Welcome.
Settle into a comfortable position.
And allow your body to become heavy and supported by the bed beneath you.
Close your eyes and take a few slow,
Easy breaths.
There is nothing you need to accomplish tonight.
Nothing you need to solve.
Nothing you need to figure out.
Simply allow yourself to be here.
Notice the feeling of the bed supporting your body.
Let your muscles soften.
Allow your jaw to relax,
Your shoulders to drop.
And your hands to become loose and comfortable.
Now bring your attention to your breathing.
There is no need to change the breath.
Simply notice it moving in and out,
Quietly and naturally.
Tonight we're going to use a practice called cognitive shuffling.
It's a simple technique that gives the thinking mind something gentle and unstructured to do,
While helping you let go of more purposeful,
Analytical thinking.
I'll give you a letter of the alphabet.
From that letter,
You'll think of a simple word.
Then rather than doing anything with that word,
You'll allow your mind to wander through other words that begin with the same letter.
There's no need to make a story.
No need to connect the words.
In fact,
The more random they are,
The better.
For example,
If I give you the letter B.
You might think,
Boat.
Then perhaps.
.
.
Banana.
Bottle.
Butterfly.
Button.
And when you run out of words,
Simply let the mind wander to another word,
Beginning with B.
And then you can choose another letter.
It doesn't matter which,
You don't have to go in alphabetical order.
There is no right or wrong answer.
If a word doesn't come immediately.
Don't search for one,
Simply wait and allow whatever comes to mind.
The goal isn't to concentrate intensely.
It's almost the opposite.
We are allowing the mind to wander gently and randomly,
Giving it less opportunity to become caught up in planning,
Remembering,
Worrying,
Or problem solving.
And if a thought about tomorrow appears,
That's okay.
If you suddenly remember something you forgot to do,
That's okay too.
You don't need to follow it.
Just return to the gentle game of words.
So let yourself settle even more deeply now.
Peel the weight of your body.
Feel the rhythm of your breathing.
And when you're ready,
We'll begin again with the letter B.
Banana.
Butterfly bottle.
Button.
Berry.
Breeze.
Bird.
Bumblebee.
And now let the words become softer and more distant.
You don't need to remember them,
You don't need to keep track.
Simply allow another word to appear.
And another.
And another.
If your mind wanders away completely,
That's perfectly fine.
Perhaps that's exactly what we want.
Let the words become fragments.
Images.
Little flashes of thought.
And then let them disappear.
Now the letter C.
Candle.
Cat.
Cloud.
Coffee.
Circle.
Cedar.
Cactus.
Cookie.
Canyon.
And allow the mind to wander.
There is nowhere to go.
Nothing to accomplish.
Nothing to figure out.
Just words appearing and disappearing in the quiet of your mind.
Door.
Dog Dandelion.
Dream.
Driftwood.
Dolphin and perhaps somewhere along the way.
You notice that the words are becoming less important.
The spaces between them longer.
The mind becomes less interested in finding the next word.
And you can simply rest.
You can let the practice fade into the background.
The bed is beneath you.
The breath is moving naturally.
The body is becoming heavier.
And there is nothing more you need to do tonight.
Just rest.
Just breathe.
And let yourself drift.
