Breathe In, Breathe Out (Encore)
Our story tonight is called Breathe in, Breathe Out, and it’s a story about setting aside some time to just be in a special place. It’s also about a cup of green tea, learning to hop away a little less, and the goodness of knowing you are welcome.
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Transcript
Speaker 1 Get more, nothing much happens, with bonus episodes, extra long stories, and ad-free listening, all while supporting the show you love. Subscribe now.
Speaker 2 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.
Speaker 2 These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save.
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Speaker 1 Welcome to bedtime stories for everyone,
Speaker 1 in which
Speaker 1 nothing much happens.
Speaker 1 You feel good,
Speaker 1 and then
Speaker 1 You fall asleep.
Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.
Speaker 1 I write and read
Speaker 1 all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.
Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittercheim.
Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past.
Speaker 1
It could have been recorded with different equipment. in a different location.
And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.
Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family-friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.
Speaker 1 Let me say something about how to use this podcast.
Speaker 1 I'm about to tell you a bedtime story.
Speaker 1 It's a simple story without much action,
Speaker 1 but full of relaxing detail.
Speaker 1 Sometimes when you try to fall asleep, you might find that your mind races,
Speaker 1 and it's tricky to slow it down or direct it.
Speaker 1 Well, the story is like an inviting, well-organized garage. that we steer your racing mind into.
Speaker 1 And as you follow along with the sound of my voice, your mind will slow to a stop
Speaker 1 until there is nothing left to do but sleep.
Speaker 1 I'll tell the story twice
Speaker 1 and I'll go a little slower the second time through.
Speaker 1 If you find yourself awake again later in the night,
Speaker 1 Think your way back through the story or listen again to go right back to sleep.
Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Breathe In, Breathe Out.
Speaker 1 And it's a story about setting aside some time to just be in a special place.
Speaker 1 It's also about a cup of green tea,
Speaker 1 learning to hop away a little less.
Speaker 1 And the goodness of knowing you are welcome.
Speaker 1 Now,
Speaker 1 it's time to turn off the light and put away anything that isn't your sleep mask or teddy bear.
Speaker 1 You have indeed done enough for today.
Speaker 1 Nothing else is required of you.
Speaker 1 You're done.
Speaker 1 I'll be here reading even after you've fallen asleep,
Speaker 1 watching over you with my voice.
Speaker 1 Now,
Speaker 1 let's take a deep breath in through your nose
Speaker 1 and a slow sigh out through your mouth.
Speaker 1 Nice.
Speaker 1 We need one more. In
Speaker 1 and out.
Speaker 1 Good.
Speaker 1 Breathe in, breathe out.
Speaker 1 Before I turned the open sign
Speaker 1 and unlocked the door,
Speaker 1 I always sat for a few minutes by myself in the quiet of the yoga room.
Speaker 1 Today I had a cup of tea with me
Speaker 1 and a little cushion
Speaker 1 I pulled down from the shelf.
Speaker 1 In the big open space, I gravitated to a corner
Speaker 1 where I felt tucked in
Speaker 1 and unobtrusive,
Speaker 1 which
Speaker 1 I suppose was strange, since I was completely alone.
Speaker 1 It's a feeling you have though, sometimes, isn't it?
Speaker 1 That you'd just rather not be observed.
Speaker 1 That privacy recharges you.
Speaker 1 That's why I liked these minutes before opening the studio.
Speaker 1 I heard the word ambivert once,
Speaker 1 describing someone who moved back and forth between extroversion and introversion,
Speaker 1 who could be the center of attention,
Speaker 1 or,
Speaker 1 in my case, the teacher in the room,
Speaker 1 and then retreat inward,
Speaker 1 and with the same comfort and ease,
Speaker 1 be alone.
Speaker 1 I had a feeling that was probably something
Speaker 1 most people could relate to.
Speaker 1 We are different people a hundred times a day.
Speaker 1 I shifted on my cushion so that I could sit up tall
Speaker 1 and roll my shoulders back.
Speaker 1 I set my cup down beside me and let my eyes close.
Speaker 1 I took a slow breath down into the bottoms of my lungs and let it bloom up into my chest
Speaker 1 and then sighed it out
Speaker 1 through my lips.
Speaker 1 I listened to the sounds in the room.
Speaker 1 Sometimes my whole meditation
Speaker 1 was just listening
Speaker 1 and not only here on my cushion,
Speaker 1 but
Speaker 1 when I rode the bus or stood on the corner by the cafe,
Speaker 1 I listened to the sounds around me,
Speaker 1 the hiss of the bus door,
Speaker 1 the people walking past, or
Speaker 1 right now.
Speaker 1 The atmospheric hum in the room.
Speaker 1 The yoga room is warm.
Speaker 1 Not overly hot,
Speaker 1 but warm enough to not need a sweater.
Speaker 1 To feel like you can stretch out on your mat in complete comfort,
Speaker 1 even when a blizzard is blowing outside,
Speaker 1 I could hear the furnace
Speaker 1 and a slight tinny ring of the air register vibrating as the heat flowed through it.
Speaker 1 I could also pick out the sound of the humidifier.
Speaker 1 It made a soft,
Speaker 1 staticky hiss
Speaker 1 as it softened the air.
Speaker 1 When my mind revved up
Speaker 1 and started off in another direction,
Speaker 1 I pivoted back to the present
Speaker 1 by listening again.
Speaker 1 I listened for the sound of my own breath.
Speaker 1 It was very quiet,
Speaker 1 but perceptible
Speaker 1 and I noticed the touch of it
Speaker 1 on my upper lip.
Speaker 1 I smiled as I sat,
Speaker 1 thinking of a story we tell at yoga
Speaker 1 about a frog set down in the center of a plate
Speaker 1 and how he hops off in an instant.
Speaker 1 When you set him back in the center of the plate,
Speaker 1 a second later, he hops off in another direction.
Speaker 1 And
Speaker 1 so is your mind.
Speaker 1 And so is mine.
Speaker 1 With practice, we can lose some of our froggier characteristics,
Speaker 1 re-centering recentering ourselves in the middle of each moment,
Speaker 1 and learning to not hop away,
Speaker 1 even if it's just for a fraction of a second longer than last time.
Speaker 1 So
Speaker 1 I reset.
Speaker 1 I didn't hop.
Speaker 1 Minutes passed,
Speaker 1 and I reset a few more times.
Speaker 1 Then I just felt ready and done.
Speaker 1 So I took another long breath in
Speaker 1 and out
Speaker 1 and let my eyes blink open.
Speaker 1 I reached for my tea and took a drink of it,
Speaker 1 holding it in my mouth for a moment.
Speaker 1 It was green tea with lemon,
Speaker 1 and it tasted bright and citrusy.
Speaker 1 I stood and put my cushion away
Speaker 1 and got the room ready for my students.
Speaker 1 I was teaching a restorative yoga class this afternoon, and it had become one of my favorites on the schedule.
Speaker 1 It was a whole hour dedicated to resting
Speaker 1 and rebuilding.
Speaker 1 We used big cushions,
Speaker 1 sturdy bolsters, foam blocks,
Speaker 1 and even small weighted bean bags
Speaker 1 to settle our bodies into the most comfortable and comforting shapes we could find
Speaker 1 and then just let time pass,
Speaker 1 breathed,
Speaker 1 and let our nervous systems find their own level.
Speaker 1 It was a popular class, and as a teacher,
Speaker 1 I found that quite heartening.
Speaker 1 Sometimes students came in with one idea in mind
Speaker 1 of pushing, of always doing more, working harder.
Speaker 1 And it could take some convincing to help them see the benefits of softness
Speaker 1 and doing less.
Speaker 1 But maybe the world was doing that convincing for me these days.
Speaker 1 Because each week
Speaker 1 I had a few more students willing to try this class.
Speaker 1 I adjusted the lights
Speaker 1 low enough to make the room feel snug and private
Speaker 1 and put on some quiet music that my students would only notice if it stopped.
Speaker 1 I set out the props we'd need
Speaker 1 and took one more big breath in the room.
Speaker 1 It was something I noticed students doing naturally when they came here.
Speaker 1 They might have rushed to get here
Speaker 1 and carried that haste
Speaker 1 right up onto their mats.
Speaker 1 But once they settle down for a moment,
Speaker 1 they breathe in
Speaker 1 and breathe out.
Speaker 1 And
Speaker 1 they're back
Speaker 1 in the center of their plates.
Speaker 1 I stepped out of the room and into the lobby.
Speaker 1 I flipped the open sign hanging in the front window
Speaker 1 and unlocked the door.
Speaker 1 It was a clear, cold day,
Speaker 1 and I was grateful to be in this warm space.
Speaker 1 The old wood floors felt friendly under my bare feet.
Speaker 1 I stood behind the desk and laid a pencil on the sign-in sheet
Speaker 1 and watched people walking past on the sidewalk.
Speaker 1 Across the street, the tea shop looked busy,
Speaker 1 and I wrapped my hands around my own mug, eking out its last bit of warmth.
Speaker 1 Students began to arrive
Speaker 1 and I liked having a few moments with each one
Speaker 1 to chat and say hello,
Speaker 1 but also to gauge their mood
Speaker 1 and learn a bit about what they were coming in with.
Speaker 1 Some were cheery and excited to get in the yoga room.
Speaker 1 Some were quiet,
Speaker 1 just signing their name and giving me a small nod.
Speaker 1 One student stood back shyly,
Speaker 1 and when I waved her up to the desk,
Speaker 1 said she hadn't been to class in years.
Speaker 1 A note of embarrassment in her voice.
Speaker 1 I just said,
Speaker 1 You're here today,
Speaker 1 and smiled at her.
Speaker 1 She smiled back,
Speaker 1 and I walked her into the yoga room and got her set up with a bolster
Speaker 1 and the props she'd need for class.
Speaker 1 I looked up at the clock
Speaker 1 and saw it was time to begin.
Speaker 1 I stepped over to the front door
Speaker 1 and looked up and down the sidewalk.
Speaker 1 I always checked before we began,
Speaker 1 and sure enough, I spotted one of my regulars rushing toward me.
Speaker 1 I held open the door for him
Speaker 1 and ushered him in.
Speaker 1 He pulled off his hat and hopped around, trying to yank off his boots,
Speaker 1 saying, I'm late.
Speaker 1 I touched his arm and said in a quiet voice,
Speaker 1 You made it.
Speaker 1 You're here now.
Speaker 1 And he chuckled
Speaker 1 and took a breath in
Speaker 1 and let it out.
Speaker 1 Breathe in,
Speaker 1 breathe out.
Speaker 1 Before I turned the open sign
Speaker 1 and unlocked the door,
Speaker 1 I always sat for a few minutes by myself
Speaker 1 in the quiet of the yoga room.
Speaker 1 Today
Speaker 1 I had a cup of tea with me
Speaker 1 and a little cushion
Speaker 1 I pulled down from a shelf.
Speaker 1 In the big, open space
Speaker 1 I gravitated to a corner
Speaker 1 where
Speaker 1 I felt tucked in
Speaker 1 and unobtrusive,
Speaker 1 which
Speaker 1 I supposed was strange,
Speaker 1 since I was completely alone.
Speaker 1 It's a feeling you have, though, sometimes, isn't it?
Speaker 1 you'd just rather
Speaker 1 not be observed
Speaker 1 that privacy recharges you.
Speaker 1 That's why I liked these minutes
Speaker 1 before opening the studio.
Speaker 1 I heard the word ambivert once
Speaker 1 describing someone who moved back and forth
Speaker 1 between extroversion
Speaker 1 and introversion,
Speaker 1 who could be the center of attention,
Speaker 1 or
Speaker 1 in my case,
Speaker 1 the teacher in the room.
Speaker 1 And then retreat inward,
Speaker 1 and with the same comfort and ease,
Speaker 1 be alone.
Speaker 1 I had a feeling
Speaker 1 that was probably something
Speaker 1 most people could relate to.
Speaker 1 We are all different people a hundred times a day.
Speaker 1 I shifted on my cushion
Speaker 1 so that I could sit up tall
Speaker 1 and roll my shoulders back.
Speaker 1 I set my cup down beside me
Speaker 1 and let my eyes close.
Speaker 1 I took a slow breath down into the bottoms of my lungs and let it bloom up into my chest
Speaker 1 and sighed it out
Speaker 1 through my lips.
Speaker 1 I listened to the sounds in the room.
Speaker 1 Sometimes
Speaker 1 my whole meditation
Speaker 1 was just listening listening
Speaker 1 and not only here
Speaker 1 on my cushion
Speaker 1 But when I rode the bus
Speaker 1 or stood on the corner by the cafe
Speaker 1 I listened to the sounds around me
Speaker 1 the hiss of the bus door,
Speaker 1 the people walking past,
Speaker 1 or
Speaker 1 right now
Speaker 1 the atmospheric hum in the room.
Speaker 1 The yoga room is warm,
Speaker 1 not
Speaker 1 overly hot,
Speaker 1 but warm enough to not need a sweater
Speaker 1 to feel like you can stretch out on your mat
Speaker 1 in complete comfort,
Speaker 1 even when a blizzard is blowing outside.
Speaker 1 I could hear the furnace
Speaker 1 and a slight
Speaker 1 tinny ring of the air register
Speaker 1 vibrating as the heat flowed through it.
Speaker 1 I could also pick out the sound of the humidifier.
Speaker 1 It made a quiet, staticky hiss
Speaker 1 as it softened the air.
Speaker 1 When my mind revved up
Speaker 1 and started off in another direction,
Speaker 1 I pivoted back to the present
Speaker 1 by listening again.
Speaker 1 I listened for the sound of my own breath.
Speaker 1 It was very quiet,
Speaker 1 but perceptible
Speaker 1 And I noticed the touch of it on my upper lip.
Speaker 1 I smiled as I sat,
Speaker 1 thinking of a story
Speaker 1 we tell at yoga
Speaker 1 about a frog set down in the center of a plate
Speaker 1 and how he hops off in an instant.
Speaker 1 And when you set him back in the center of the plate,
Speaker 1 a second later he hops off in another direction.
Speaker 1 And
Speaker 1 so is your mind.
Speaker 1 And so is mine.
Speaker 1 With practice, we can lose some of our froggier characteristics,
Speaker 1 recentering ourselves in the middle of each moment,
Speaker 1 and learning to not hop away,
Speaker 1 even if it's just for a fraction of a second,
Speaker 1 longer than last time.
Speaker 1 So
Speaker 1 I reset.
Speaker 1 I didn't hop.
Speaker 1 Minutes passed,
Speaker 1 and I reset a few more times.
Speaker 1 Then I just felt ready
Speaker 1 and
Speaker 1 done.
Speaker 1 So I took another long breath in
Speaker 1 and out
Speaker 1 and let my eyes blink open.
Speaker 1 I reached for my tea
Speaker 1 and took a drink of it,
Speaker 1 holding it in my mouth for a moment.
Speaker 1 It was green tea with lemon
Speaker 1 and it tasted bright
Speaker 1 and citrusy.
Speaker 1 I stood
Speaker 1 and put my cushion away
Speaker 1 and got the room ready for my students.
Speaker 1 I was teaching a restorative yoga class this afternoon,
Speaker 1 and it had become one of my favorites on the schedule.
Speaker 1 It was a whole hour dedicated to resting and rebuilding.
Speaker 1 We used big cushions,
Speaker 1 sturdy bolsters,
Speaker 1 foam blocks,
Speaker 1 and even small weighted bean bags to settle our bodies into the most comfortable
Speaker 1 and comforting shapes we could find.
Speaker 1 And then
Speaker 1 just
Speaker 1 let time pass,
Speaker 1 breathed,
Speaker 1 and let our nervous systems find their own level.
Speaker 1 It was a popular class,
Speaker 1 and as a teacher, I found that quite heartening.
Speaker 1 Sometimes students come in with one idea in mind
Speaker 1 of pushing,
Speaker 1 of
Speaker 1 always doing more,
Speaker 1 working harder.
Speaker 1 And it could take some convincing
Speaker 1 to help them see the benefits of softness
Speaker 1 and doing less.
Speaker 1 But maybe the world
Speaker 1 was doing that convincing for me these days.
Speaker 1 Because each week I had a few more students willing to try this class.
Speaker 1 I adjusted the lights
Speaker 1 low enough to make the room feel snug and private
Speaker 1 and put on some quiet music
Speaker 1 that my students would only notice if it stopped.
Speaker 1 I set out the props we'd need
Speaker 1 and took one more
Speaker 1 big breath in the room.
Speaker 1 It was something I noticed students doing naturally when they came here.
Speaker 1 They may have rushed to get here
Speaker 1 and carried that haste
Speaker 1 right up onto their mats.
Speaker 1 But once they settle down for a moment,
Speaker 1 they breathe in
Speaker 1 and breathe out
Speaker 1 when they're back in the center of their plates.
Speaker 1 I stepped out of the room
Speaker 1 and into the lobby.
Speaker 1 I flipped the open sign hanging in the front window and unlocked the door.
Speaker 1 It was a clear, cold day,
Speaker 1 and I was grateful to be in this warm space.
Speaker 1 The old wood floors felt friendly under my bare feet.
Speaker 1 I stood behind the desk
Speaker 1 and laid a pencil on the sign in sheet,
Speaker 1 and watched people walking past on the sidewalk.
Speaker 1 Across the street
Speaker 1 the tea shop looked busy,
Speaker 1 And I wrapped my hands around my own mug,
Speaker 1 eking out its last bit of warmth.
Speaker 1 Students began to arrive
Speaker 1 and I liked having a few moments with each one
Speaker 1 to chat and say hello
Speaker 1 but
Speaker 1 also to gauge their mood
Speaker 1 and learn a bit
Speaker 1 about what they were coming in with.
Speaker 1 Some were cheery and excited to get into the yoga room.
Speaker 1 Some were quiet,
Speaker 1 just signing their name and giving me a small nod.
Speaker 1 One student stood back shyly,
Speaker 1 and when I waved her up to the desk,
Speaker 1 said she hadn't been to class in years,
Speaker 1 a note of embarrassment in her voice.
Speaker 1 I just said,
Speaker 1 You're here today,
Speaker 1 and smiled at her,
Speaker 1 and she smiled back,
Speaker 1 And I walked her into the yoga room
Speaker 1 and got her set up with a bolster
Speaker 1 and the props she'd need for class.
Speaker 1 I looked up at the clock
Speaker 1 and saw it was time to begin.
Speaker 1 I stepped over to the front door
Speaker 1 and looked up and down the sidewalk.
Speaker 1 I always checked before we began,
Speaker 1 and sure enough,
Speaker 1 I spotted one of my regulars rushing toward me.
Speaker 1 I held open the door for him and ushered him in.
Speaker 1 He pulled his hat off
Speaker 1 and hopped around, trying to yank on his boots, saying, I'm late.
Speaker 1 I touched his arm and said in a quiet voice,
Speaker 1 You made it.
Speaker 1 You're here now.
Speaker 1 And he chuckled
Speaker 1 and took a breath in
Speaker 1 and let it out.
Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.
