Indigo Gallery

Hello there. I'm so glad you could join us for this evening's trip to the Indigo Gallery. There's a really beautiful exhibition being shown there tonight, ideal for busy minds that need a little space to slow down, and gently come to rest. Each night, we like to start with a short wind-down. Tonight's wind-down is a meditation technique called noting. It's particularly helpful if you're troubled by a busy mind when you're trying to get to sleep. You can even use it if you wake up in the night. We're going to be counting our breath, and then just gently noting thoughts and feelings if they arise. We're not trying to replace them with anything else. 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, and that 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 comfortable. Make 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, start 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, hmm, thinking, and return to the breath. Or if a feeling arises, hmm, 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. Now, you're feeling nice and relaxed. You're ready for our journey through the Indigo Gallery. This is going to be the perfect way to wind down after your day. For a start, there are none of the usual crowds gathering around in groups to see the works of art you've come to see. The gallery is completely empty. There's only us here. The space has been opened late, especially for us. It's so nice and calming to be inside these large, airy rooms, which have been made available just for us to walk through. There's also something else very special about what we're going to see. All the artworks in this exhibition exist in the same color, the color blue. This is going to be a real treat for your senses. Did you know one...