Island Market

Welcome to this lovely island. Tonight, we are going to tour the market. It is where people come from all over the countryside to sell their wares and the craftsman of the town show their best work for sale. We are here at the end of the day. As the sellers pack up their stalls, the atmosphere is one of gathering rest. Before we begin our tour, it's nice to start with a wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. So, just take a moment to get comfortable. Letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped. Of having nothing left to do. We're going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body. 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, starting down at the toes and just a sense of the muscles switching off. The feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of 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 melting away. Being let go of. Into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscle is 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 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 the night. The shoulders switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms switching off. The hands, the fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the eyes. Any last areas of tension melting away as the muscle shut down, switch off. At rest for the night and allowing thoughts to come and go. Allowing the mind and the body, the space they need to rest. You are here at the arch that marks the entrance to the market. It is a simple construction of wood, painted with colors that have gone tender with time. What might once have been grit, now a hint of rose, dandelion yellow, now pale as the sand beneath our sandaled feet. The colors mirror the sashes of light, unfurling lazily across a sky dark with blues and purples, a sky that you can see resting above the swaying crowns of palm trees and the rows of market stands, as though satiated from a day of good work, watching over the island. All day, the ground has been drinking the sunlight. Now, it releases its warmth to mingle with the cool breath of the sea. This translucent hour, when light and dark weave through each other in perfect balance, like...