El Mercado

Good evening, bienvenidos and welcome to El Mercado, the late night corner grocery store of local legend. After decades of operation, El Mercado has become a staple of the community, offering customers an unmatched variety of fresh produce, baked goods and artisanal crafts no matter what time of night. The extra wide aisles bring a sense of openness and space. And at this time of night, you feel no sense of rush or worry. Tonight, you have all the time in the world to slow down and admire the space around you. Allowing your senses to soak in the richness of your environment. Every item on the shelves, both edible and not, carries with a storied past and significance. And here at El Mercado, tradition and authenticity come before all else with the history of countless generations embedded into every detail of the store. To many, El Mercado is more than just a supermarket. It is a celebration of culture and an experience of home. As you settle in for the evening, let's deepen your state of relaxation with a short 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 if when 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 are not trying to change them. We are 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 and 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 conditions for gentle, restful sleep. So to begin, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure you're nice and cool. Just starting with some 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 feeling the weight of the body pressing you 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, note it as feeling and return to the breath. 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 or feelings that arise. That's great. At the far end of the store,...