Thanks for joining me,
Clara,
On this visualization where you will discover calm and sleep in a magical remote canyon.
Before we begin,
Please find a place where you feel comfortable.
Close your eyes.
Relax all the muscles in your face.
Focus on your forehead until it feels free of tension.
Feel the tightness melt away from your eyes.
Drop your shoulders as low as possible to relieve any stress in your neck.
Relax your upper and lower arms.
Then move down to your fingers.
Relax your chest and fill your lungs with air.
Release.
Then move down your legs and finish at your ankles and feet.
Finally find yourself walking through a ponderosa pine forest on the eastern edge of the Great Basin.
Peacefulness is amplified by a relaxing wind whispering through the trees,
Carrying a butterscotch fragrance from the ponderosas.
Crickets chirp and a canyon wren sings in the distance.
The footpath is well worn by the people who've wandered this way.
Yet today you're the only person here.
The pine trees loom overhead,
Growing in between their tall,
Straight trunks,
A brushwood and a few aspens,
Turning gold with the season.
White,
Red,
Indian paintbrushes and small sunflowers grow wild among the tall grasses lining the pathway.
The terrain changes as the trail begins to meander tightly through a narrow slot canyon.
The sheer cliffs,
Rising up on both sides,
Have been carved over a million years by flowing water running swiftly here.
Large rocks hinder the flow and smooth,
Glassy tongues of water drop down into small pools.
The deeper into the canyon you go,
The steeper the canyon walls become.
The place more remote.
At times you can almost feel the canyon breathe with pockets of warm air in the sun and cool air in the shade.
The canyon walls are smooth.
Orange red,
Ribbons with horizontal layers of sediment.
Raspberry red,
Tempered with mauve and violet.
In places,
Small grasses and other high desert plants push the possibilities of life.
Riding out of the sheer rock face.
The canyon narrows now into a twilight slot.
You begin walking along in a shallow shoal of water.
The canyon walls are close enough now that you can touch the smooth sides on either side with outstretched hands.
You can feel the lithe sweep of brushes.
The carved strokes in the stone from the water that shaped them over time.
You're walking in the time between embedded in the slender canyon.
The path ends at a cascading spring of crystalline water spilling into an emerald pool.
Surprisingly the water is warm.
You've discovered some hot springs.
The strength of the jeweled water carved through the stone and rocks.
Layer upon layer,
Eon upon eon to create this perfect pool.
You take off your clothes and step into the water.
You float on your back.
The wildness here has brought you to an essence which is pure.
You relax for a long time.
Breathing in and out.
Breathless.
The afternoon wanes into twilight as you get out of the water and put your clothes on you notice a small stone firing you gather the bleached driftwood that's been washed up on the shale shores.
After lighting the fire a small blaze is warm enough to keep the approaching evening chill away.
The fire sparkles and crackles the stars appear one by one through the canyon's narrow slot and blink in the inky sky above.
You allow yourself to drift off to sleep cradled in the center of the canyon in the middle of the luminous night.
Thank you for listening and sleep well.
