John Legend's Sleepcast

This is how it feels when you're about to be let in on a secret. When you step gladly past the sign mark closed to the public, into an empty foyer from a street damp with rain. The sound of the rain echoes through the grand foyer of Harmony Hall, a historic music venue whose walls have held every variety of music in its 150 years. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you here tonight. Only a handful of people are given the opportunity to visit Harmony Hall after hours. And those are some of its best hours, in the quiet. When it's a space for reflection, its atmosphere resonating with all of that musical history. The grand piano waiting on the stage like a promise. A hushed anticipation builds as you glance into the auditorium and see the red velvet seats and gilded bolted ceiling. From the back of the auditorium, you can nearly hear the echoes of all the historic concerts that have happened in this ornate hall. There's no need to show a ticket at the door, they've been expecting you. But before we explore further, let's take a brief moment for a calming wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. 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 are 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 feeling a sense of the muscles switching off the feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. Notice any tension being let go as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension melting away, being let go 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 are now 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, 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 muscles shut down, switch off. At rest for the night. And allowing thoughts to come and go, allowing the mind and body the space they need to rest. You wouldn't expect to notice the weather in such a temple of manmade sound as this....