Hello my friend,
Welcome to your sleep story.
My name is Stephen Dalton,
And as always,
It's my great privilege to be the voice that you listen to as you go to sleep tonight.
Tonight's story marks the start of a new series.
This series has a bit of a personal touch.
I will take you on journeys inspired by my own adventures in life,
And I'm calling this series Wanderings of an Irishman Abroad.
Tonight's story will bring us to India and to a train journey that I had back in 2006.
So before the story,
Allow me to help you get more relaxed.
Just begin to notice the breath,
This life-giving force,
As it enters and leaves your body.
How many times today have you noticed your breath?
Probably not much,
So just notice it.
Allow yourself to feel gratitude for your breath.
You are safe here,
Everything is okay,
The day is done,
And this is your moment to really relax and switch off.
You deserve this,
Indulge yourself.
Feel the support of your bed or the floor beneath you,
And perhaps go deeper than that.
Feel the earth support you.
It's amazing,
Really,
This earth that keeps us grounded,
That supports our every move.
This earth.
Maybe allow a little bit of gratitude now for earth,
As you fall deeper and deeper towards a place of complete relaxation,
From 10 to 1.
And as I do,
Allow yourself to feel more any tension in your feet.
Let it go now.
Their work for today is done.
Any lingering thoughts of the day,
Release them now.
The day is over.
Whatever will happen tomorrow will happen.
Whatever has happened today is already in the past,
Is right now.
7.
Make a conscious decision now to allow yourself to enjoy this moment,
To give yourself permission to just be.
6.
My voice is your friend,
And I will walk you towards a deep and restful sleep.
You are so safe.
Everything is fine.
4.
Any tension in your hands,
Their work is done for today.
Just like you,
They need to rest.
3.
Any tension in your face or head.
Amazing that when you notice it,
It disappears.
2.
Take two big deep breaths now,
In through your nose and out through your mouth.
Make sure you're lying comfortably as I take you to the year 2006 and on my adventure in India.
It was the late afternoon when I arrived in the Central Station in Mumbai.
It was hot.
It was October.
And I was very excited,
Filled with joy in fact,
To be traveling on an Indian train and heading for Goa.
I had never been on an Indian train before.
And to be honest,
I don't remember if I knew what to expect.
I had my lonely planet guide and my rough guide to India.
I had probably read about what it would be like to travel on an Indian train.
But really,
Nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced in the most memorable journey of my life.
I queued for what felt like a very long time.
When I got to the top of the queue,
I asked could I get a ticket for Goa.
I'd only been in India for a couple of days by then.
And the man behind the counter nodded his head in an unusual way.
It kind of went from side to side.
I'd learn later that that would often mean yes.
But I couldn't be sure.
I got my ticket for the second class sleeper carriage and went to find my train.
I remember that the train was blue and it was extremely long.
I also remember that there were a lot of people in the station and a lot of smiling faces.
Everyone seemed kind of happy here.
The heat.
The heat was something new to me.
A kind of tropical heat.
I was only in my early twenties and this was my first time so far away from home.
I found my compartment.
It was a bunk bed in a little square room.
And the pervading feeling of all of this time.
It is a feeling of coziness,
Safety,
Curiosity and adventure.
I picked my bed as I was the first one there.
I went for the bottom bunk if I recall.
It could have been the top but I can't be sure.
I know that I chose the one going in the direction the train would travel.
That was important for me.
As I always do.
I set up my little house if you like.
My little area.
To be as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.
I was traveling like most backpackers do.
With one big bag on my back.
And one smaller rucksack on my front.
The big bag I didn't need in this moment.
The smaller bag had all of the goodies.
So,
What were my goodies?
What kept me entertained and sustained this 12 hour train journey?
In those days,
As is the case today,
I never traveled anywhere without my journal.
I also had my two guidebooks.
And of course,
The book that I was reading at the time.
A pretty famous book called The Catcher in the Rye by J.
D.
Salinger.
Of course,
I had some water.
Some samosas to eat.
And lastly,
This was a time before smartphones.
Yes,
It's not that long ago.
It was a time before we lost the simplicity that we didn't even know we were about to lose.
In this time,
They probably communicated more face to face.
Or maybe I'm just being nostalgic.
That when the people who would share my little courage came along,
That I talked to them a lot.
They were,
If I'm not mistaken,
Two Australian girls backpacking around India.
It was time for the train to leave the station.
And all I can say is that when I think of that moment,
A great feeling of openness and serenity passes through me.
It's like my soul smiles.
The air from outside started to come in through the open window.
The windows never close.
In fact,
I don't think there are windows in those second class sleeper trains.
Just bars.
It was kind of like beautiful,
Soft air condition,
And natural too.
As I got my first glimpses of the Indian countryside,
Fields and fields,
Lots and lots of palm trees,
Breathing in that moment.
Breathing in the expansive,
Beautiful energy around me that I never knew existed until I went there.
In fact,
I remember in India smelling smells that I'd never smelled,
Hearing sounds that I'd never heard.
In some ways,
It was like going to another planet,
A beautiful,
As the soft breeze came through the window and I settled in to my little habitat.
I remember journaling vividly.
I still have that journal.
It is unlike anywhere I have ever been,
About my anticipation of what was to come.
I wrote about what I was seeing around me.
I wrote about a moment,
A very poor,
And the one thing that I remember was that everyone was smiling.
Ladies were out washing their clothes,
Doing different jobs.
I stayed with me all of these years,
An image of community,
The train,
Through the beautiful Indian countryside,
Traveling down.
The trains in India are so important to the people.
You know they span over 67,
000 kilometers,
Has over 1.
3 billion people,
Take the Indian trains.
The trains provide employment and they move tourists like me.
Another thing I remember was that people are very curious in India,
Especially if you are obviously not from there.
Where are you from,
Sir?
They would ask me.
What is your job,
Sir?
Are you a famous actor?
But that didn't matter.
I might as well have been famous.
I had a pair of sunglasses with green rims and everyone who saw them on me asked me if they could try them on.
And so I let them and took a photo of them wearing the sunglasses.
I still have my photos from India,
Thousands of photos in fact,
Printed out.
And at least 30 of those photos are of people wearing my green sunglasses There were promises that the train would stop in little stations along the way.
People would smile and wave at the train,
Excited to see something different in their day.
Mystical.
And as it got darker outside and the first stars began to appear,
I felt cozier and cozier as I settled into my little bed,
As I listened to the sounds around me.
The rhythmic clickety-clack of the train on the tracks,
The people talking to each other,
The boys walking through the train,
Selling chai.
Chai,
Chai,
Chai,
They would say.
Feeling deeply curious,
And the adventure is great.
And so I opened my beloved book to read this great book in a cozy bed on a magnificent train.
So tranquil.
Rejuvenating sleep.
Safe in the knowledge
