Whispering Pines

Welcome to the forest of the Whispering Pines. The wind is blowing in the high trees and their trunks bend gracefully to accommodate it. The trees are engaged in a dance, a dance to celebrate the wind. They exult in it, bending their trunks in response to the wind's touch. 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 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. Noticing 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, 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 and shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension just melting away, being let go of, into the area of the hip, 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, the fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck, switching off. The head, the face the jaw, the eyes, any last areas of tension melting away as the muscles shut down and switch off, at rest for the night. Allowing thoughts to come and go, allowing the mind and body the space they need to rest. 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. There are clouds high up in the sky, barely visible as chalk smudges against the blue-black of the sky. And when they pass by the moon, they appear as a halo to its white near...