Desert Campfire

Thanks for joining me around our campfire tonight. On nights like this, I like to sit and watch the stars come out. From here we have an amazing view of this ancient landscape. There's nothing like it, for getting everything right sized. It's a great place to let go of stress and worry and find rest. Each night, we like to start with a short exercise which we call a wind down. Tonight's exercise is a visualization. It's designed to sooth the body and relax the mind. So when you're ready, let's begin. So no matter what's been going on today, whether it's been a busy day or a calm one this is an opportunity to just put everything down. To let go of any inner chatter and just find a place of rest in both the body and the mind. So first get yourself comfortable in bed, just taking a moment to pause and be still. And when you're ready, just taking a big, deep breath breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out, just allowing the body to sink down into your bed, feeling the weight of the body, allowing thoughts to come and go. Just imagining, a steady flow of warm sunlight, just flowing down through the body, dissolving any tension any discomfort as it begins to fill the body, starting with the toes. Moving up through the feet and the legs being filled with sunlight. The qualities of warmth, space, ease as it continues to travel up through the body. Up past the waist, to the back and the stomach. It's as though it just washes away any discomfort, it continues up through the chest and the back into the shoulders and down the arms, all the way down to the hands and fingers. A sense of relief in the body and stillness in the mind as it continues to travel up through the neck and the throat into the head and face all the way to the very top of the body. Until there's nothing other than that sense of stillness remaining. And now just gently bringing the attention back to the body. One by one, the stars come out around the moon. The stars emerge slowly as if the night sky was a fountain and each star was a coin that we have thrown in for good luck. Yet even more than wishes, we look for stories in the stars of the sky. Any shimmering star that you can see, that star might belong to a larger constellation. Right now in the center of the sky, I can see Polaris marking the North directly down and a bit to the left. The Big Dipper floats through the evening. This constellation has seven stars. Three of the stars lead down to form a handle and the other four stars swoop up to make a bowl. Together, the seven stars look like a massive spoon. So we call this...