Carnival Sunset

The carnival is over. Two days of dancing, of drinking and laughing, good things to eat and drink, and colors to feast your eyes on. This port town is tired, and it's time for it to rest. Not everyone knows it, but now is a special time. Really, it's as special as the carnival itself, because it only happens once a year. It's as drowsy now as the carnival is lively. The moment is ripe to take a tour and drink in the atmosphere. So let's take a little walk and see what there is to see. Before we begin our tour, it's nice to start 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 nice and comfortable, making 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, any time 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. At the end of the long street, a white tower appears in the mist. It looks at first like something magical, but gradually, you see that it is a lighthouse. We are at the city's edge, against the sea. And if you listen carefully, you can hear the water in the dark spaces under the jetties and walkways. The gulls are quiet. All is quiet. The walls of the lighthouse are painted white, its stairs and...