Shop of Curiosities

Hi there, and welcome back to the old curiosity shop, where the lights are low, the vibe is cozy, and the curious are captivating. It's a sleepy little place for inquiring minds. If you have one of those, the kind of mind that finds itself wandering, that is, well, this is the perfect place to wander and wonder in. Before we get started, let's pause for a moment to do a brief 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 are distracted by thought, simply note it thinking and return to the breath, or if a feeling arises, note it as 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. As you've probably gathered by now, the Old Curiosity Shop is not really a shop at all, that is, a place where you can buy things. It's more like a small museum, though the objects on display are not necessarily items of value. They're just things that the owner happened to like. Even a quick glance around the space will reveal all manner of stuff: old railway signage, a shelf of novelty teapots, an Art Nouveau Lab with beaded fringing, a sunburst wall clock, driftwood sculptures, a taxidermied peacock. The longer you spend looking, of course, the more you'll find. You may have heard the expression, "A cat may look at a king." Well, in the...