Midnight Launderette

Hello. Thanks for joining us tonight for this visit to the midnight launderette. We're gonna help you to rinse away the worries of the day, creating the ideal conditions for a healthy, restful sleep. Each night, we like to start with a short exercise which we call a wind down. Tonight's wind down is a breathing exercise. So, when you're ready, let's begin. Just bringing the attention to the breath. Noticing where you feel it in the nose, the throat, the chest, the diaphragm. You're nice and relaxed. We're gonna be taking a deep breath in for four, holding it for four, and then breathing out for six. So are you ready? Let's begin. In for four. Two, three, four. Hold it for four. Two, three, four. Now I'm breathing out for six. Two, three, four, five, six. In for four. Two, three, four. Holding for four. Two, three, four. Out for six. Two, three, four, five, six. In for four. Two, three, four. Holding for four. Two, three, four. Out for six. Two, three, four, five, six. In for four. Two, three, four. Holding for four. Two, three, four. Out for six. Two, three, four, five, six. Great. Now returning the breath to normal. From the dark street, the Midnight Launderette looks so inviting. There's a warm glow emanating from the storefront, and you can see people silently moving around inside, bending to take things out of the machines or put things into them, and straightening up again. You can see the colors of the clothes they're wearing, faded blue jeans that have probably been through those washing machines a thousand times, comfy sweatshirts in different shades. Evie pulls her clothes out of the tumble dryer and holds them in her arms for a moment. She's wearing chunky knitted socks pulled up over her leggings and a big old shirt with the ends tied at her waist. Hoping nobody will see, she buries her face in her clean clothes to inhale the warm, dry, homely smell of them. If anybody notices, they don't bat an eyelid. They understand the impulse perfectly. Evie drops the clothes into the basket at her feet and carries it to a work bench to the right of the tumble dryers, which she thinks of as the folding area. Evie loves to fold clothes. The expression on her face as she folds is pure concentration. She has a stack of gold bangles on each wrist which slide up and down her arms as she handles the clothes. When she has a neat pile of folded garments, she presses it gently so the pile sinks slightly for a moment and rises back up. The young man leaning against the work bench next to the dryers is called Timmy. He's tall and somewhat willowy of physique with a sweep of floppy hair. His head troops a little like a puppy on its stem. The shirt he's wearing looks slightly too big for him. And he has a...