Cabin Porch

Welcome to Robin's Nest Cabin, your home away from home for the night. From your vantage point on the front porch, you can see the last bits of daylight glimmering through the pine trees that tower above you. You have nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to report to, just you and the gentle creaking of the rocking chair beneath you. A warm breeze wisps its way through the leaves and lulls you into a calming state of presence and serenity. Let's deepen this state of relaxation with a wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is an exercise we call noting. It helps to soothe the mind and once you've learned it, you can even use it if you wake up in the night. We're going to be counting our breaths and then just gently noting thoughts and feelings as they arise. We're not trying to change them, we're simply labeling thinking as thinking, feeling as feeling. It may sound incredibly simple, but it can help to create distance between ourselves and the thought ourselves and the feeling so we don't get so involved in it. That in turn creates a more restful state of mind. In other words, the perfect state of mind for gentle restful sleep. So to begin with, just take a moment or two to get comfortable, make sure you're nice and cool. Just starting with some nice, big, deep breaths. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath, allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm in and out through the nose and just feeling the weight of the body pressing down into your bed. And in your own time, starting to count the breaths as they pass. One with the rise, two with the fall, just up to a count of 10. When you get to 10, you can stop and start again at one. And remember, anytime you get distracted, the moment you realize you're distracted by thought, simply note it, thinking and return to the breath or if a feeling arises, feeling and return to the breath. That noting is very gentle, not harsh at all. Think of it like a feather just gently touching the surface of a crystal glass. I'm going to give you a few moments just to keep counting the breath and noting any thoughts and feelings that arise. That's great. Isn't robin's nest the most magical place. It's the perfect escape from the stresses of city life. Some mornings, if you look beneath the Aspen trees you'll see a doe and her two fawns stretch and yawn and blink the sleep from their eyes. Do you see them? There beneath the big tree in the center. There, there they are. And what a cozy nest they've made. The slight impression they've left in the leaves where they snuggled in for the night. The moss pillows where they rested their heads. It looks almost as comfortable as...