eyebrows as your eyes remain shut, just for a moment. Good.”
  — Jessica Porter, [09:53–10:16]

• “This cloak of darkness forces me to go inside myself...But perhaps my favorite thing about this, this time of darkness is that it makes me appreciate its opposite. It makes me appreciate the light.”
  — Jessica Porter, [21:49–22:10]

• “Connecting to them is like connecting to everything. Connecting to life itself.”
  — Jessica Porter (on her citrus trees), [43:20]

• “We all surrender to sleep...We let them go in sleep. And it feels so good. Sleep is a lovely, humbling reminder. The gentleness of life, Of our simple, basic needs.”
  — Jessica Porter, [46:40–47:46]

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|------------------------------------------------| | 00:24–02:16 | Listener shout-outs & global gratitude | | 02:21–04:02 | Why gratitude matters and its impact | | 08:26–09:35 | Settling into relaxation | | 09:38–18:19 | Progressive muscle relaxation/hypnosis | | 20:31–47:46 | Jessica’s deep gratitude list (nature, senses, friends, meditation, pets, relaxation, plants, inner being, sleep) | | 48:06–End | Affirmation and closing gratitude to sleep |

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Tone & Style

Jessica’s approach remains gentle, accessible, and nurturing throughout. Her use of rich imagery (“warm chocolate,” “pruning the garden inside me”) and a repetitive, hypnotic structure provides a calming rhythm that fosters genuine comfort and sleepiness.

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In Summary

This Thanksgiving episode beautifully intertwines gratitude practice with guided sleep hypnosis. Jessica seamlessly moves from expressing thanks for her global community to enumerating the small and large wonders of daily life, all while leading listeners toward restorative rest. The episode not only offers strategies for gratitude, but becomes a soothing, experiential meditation in itself—helping listeners find calm, warmth, and perspective as they drift into sleep.

Transcript

[Jessica Porter]

Hi, I'm Jessica Porter and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Hi, everybody.

[Jessica Porter]

How's it going? Thank you for being here. I've got some shout outs to do tonight, people for whom I'm very grateful, which is the theme of tonight's show. Emily from Canada has reached out and told us that Sleep Magic is really helping her. Karen from Australia, spelled K, E, R, R, Y, N. Karen, you know who you are. Great spelling. Really, really appreciates the show and it's totally helping her. Leanne from Saskatchewan. How many listeners even know where Saskatchewan is? I do. I grew up in Canada. Go, Saskatchewan. She's been listening for two years and really, really loves Sleep Magic. And continuing with our Commonwealth listeners, Bridget, 11 years old from the UK, has gone through a big loss recently and Sleep Magic is helping her. And someone named Featherstone Lightly from Australia says she loves to hear the wisdom of Sleep Magic, but can't stay awake till the end to hear it all. Yay. That's the point. Other people from the uk, someone named Hug the Trees, and Luka Warwick, who is 11. I think I mentioned Luca before, but I'm not sure. I just want to make sure that I do. Also from around the world, Parsi in Iran, Lefte Gogo from South Africa, who simply says, please make more podcasts and we will. So thank you, everyone. It feels so good. I can't even tell you to know that this relaxing energy is going in all directions, literally all over the world. That's the most satisfying feeling I've ever had, and without you guys, it wouldn't be happening.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

So thank you. Thank you.

[Jessica Porter]

All right, tonight, giving thanks this Thanksgiving, a gratitude list. Now, I know it isn't Thanksgiving everywhere in the world, but it's always a.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Good time to cultivate gratitude.

[Jessica Porter]

I've done a few episodes on gratitude because I find reminding myself of what I'm grateful for and saying it out loud is one of the most powerful practices I have ever come across. And believe me, I've done the qigong.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Class and the tai chi and the eating. Weird stuff.

[Jessica Porter]

And this is up there. And rarely is something so powerful free available all the time while also being a total pleasure to do. I'm looking at you working out at the gym. You're not all three of those things. So tonight I'll be going over my gratitude list and really digging into the details of what I'm grateful for. And by doing that, I'll be lighting up neural pathways in my brain and basically forcing it to secrete happy chemicals, like tricking it into feeling good. And as I do that, your brain will be invited to do the same. And this process shows us that we have power over our own neurology, over our own feelings. And when we cultivate these positive feeling states, they ripple into our lives in beautiful and amazing ways.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

So drift off tonight on a cloud of appreciation and good feeling.

[Jessica Porter]

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[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

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[Jessica Porter]

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[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

So good, so good.

[Jessica Porter]

So good.

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[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

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[Jessica Porter]

Get yourself into a safe and comfortable position. And let's begin.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Allow your eyes to close easily and gently.

[Jessica Porter]

And bring your awareness now to your breath.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Your awareness has been futzing around in the world all day. Doing things, important things. Paying attention, pushing projects forward, worrying, doing all sorts of things. But now we're reeling it back in. So your awareness is coming home to your breath, coming home to your body. Because this is your time. This is where you get to settle in to yourself, to the experience of.

[Jessica Porter]

Being.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Alive and taking care of yourself. What a beautiful balance to the day. Sleep is all the outward and active and pushing and learning and stretching and growing. Balanced by coming home and letting go. Good. Now bring your awareness up into your eyelids. And let's imagine that your eyelids are feeling sleepy. Just pretend you feel really sleepy. Maybe you do, maybe you don't, but just pretend that you do. And as your eyelids are getting Heavier and heavier. I'd like you to accept this heaviness in your eyelids so completely that you accept the suggestion that your eyelids will not open. And that's a silly suggestion, obviously, but we're gonna go with it. We're gonna pretend. So pretending that your eyelids are so relaxed they will not open, wiggle your eyebrows as your eyes remain shut, just for a moment. Good. Now, this lovely relaxation you have around your eyes, this is the same quality of relaxation you will soon have throughout your entire body. So let's imagine this feeling around your eyes is moving up now into your forehead. As it moves up into your forehead, it's spilling back into your brain. And now imagine this relaxation moving up into your scalp, going up, up over the crown of your head, and now back down the back of your head as your scalp relaxes completely. And your face is softening and letting go. And inside your skull, a warm mist of relaxation is taking over every single cell of your brain. As all mental tension disappear. Good. As the relaxation moves down now to the muscles of your neck, just imagine the muscles of your neck on either side of your spine, softening, feeling warm and relaxed. And already you find yourselves going deeper and deeper as the relaxation pours like melted chocolate down your arm, softening your shoulders, releasing the muscles of your arm. And your arms are feeling relaxed and heavy. And that warm, chocolatey feeling is moving all the way down into your hands to your fingers. Heavy, lovely, soft. And relax. Like your arms are melting. So nice. Imagine that warm, chocolaty feeling moving down your back. All the muscles of your back feeling warm and soft, letting go, releasing the.

[Jessica Porter]

Day.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

Releasing any tension they may be holding. The muscles of your back work silently and faithfully most of the day as you live your vertical existence. But now you're horizontal, and they can rats and let go and get what they need for hours and hours. Because your back muscles are on vacation. As the lovely, warm, relaxed feeling moves down into your chest. And it's softer now and lighter as it swirls around inside your chest cavity, softening and relaxing your inner world, warming your heart. As any tension you may have gathered around your heart today disappears in this soft, warm feeling is moving down into your belly. Your pelvis feeling nice and heavy on the bed. And the muscles of your belly are letting go and softening because no one's watching. Everyone is on their own journey, letting go. So you allow your belly to release and for your breath to get deeper as the relaxation moves all the way down your legs. That low, lovely, chocolatey syrup moving all the way down, down into your legs, which are feeling heavy. And relaxed because your legs are on vacation. The warm feeling moves down into your feet and your toes. And you notice any sounds that may.

[Jessica Porter]

Be going on around you.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

And you just let them be. Because now that you're so relaxed, the sounds are simply passing through you, Taking you deeper and deeper. Good. Just as the sound of my voice is taking you deeper and deeper. And soon the sound of my voice will feel distant. And that's okay, that's good. As you let go. And drift. And flow. And dream. I'm grateful for this time of year. It's a time of contraction in the northern hemisphere. A time where the darkness is coming.

[Jessica Porter]

Earlier.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

And blanketing us more fully. And we sort of wear this cloak of darkness more than at any other time of year. This cloak of darkness forces me to go inside myself, to slow down, to perceive things differently. But perhaps my favorite thing about this, this time of darkness is that it makes me appreciate its opposite. It makes me appreciate.

[Jessica Porter]

The light.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

It reminds me that we are making our way around the sun and we'll tilt back again and experience expansion again. And we will open and open. Because without this closing down, there is no opening. And without opening, there is no closing down. So these days I'm reminded of the complementary and antagonistic opposites of light and dark. And I'm grateful for these darker days. I'm grateful for this time of year. I'm grateful for my senses. I love getting out of my car and taking a deep breath in front of my house. My neighborhood is sort of out in the country and it smells so rich and earthy. I'm grateful for my sense of smell. I love lying down on my couch, looking up out the window and watching the clouds shift in the sky so slowly and beautifully. Grateful for my sense of sight. I'm grateful for my sense of taste. When I eat a piece of pineapple. Its sour and sweet taste and fibrous texture and juiciness. I'm grateful for my sense of touch when I lie down at night and feel a soft pillow against my cheek. And I'm grateful for my sense of hearing when I go outside and relax. And listen to the birds. I'm grateful for my senses. And there's another sense. I'm grateful for my sense of balance in my body. That without my thinking about it, my body is constantly balancing, finding the right step, the right move for my safety and well being. What an amazing thing it is that our bodies move, move in such coordinated ways. Handling so many weights and angles and pressure with such grace. Grateful for my sense of balance. I'm grateful for my friends. It's amazing that life gives us people who were strangers, but now they're not. We're connected to them. We make each other happy. And friends can be so different from one another. I'm grateful to have a variety of of friends, Some who are younger, some who are older. Each with their own unique strengths and quirks and looks and vibes, each on their own separate mission in life. And still we care about one another. We connect. I'm grateful for my friends. I'm grateful for meditation. And someone the other day described meditation simply. Simply as quiet time. So I'm grateful for quiet time, where I simply sit and close my eyes and tune in. I tune into that core world inside of me. My thoughts, my feelings, my visions. And it's like I prune the garden inside of me, letting go of things, fertilizing things, creating things, planting seeds. And when I sit for long enough.

[Jessica Porter]

And really relax.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

A shift takes place inside of me. I shift from my outward, conscious, active nervous system. And I shift into a more relaxed, internal, softer, parasympathetic nervous system. My breath falls deeper into my belly. And I perceive in opposite ways. Instead of thinking, I'm feeling. Instead of judging, I'm accepting. Instead of pushing away. I'm connecting. And instead of figuring it out, I simply am. I'm being. I don't always slip down into that place, but it's there. And when I do, it feels beautiful. I'm grateful for meditation, For quiet time. I'm grateful for my cats. My cats aren't thinking about the world. They're not connected to this whole web of human issues we've created for ourselves. My cats are short hair, tuxedos, mostly black with white markings, and their coats are beautiful and shiny. They're brother and sister litter mates, and they're only four years old, so they're relatively young and in good shape. I'm amazed at how their black coats reflect the light of the room like a deep, dark mirror. I love the way they move. They're elegant, quiet, careful. Every once in a while they'll make some dramatic leap up to the top of a dresser or the top of a cupboard, Or they make a leap down from the dresser. And they're fine. They know. They know their bodies. They know their limits. They know how to be a cat. And here they are in my home, Just like the cats in ancient Egypt, hanging out with the pharaohs, Cousins to the lions and the leopards. And the cheetahs. And yet they seem happy to just hang out at my place with each other, relaxing. And relaxing again. They teach me relaxation. I'm grateful for my cats. I'm grateful to have discovered that relaxation is powerful. That relaxation is a secret key to so much in life. Through relaxation we experience ease, love, creativity, intuition.

[Jessica Porter]

Visions.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

I'm grateful to have not only discovered that, but to practice it and to play with it as I explore the treasures within. Relaxation. I'm grateful for relaxation. I'm grateful for my citrus trees. My sister bought me two citrus trees a couple of years ago. And I've worked really hard to figure out how to nourish them, how to protect them and help them thrive. One is a lemon tree. It's still small, and I'm not entirely sure that I'm winning my war against a squirrel in my backyard.

[Jessica Porter]

Who loves.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

To pick at it. But this lemon tree has blossoms. And the smell of the blossoms is so sweet and delicate and beautiful. It makes me realize how many of the smells that we experience in this world are chemical. Too strong, too harsh, too simple. The lemon blossom gives a perfect sweet perfume. Lemon blossom. The other citrus tree is a kumquat. I had never eaten a kumquat before moving to California. They're like tiny orange bite sized footballs, about an inch or an inch and a half long. And when they're ripe, they're bright orange. And you pop the whole thing in your mouth and eat it all, including the rind, the pith, the juice, the fiber and the seeds. At first it's super sour and then sweet and then bitter from the rind. And it's the perfect size for the mouth, so it explodes. My kumquat tree is doing well and there are several kumquats on their way. I'm grateful for my relationship to these trees. I pay attention to them, I talk to them. I note what's happening on their leaves. I note where new growth is taking place. And connecting to them. Is like connecting to everything. Connecting to life itself. I'm grateful for my citrus trees. I'm grateful for my inner being. I'm grateful that I know that I'm not simply a body, but there's energy inside of me. Expanding into the world. Growing, exploring, connecting with others, Creating. I am grateful for my inner being. I'm grateful for sleep. I'm grateful that we all surrender to this rhythm. The richest people in the the world, the smartest people in the world. We all surrender to sleep. We all need to let go. As we release our opinions. And pressures, Even our identities. We let them go in sleep. And it feels so good. Sleep is a lovely, humbling reminder. The gentleness of life, Of our simple, basic.

[Jessica Porter]

Needs.

[Jessica Porter (Guided Meditation Voice)]

As we surrender to the rhythm of sleep. It's perfect rhythm, As perfect as the tides, As perfect as the heartbeat, As perfect as the breath. I am grateful. For sleep. As I drift. And float. And dream. It.