Whispering Pines

Welcome to the forest of the Whispering Pines. The wind is blowing gently through the branches of the trees and their trunks bend gracefully in response. The trees are supple and they dance with the wind as their partner, swaying gently as though to some unheard tune. Their outstretched branches just touching like fingertips. And it's the sound that is produced that gives the forest its name, Whispering Pines. Can you hear it? What a beautiful place it is. Before we begin, I think it's nice to start with a little 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 in 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, 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 state of mind for gentle, restful sleep. So to begin with, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure that you're nice and cool. Just starting with some nice, big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out-breath just allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm, in and out through the nose. And just feeling the weight of the body pressing 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. And when you get to 10, you can stop and start again at one. And remember, any time 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 feeling and return to the breath. The 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. If we keep our voices down, there's every chance that we'll see some of the wildlife that make their home here. The quiet creatures of the woodland, the plants and animals, we can be like them, treading carefully and quietly through the undergrowth, invisible and not leaving a trace behind. In daylight, the pine needles are a very dark green at this time of year. Yet in the moonlight, they appear almost black. The trunks of the trees are lit in silver by the light of the gibbous moon. A fallen tree lies...