Slow Train

There's something about taking a slow train, that satisfying on a fundamental level while this train is no express it's showing no sign of delay. We're just chugging away, gently through the landscape. Of course, one boards a train to get from A to B, just by sitting in one place you're achieving that, which frees you to relax, to enjoy the passing scenery without any sense that there's something else that requires your attention. And now everything that could be done has been done. All that's left is the pure enjoyment of the land unrolling around you like a never ending tapestry. To get us in the mood for this journey, it's always nice to begin with a little wind down. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. So 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. Focusing 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 a sense of the muscles switching off. Our 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 and the upper half of the legs, any tension melting away, being let go off. 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. The 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. The hands, fingers just switching off any the muscles around the throat and the neck, switching off. The head, the 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. In the valley below the train tracks, you see a sunny bustling city. Buildings rise into the sky like the jagged edge of a key. Gray highways thread throughout the city. From this distance, the cars are just little flashes of light. In fact, the whole place seems to glow orange, from windows of apartments to mirrors on cars, let alone the great skyscrapers made of bright metal and glass. The city appears hazy and mesmerizing with all this reflected sunlight. Yet even the tallest building is tiny compared to the mountain looming...