Night Train

The air is still and peaceful here aboard the night train, now that the sun has set. The cars chug steadily through the dark blue landscape like a quiet heartbeat, climbing up the gentle curve of the hillside. It's a windless night and the moon hangs high above, beaming its silvery light through each cabin window. The passing fir forests cast their pointed shadows over the meadows and fields like musical notes sketched on the ground. One can almost hear their tune just by looking, a song of peace, stillness and beauty, accompanied by the steady rhythm of the chugging train. Now as we settle in for our journey, let's begin the evening with a short 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 gentle, restful sleep. So to begin, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure you're 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, anytime 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 railroad tracks weave through a quiet peaceful forest of oak and ash trees. The branches arch over the tracks and form a tunnel of leaves, a natural ceiling under which the train chugs along slowly. The leaves sway back and forth in the gentle midnight breeze, flickering like candlelight. Here in the forest, the trees form a protective canopy for the nocturnal life that passes outside the window. The buttery yellow eyes of...