Albert the Cat

Good evening. It's a lovely night for a stroll. There are a few spots of rain here and there, but they only make the air feel more refreshing. You've got the perfect companion for your outing. He's a handsome ginger tomcat, known to some as Albert, to others as Red. And well, he's a feline with as many names as he has friends. He has a lot of friends by the way. If you play your cards right, you could even become one of them. In fact, he's off to see some of his friends now. Would you like to join him? But first, let's pause for a short wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. When you're ready, let's begin. So just take a moment to get comfortable. Letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped, of having nothing left to do. We're going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body, watching as the muscles in the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So starting down at the toes and feeling a sense of the muscles switching off. The feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. Notice any tension being let go of as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension melting away, being let go of. Into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscles shutting down for the night. Completely at rest. Everything from the waist downward is heavy. At ease. The muscles in the lower back and the stomach are now switching off. Middle of the back around the diaphragm, the upper back, and the chest. So any muscles not needed shutting down, switching off for the night. The shoulders switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms switching off. The hands, fingers just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck, switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the eyes, any last areas of tension melting away as the muscles shut down, switch off at rest for the night. And allowing thoughts to come and go, allowing the mind and body the space they need to rest. Albert's next stop is a local artist studio. Being the gregarious fellow he is. Albert has no qualms about what some might see as breaking and entering, and he enters the studio the same way he always does. Through the large window that's generally left wide open even in inclement weather. His friend, the artist, is taking a break from his work. He's seated on a paint-speckled wooden chair holding a cup of tea while he gazes critically at the half finished piece on his easel before the painter has even noticed the cat's arrival, Albert has leapt onto his lap and softly nudges his...