Meandering Stream

Here we are, standing at the bank of a mountain stream where the steady flow of water finds its way back to the ocean. I like to come to this mountain stream to unwind especially on days like this. It's the perfect temperature here, not too cold and not too hot. With no agenda and no map, let's follow the stream and see where it takes us. It flows with ease, winding and weaving through fallen branches and over smooth rocks. You hear the light trickle of the water. Before we continue down stream, I like to do a little wind down. 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. 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. The qualities of warmth space and ease as it continues to travel up through the body, up past the waist, to the back and the stomach. It's as though it washes away any discomfort, continues up through the chest and the 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. You follow the sloping path, itself following the water. A combination of the bright autumn sun and the sounds of the water spilling from one rock pool to another gives you a sense of ease which you've not experienced with other bodies of water. You have not felt this way at a swimming pool, for instance, or at the sea. There is something compelling about this stream. It catches you in its current, its way of going with the flow. You're thinking differently from before. And the further you walk, the more absorbed you become in its watery thought process. It's not that the water drowns out your thoughts. No, not at all. It's just that they seem to get...