So,
As you take a moment to close your eyes,
You can begin to comfortably fall asleep.
And while you're comfortably falling asleep,
I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster with the sound of my voice,
With the words that I use,
Or whether you'll fall asleep faster to the spaces between my words.
And as you comfortably drift off to sleep,
I'm going to tell a story in the background.
It's a story about a teenager who was in a library.
And this teenager is supposed to be studying.
And while they're turning the pages of a complex book,
They find that their mind isn't really in it.
They're struggling to focus on the pages.
They're struggling to take in what it is they're studying.
So they decide that they're going to put some music on.
They're going to listen to some music through headphones to help them to be able to focus on studying.
So they put their headphones on,
Turn on their music,
And start to listen to some calming,
Relaxing music.
And the headphones are noise cancelling.
So as the music begins,
The noises around them fade away.
And there weren't many noises in the library anyway.
But when you're trying to study,
Sometimes every little thing can catch your attention and prevent you from focusing.
And so you just need to alter the environment to one that helps you learn.
And so they listen to their favorite music.
And as they do,
While listening to that favorite relaxing music,
Their shoulders relax.
Their breathing starts to comfortably slow down.
They notice their gaze changing.
Their facial muscles relaxing.
They notice themselves starting to fall into a comfortable rhythm with reading and learning.
And they know that this strategy works well for them for studying.
But what they can do is,
During an exam,
They can recall the piece of music.
And when they do,
Because learning is state dependent,
It re-evokes the state and re-evokes all the memories and learning that was done in that state.
So they listen to the music,
Gaze at the pages,
And find that somehow the learning is just comfortably going into their mind.
As if they're easily and effortlessly learning one page,
Then turning,
And learning the next page,
And then the next page,
Then turning the pages,
And learning the next page,
And the next page.
And after a while of turning the pages,
They find they become more absorbed in the studying experience and less aware of the library around them.
And like all good learning,
You need to take breaks.
And so they are aware that after studying for a while,
They need to close the book,
Close their eyes,
And let their mind drift and daydream.
Because people do drift and daydream more frequently when they're studying and learning new things,
Because it's your brain's way of processing information.
And so after a while of studying that book,
They close the book,
Still allowing the music to play in their ears,
While they close their eyes and sit back in the chair for a moment,
And begin to go with the flow and let themselves drift and daydream.
And as they drift and daydream,
So they find themselves imagining that they're on a small little boat,
Gently rowing down a river,
A very small river.
And as they row down that river,
So they watch as a mother duck and a whole load of baby ducks swim down the river.
And how those little baby ducklings bob around and get curious about things at the river bank.
And then suddenly realize because of curiosity,
The other ducks have got off ahead a little way.
As they rush and kick their legs in a little rushy way,
They catch up with the other ducks flapping their little wings a little bit to try and get through the water a little bit faster to catch up with the group.
And then after a while,
Another little duckling will become curious with something.
And the same will happen again,
That the little ducklings keep becoming curious.
And the mother duck has to keep looking back and keeping an eye on all those little ducks.
And then the person just watches while gently rowing down the river.
As the mother duck jumps up onto the shore,
And then she sits there and turns and watches.
As the first of the baby ducks,
The first of the little ducklings jumps up at the shore and plops back in the water and has to jump a few times flapping its little wings just to get a foothold to make it up the bank.
And then the next duckling,
And the next duckling,
And the next.
Until there's just one left.
And the student watches as that one left struggles to get up that bank and the mother and all the other ducklings watch with expectant anticipation.
As the duckling jumps up at the bank flapping its little wings,
And then jumps up again and again but keeps sliding down,
And then has to look and analyse and try and work out a slightly different route.
It's a little bit smaller than the others and so it can't quite jump as high.
So it takes a look,
Works out a different route,
And then jumps up and finally manages to make it up onto the bank.
And then the mother duck stands up and all the ducklings and the mother walk off with mother in front and all the ducklings following in a line behind her.
And as she weaves and moves around different tufts of grass on the riverbank,
So the ducklings weave and move around those tufts as well.
And the student continues rowing down the river.
And while continuing rowing down the river,
The student notices on the other bank a beautiful little tabby cat.
And just watches as that cat seems to be walking around,
Doing its rounds around its territory,
Checking everything's okay,
Seems to be so relaxed,
Just walking gently around its territory.
And the student watches that cat for a little while.
Then the cat stops and sits down looking graceful,
Stands sitting tall,
And just watches as he rows by,
Watches as the student rows by,
And the student watches back.
And as the student continues to row,
So they notice how the sky is beginning to turn a beautiful orange as the sun gently sets.
And while the sun is gently setting,
So the student can hear the sound of the oars in the water,
Sloshing of the river water against the bank,
Sounds of birds in the sky.
And the sounds of animals beginning to settle down for the night.
And so the student pulls the boat in to the shore,
Ties the boat to the shore,
And sets up a little tent on the shore of the river.
And the student makes a small little campfire,
And cooks themselves some food while the fire crackles and pops,
And the light dances as the orange light of the sun glows over the horizon,
And the blueness of the night starts to set in,
And the sounds of crickets and evening and night time animals starts to appear,
And the breeze starts to cool down comfortably.
And the student eats some food,
And then sits there just gazing at the fire,
Listening to the surroundings as that fire burns down to embers,
To a comfortable glow,
Letting off some warmth.
And while the student rests there,
They become more tired and relaxed,
And the more tired and relaxed they become,
The more they think about drifting off asleep,
Until eventually they lie back in the tent.
They can hear the way the wind is blowing on the tent,
Moving the tent very slightly and gently in that wind,
Almost like it's lulling them to sleep,
As they drift comfortably asleep.
While they drift comfortably asleep,
So they begin to dream.
They dream about walking along a hilltop overlooking the sea,
With their partner,
Holding hands,
Looking in the view,
Feeling the love of their partner and the love for their partner,
And then finding the bench,
Sitting on that bench,
Putting an arm around each other,
And gazing out over the ocean,
And starting to wonder about the future,
About hope,
About what the future holds,
The things they've got to look forward to,
The type of things they can create for their future,
Plans that they have.
And just then,
Someone walks past them and stops,
And says to them,
Did they know that there's a book that can give them tremendous insight,
That can teach them about wisdom and life,
And what's important in life,
And what's not important in life,
And where priorities should lie,
And they were curious about this.
And the person said,
All you have to do is find the old lighthouse,
And you'll find that book.
And so together they got up,
They decided to go to the lighthouse,
Which is just a little way along from where they are,
And they went all the way to that lighthouse.
And the lighthouse was an unmanned lighthouse,
And they went into the lighthouse and they started exploring,
They climbed up all the spiral stairs,
Checking different rooms,
They went all the way up to the light.
They then climbed all the way back down those spiral stairs,
Having not found this book.
They left the lighthouse and wondered where this book might be and what this book is.
And then while exploring and discussing,
They learned that there used to be an old lighthouse,
And the old lighthouse used to be closer to the sea,
But as the sea has come in,
So they've had to move the lighthouse back and build a new one.
They looked from the top of the hill to try and see evidence of an old lighthouse,
And they could see where the old lighthouse must have been.
They could see slightly out to sea,
That the way the water was flowing,
Something underneath the sea,
Something under the surface,
Was disrupting the waves as they flowed by,
And so they figured that must be where the old lighthouse was.
So they went down the hill,
Went all the way down to the seashore.
They got into a small boat and rode out to where the water appeared to be separating and having the waves disrupted.
And then the student got into the water,
Took a deep breath and dived down.
He didn't have to go too far under the water to see that there was the ruins of an old lighthouse,
And he dived down to the sea floor,
Swam into the ruins and saw a chest,
And he grabbed hold of the chest and then swam back and swam back to the surface.
And him and his partner got that chest into their boat and rode back to the shore,
And on the shore they placed the chest down,
Figured out how to open the chest,
Opened it and found this strange looking book.
And they turned the page,
And then the next page and the next page,
And every single page just had a mirror on it.
And they didn't understand,
And they just turned all the pages all the way to the end of the book and every page just had a mirror on it.
And they passed the book between each other,
Taking it in turns to look at the book,
To look at different pages,
To look at the back,
The front,
To put it upside down,
Up the right way,
Back to front,
Front to back.
Whatever they did,
They couldn't make sense of it.
And so they just put it down on the ground on the sand between them,
And both were sat staring at the book in silence,
Working in their minds trying to figure out this book and the meaning of this book.
And then almost at exactly the same time,
As if they were somehow in sync with each other,
They looked at each other and could tell that the other one had worked out the meaning of the book,
And they smiled and they opened the book and smiled at the different pages.
And then the student found himself waking up in the morning in the tent to the sounds of morning birds,
The smooth running water sound of the river.
He got back in his boat,
Having packed everything away,
And he started rowing back the way he came.
And while he rode back the way he came,
He gradually found himself drifting back in his mind and starting to hear that music again,
And then noticing himself studying in the library,
As he opened the book and carried on with his studying.
Looking forward to getting home later,
Where he could drift and relax,
Comfortably asleep,
Dreaming about that book and about his experience,
And making sense of it all,
Because he's aware it was a profound experience to learn from.
Your You
