Speaker 1: In the garden there are places to sit. There is
Speaker 1: a stone bench half covered in moss. There is a
Speaker 1: wooden chair beneath an arbor. There is a low wall
Speaker 1: at the garden's edge where you could sit and look
Speaker 1: out over the rest of the garden. You do not
Speaker 1: need to sit, but the garden offers these places. The
Speaker 1: garden is generous with its rest. The light in the
Speaker 1: garden does not change. The light is always the same.
Speaker 1: The body is warm. The body is being held by
Speaker 1: the bed, by the blankets. By the night. Nine eight seven.
Speaker 1: The numbers grow softer. The numbers grow farther apart. There
Speaker 1: is more space between them. Now there is more sunlight.
Speaker 1: Violence six five four. You may lose the numbers. That
Speaker 1: is all right. If the numbers fade, just let them fade.
Speaker 1: The breath is still there, The body is still there.
Speaker 1: Let you mind find a number, any number. Let it
Speaker 1: be twenty. Breathe in, and as you breathe out, say
Speaker 1: the number to yourself slowly. Twenty breathe in, breathe out. Nineteen.
Speaker 1: Let the number carry you down. Each breath a number lower,
Speaker 1: each breath a step closer to rest. Eighteen seventeen sixteen.
Speaker 1: Do not think about the numbers. Just let them pass,
Speaker 1: Let them be the rhythm of your breath. Your head
Speaker 1: does not need to do anything tonight except rest. Let
Speaker 1: your attention come to your neck, to the muscles along
Speaker 1: the sides of your throat, to the small muscles at
Speaker 1: the base of your skull. Feel them lengthen, feel them soften.
Speaker 1: They have been holding your head up all day. Tonight
Speaker 1: they are allowed to rest. Let your shoulders drop, Let
Speaker 1: them drop toward the bed, Let them settle. You are
Speaker 1: exactly where you are supposed to be, in this bed,
Speaker 1: in this breath, in this moment, you are allowed to rest.
Speaker 1: Rest is not laziness. Rest is not weakness. Rest is
Speaker 1: the foundation of everything else. Without rest, nothing works. With rest,
Speaker 1: everything becomes possible. You are worthy of this sleep. You
Speaker 1: are worthy of this peace. You are worthy of being
Speaker 1: held by the night.
Speaker 2: Now, let your breathing find its own rhythm, a rhythm
Speaker 2: that is a little slower than your waking rhythm, a
Speaker 2: rhythm that is a little deeper.
Speaker 1: Breathe in through your nose. Feel the air as it enters,
Speaker 1: cool the nostrils, cool in the throat, cool chest. Breathe
Speaker 1: out through your mouth softly, slowly, let the breath leave
Speaker 1: without effort. Your feet sink slightly into it as you walk.
Speaker 1: You read, chuck and pull a book from a shelf.
Speaker 1: The book is small. The book is bound in soft
Speaker 1: brown leather. The title on the spine is in gold,
Speaker 1: but you cannot read the language. You open the book.
Speaker 1: The pages are thin. The pages are creamy. The pages
Speaker 1: are filled with words in a script you do not know,
Speaker 1: but you do not need to know the words. The
Speaker 1: body is doing its work. The body knows how to rest.
Speaker 1: The body is resting right now. You are resting right now.
Speaker 1: The garden becomes less distinct, the path, the bench, the
Speaker 1: heron the tree. They fade gently into a wash of
Speaker 1: green and gold and warmth. The garden does not disappear.
Speaker 1: The garden becomes a feeling. The garden becomes a sense
Speaker 1: of being held. The garden becomes the peace you carry
Speaker 1: with you as you sleep. And then we really become
Speaker 1: becomes a fair. The walls remember voices, the windows remember light.
Speaker 1: You are in a hallway. The hallway is long. The
Speaker 1: hallway is lit by a single window at the far end.
Speaker 1: The light from the window falls in a long rectangle
Speaker 1: on the wooden floor. The light is the light of
Speaker 1: late afternoon. The light is golden. There are doors along
Speaker 1: the hallway. Some of the doors are open, some of
Speaker 1: the doors are closed. The sleep is still there, waiting
Speaker 1: for you at the bottom of the count three two one.
Speaker 1: And now there are no numbers. There is only breath.
Speaker 1: There is only the rise and fall of the chest.
Speaker 1: There is only the slow tide of the body letting go,
Speaker 1: the feeling of being in a house that has always
Speaker 1: been here, the feeling of being in a house that
Speaker 1: will always be here, the feeling of being held by
Speaker 1: the walls, by the floors, by the windows, by the
Speaker 1: long quiet of a house at rest. I remember the
Speaker 1: gradius of the first I then the last guy for
Speaker 1: finish surround him has a question. But then the true
Speaker 1: violence of correctly stater, the feeling of being to traumatiize
Speaker 1: of them. Then the lawless psy hides of quiet from
Speaker 1: the lord's by the lice lights be lust, the contempt
Speaker 1: to listen, to free, the fewing of plays of we
Speaker 1: we see, the while that he's allied with the waif
Speaker 1: to will be give them into a strain