Evening Tide

As the sun sets on this quiet stretch of beach, the sky takes on a vibrant mix of colors; orange, gold and pink. Sunlight strikes off the water surface and illuminates the landscape almost like a spotlight picking out the rocky cliff side's edge. Down by the water, a group of young sandpipers scurries up and down the shore searching for their next meal. They follow the waterline as it rushes in and recedes, dunking their long curved beaks into the wet sand after each wave. As the tide climbs, it spills onto a reef and unveils a small cluster of natural tide pools, each adorned with a collection of mollusks and barnacles who patiently await the incoming rush of brine. Now, as we 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 it if you wake up during 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 and ourselves and the feeling so we don't get so involved with it, that in turn create some 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 and feelings that arise. That's great. A white gull swoops over a couple resting on the edge of the tide pools. They sit close to each other with their shoulders pressed together as they scan the ocean. Halfway between the shore and the horizon, a pod of dolphins appears, weaving around each other with graceful fluidity....