Majestic Zion

The roads leading up to Zion National Park are narrow and winding. Visitors from around the world carefully make their way up the steady incline, crossing bridges and hairpin turns to witness one of nature's most dramatic and expansive creations. The final destination is well worth the journey, especially at this time of day with the sun halfway across the horizon. The ancient sandstone landscape glows a vibrant red, the rock's natural color intensified by the rays of the setting sun. The churning river within the narrows canyon shimmers in brilliant white flashes, reflecting the fading daylight back up the rocky walls. The park seems to exist outside of time in a continuous state of transformation, making it the perfect location to stop, observe, and relax. So as we settle in for the evening, let's deepen our state of relaxation with a short wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. So no matter what's been going on today, whether it's been a busy day or a calm one, this is an opportunity to put everything down, to let go of any inner chatter, and find a place of rest in both the body and the mind. So first, get yourself comfortable in bed. Just taking a moment to pause and be still. And when you're ready, taking a big, deep breath, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out, allowing the body to sink down into your bed, feeling the weight of the body, allowing thoughts to come and go. (no audio) Now imagining a steady flow of warm sunlight flowing down through the body, dissolving any tension, any discomfort, as it begins to fill the body, starting with the toes, moving up through the feet, and the legs, being filled with sunlight. (no audio) The qualities of warmth, space, and ease, as it continues to travel up through the body, up past the waist, through the back, and the stomach. It's as though it washes away any discomfort. (no audio) It continues up through the chest and the upper back, into the shoulders, and down the arms, all the way down to the hands and fingers. A sense of relief in the body, and stillness in the mind, as it continues to travel up through the neck and the throat, into the head and face, all the way to the very top of the body, until there's nothing other than that sense of stillness remaining. And now just gently bringing the attention back to the body. (no audio) The towering cliffs of Zion are what remain of sand dunes from a vast desert that once covered large swaths of the North American continent. In the present day what's left of these ancient sandstone structures are enough to remind anyone that we are small entities in an expansive world. Each cliff is a capsule of millennia gone by. These eras remain visible to our eye...