Downriver

Welcome to our little rowing boat. The water here is calm and the river isn't wide. And we can just float along with the flow of the current. It is dusk and the sky is a deep gray blue. Do you see the first stars beginning to appear? Do you see the moon faintly reflected in the water's surface here? Seems like the perfect moment to drift off. Before we set out on our journey downriver, we like to do a little wind down exercise. Tonight's exercise is a visualization. It helps to relax the body, calm the mind and create the best possible conditions for sleep. So now the day's over, all today's tasks are put away. Time to switch off. So when you're ready, let's begin. Just take a moment to get comfortable, just letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped, having nothing to do. Nowhere to go. We're just going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body. Just watching as the muscles in the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So just starting down at the toes, just having a sense of the muscles switching off in the feet, the arches, all those muscles just switching off. Same in the lower half with the legs. So any tension being let go of as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension just melting away, being let go of into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscles shutting down for the night, completely at rest. Everything from the waist downward is heavy, at ease. The muscles in the lower back and the stomach now just switching off. Middle of the back, around the diaphragm, the upper back and the chest. So any muscles not needed shutting down, switching off for that night. Shoulders just switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms. Just switching off. And fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck just switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the eyes, any last areas of tension, just melting away as the muscles shut down, switch off. At rest for the night. Just allowing the mind and body space they need to rest. Okay, now you're nice and relaxed. Picture yourself easing into the most comfortable part of the boat. Feel free to stretch out, focus your attention on the things the boat passes as it floats slowly along. So let's begin our trip down river. You can relax into the rhythm as we float along. The river curves gently and then eventually straightens out. Sky above us, is it deep dusky color? The bank slopes gently upward and on the slopes there's a large orchard. There are a few dozen apple trees with low leafy branches. The color of the...