Sandy Cove

Sandy Cove Cottage is a charming stone house, nestled on a grassy slope above a secluded beach with woodlands stretching up over the hills behind it. A view from the picture window, which looks out over the bay, perfectly encapsulates the phrase, "Getting away from it all. From here, you can see the calm sea in a peaceful bay where the gulls call and the waves lap the shore in contemplation. The scene is a living reminder that there is a world outside the hustle and bustle of daily life. Everything here, the sea, the open sky, the beach, has a gentleness about it. And we have all the time in the world to enjoy it. Before we begin, I think it's nice to start with a little wind down. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. Just take a moment to get comfortable. Letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped, of having nothing left to do. We're going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body. Watching as the muscles in the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So starting down at the toes and just to sense the muscles switching off, the feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. So any tension being let go of as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs any tension melting away, being let go of. Into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscles shutting down for the night, completely at rest. Everything from the waist down is heavy, at ease. Muscles in the lower back and the stomach now switching off. Middle of the back around the diaphragm, the upper back and the chest. So any muscles not needed shutting down, switching off for the night. The shoulders switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms switching off. Hands, fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck switching off. The head, face, the jaw, the eyes and the last areas of tension melting away as the muscles shut down, switch off at rest for the night. And allowing thoughts to come and go, allowing the mind and body the space they need to rest. As you drove down the winding hill through the forest to get to the cottage, a feeling of peace descended amid the soothing green light of the trees and the scent of wild garlic. Occasionally, an overgrown bush or stray bow would brush against the sides of your car with a pleasant somehow encouraging rustle, as if to say, "Nearly there". And in the background, beyond the sound of the car's engine and its tires crunching as they rolled over the stony ground, if you listened closely, maybe just maybe, you...