Listening Lounge & Tea

At the foot of Sleeper Mountain, a town awaits the heavy rain. And there is no better place to wait out the weather than Nostalgia Listening Bar. From the worn booths and family tea recipes to the wall of imported vinyl records, each part of this cozy establishment is an homage to the past. Here you can close your eyes and rest the chatter in your mind with the warm sound of jazz. Before we tune into the happenings of this unique establishment, let us begin with a brief 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 in it. That in turn creates a more restful state of mind. In other words, the perfect conditions for a gentle, restful sleep. So to begin, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure you are 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, any time 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. The booths were designed for comfort, an invitation for the listeners to stay a while, and one regular patron in particular is taking full advantage of the atmosphere. Sitting at a booth alone, Yuki closes his eyes and leans back against the plush fabric. Relaxing in his khaki chinos and high collared jacket, he feels grateful to have caught only a little of the rain on his way home from working with kids all day. He shakes the play factory slime from his mind and sips his tea before the needle drops on the B side of another...