Rest Amongst the Redwoods

The sun is beginning to set here at Redwood National Park. It's early spring in Northern California, and as the temperatures begin to warm, the forest floor starts coming to life. Budding pine needles and leaves burst from their branches, bringing much awaited springtime shades of green to the lush canopy of the forest. Though the park is quietening down for the evening, it's not completely silent. Your campsite tonight is near a babbling stream, lit by the moon. The trickling water makes for the perfect bedtime lullaby. Under the stars, a newly sprouted spring leaves. This enchanting grove is the perfect place to rest up for tomorrow's adventures. So as we settle in for tonight's journey, let's begin our evening with a short, wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. So when you are ready, let's begin. 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, taking a moment to pause and be still. And when you are ready, taking a big, deep breathe, breathing in through the nose (breathe inhaling) and out through the mouth. (breathe exhaling) 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. And 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, through the back, and the stomach. It's as though it washes away any discomfort. 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 gently, bringing the attention back to the body. After a long day of resting on the sand, a sea lion slides from the shore of Klamath Beach and into the Pacific. His smooth, brown snout disappears under the waves as the sun sets overhead. As he swims further out, he encounters a pod of gray whales on their way back from the lagoons in Mexico's Baja Peninsula. This pod migrates over 10,000 miles each year. But as the day turns into night, it's here they rest and play. Meanwhile, on the cliff side above the shore at Klamath...