Hi, I'm Jessica Porter and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Hi everyone, it's so nice to be here. I'm going to keep it short tonight because we have a lot to cover. I want to say thank you to any and all new subscribers, old subscribers, people who are not in a position to subscribe, who spread the word and just spread the vibe. So basically all of you. And I want to say that recently there were a couple people who reached out to us saying that although they had subscribed, it was hard to activate the subscription. And I just want to say, A, it seemed to have worked out for everybody. Sometimes you got to reboot your phone or reboot the app. But more than that, thank you for your patience and thank you for your support. We really appreciate you. Okay, tonight, get sleepy in Joshua Tree National Park. I recently went to Joshua Tree National Park with a friend of mine, and I think national parks are amazing. I mean, it wasn't until relatively recently that people got the idea that some land should be preserved simply for the sake of keeping it pristine, which, of course, indigenous tribes had been doing all along, but that is a whole other conversation, and a much appreciated quality that we are emulating, hopefully, in some places. In the late 1800s, early American citizens, artists, and leaders began to consider the concept of protecting certain lands simply for the conservation of the wildlife and the enjoyment of visitors. After centuries of speculation and gold rushes and staking claims in American soil, the idea that certain lands shouldn't be divided up, or exploited, or even privately owned, began to take root. The first area to be officially protected was the amazing an enormous Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in 1872. And in 1916, the National Park Service was created by Congress. Now there are a total of 63 American national parks, including places like Joshua Tree, Yosemite, and, oh yeah, that other one, the Grand Canyon. so I'm really grateful for that. Joshua Tree is almost 800,000 acres in size, and it sits in a transition zone between the higher, cooler Mojave Desert and the warmer, lower Colorado Desert. It's about 160 miles due east of Los Angeles, and it's hard to describe because its qualities are somewhat odd. These weird trees, which aren't really trees, but yucca plants, between 15 and 40 feet tall, and they look like hands stretching out with gnarled fingers. They appear prickly, but they're not quite cacti. And they're dotted in and among these really big rock formations. Not mountains, but rocks that are granite pushed up from the earth that's been exposed over time through erosion. And that's it, really. And yet, as we went through it, it was like being on the moon. Another place, another time, another vibe altogether. So you and I are going to Joshua Tree tonight. I hope you enjoy it. Before we begin our only ad break, which makes this magic possible, to listen ad-free, follow the link in the show notes. Hey there, Sleep Magic listeners. I want to share a unique bedtime podcast with you that can be a perfect partner to what we do here. It's called I Can't Sleep, hosted by Benjamin Boaster. In this podcast, Benjamin reads Wikipedia articles in his incredibly calming voice, designed to gently lull you into a peaceful slumber. He covers a whole range of subjects you just might enjoy, like comets, cicadas, and my personal favorite, Canada. these topics are just engaging enough to distract your mind from the stresses of the day but boring enough to send you to sleep making it a great option for when you want to mix up your bedtime listening so if you enjoy what we do here at sleep magic and are looking for another soothing option to help you unwind i highly recommend checking out i can't sleep follow the i can't Sleep Podcast now and get ready to wind down and relax with Benjamin. Find I Can't Sleep wherever you listen to podcasts. Now get yourself into a safe and comfortable position and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently. as you bring your awareness to your breathing. And by bringing your awareness to your breathing, you're taking your awareness, which loves to move around, has been poking around in the world all day, poking around in your problems, in your projects, in your dreams. And we're pulling it back, pulling it home to a single point of focus, to the breath. And it may not hang out too long on the breath. It likes to move. But you're just inviting your awareness back home. inviting your mind back home. And that's all you need to do as your body feels heavy on the bed and you're already sinking into relaxation. good. As you bring your awareness up into your eyelids now, I'd like you to imagine that your eyelids are feeling heavy and sleepy. Let them become heavier and heavier. And as your eyelids are becoming nice and heavy, i'd like you to accept the suggestion that your eyelids are so heavy they cannot open now of course you know you could open your eyelids if you wanted to but i'd like you to pretend that you can't so now wiggle your eyebrows in a demonstration that your eyes won't open even though i know you're making this happen. That's okay. We're letting the imagination win out over logic. That's all we're doing. So wiggle your eyebrows. Good. As you go deeper and deeper, you find this lovely, warm, relaxed feeling that you have in your eyelids moving back into your brain. Allowing that warm feeling to take over every single cell of your brain. So your brain is soaking in relaxation, and it feels really nice, and your head is getting really heavy on the pillow, and your scalp is feeling relaxed, and your forehead is softening. and your cheeks are letting go as you go deeper and deeper and the relaxation is moving down your neck down into your chest imagine this lovely warm soft feeling is moving around inside your chest as your ribcage softens and expands and you realize you have the ability to soften and relax on the inside. As this lovely warm feeling moves down even further down into your torso down into your belly and the muscles of your belly are giving way and any holding you may have been doing inside your torso today has let go and you're softening from the inside out. Good. And because the day is done, your arms are relaxing. In fact, it's okay if your arms become heavy. Heavy on the bed. Heavy like they're made of marble. Your arms are off-duty tonight. Unless you need them for some reason. For now, they're on vacation. As your hands become heavy and your fingers become heavy. And now the relaxation's moving down into your legs. because the day is done and your legs, too, are becoming heavy. Heavy. Like they're made of marble. And that's okay. It feels good to let go. you're designed to let go your whole body going deeper and deeper as your feet become heavy and your toes become heavy and any sounds that you hear going on around you noises from the street or from another room of your house or even from someone lying next to you Allow those sounds to take you deeper. And even deeper. Because you are deciding how relaxed you can be And it fun to let yourself go even deeper. And as your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing and as your mind is relaxing your body is relaxing and the sound of my voice is taking you deeper and deeper and at some point maybe it's already happened you will detach from my voice letting go as you drift and float and dream. Imagine you are standing at the edge of a trail. The path ahead is rather faint. just a pale ribbon of compacted sand and small stones just slightly lighter than the surrounding area it winds gently between rocks and low plants inviting you forward. The desert sun is beginning its descent although the light is still strong. The air is dry and clear and the heat of the day has softened. warmth lingers in the rocks and on the land the horizon feels close and far at the same time low hills ripple in the distance everything is very still there's no rushing water no dense forest just space light and air the sky is large and clean and perfectly blue making the land feel even more exposed the trail ahead appears undramatic. It looks quiet, gradually unfolding, a curve around a boulder, a rise that reveals a bit more land. The path seems to reveal itself step by step. Asking only that you begin. So you begin to walk forward. Each step is producing a soft crunch as tiny pebbles shift and settle. the ground beneath you is firm sand mixed with gravel and stone you take a nice deep breath of clean air and walk at an easy pace as you look up ahead the land opens wide you see big rounded granite boulders rising in loose clusters some of them appear to be stacked while others are leaning. Their surfaces are textured, uneven, marked by millions of years of erosion. And as the afternoon sun shines on them, they're showing off their subtle colors they are tan blush muted gold terracotta vivid colors against the blue sky and all changing as the light moves. Many of the boulders have dark seams tracing through them. They have been marked and are weathered, but they endure. you walk up close to a boulder and touch it it feels coarse and solid and warm you run your fingers across its surface the granite is grainy peppered with the tiny crystals you sense with your fingertips. You trace your hand along smooth bulges where wind and time have worn the rock down. And you bring your hand into a smooth, shallow pocket where rain once lingered. These rock formations began as molten granite deep underground. Slowly erosion peeled away the softer layers above them revealing their quirky dimensions. the wind and rain have shaped them into what you see now you stand back from the formation again to get another perspective its shape is so curious it looks strangely organic parts of it bulge outward while others pinch slightly inward it seems less like a pile of rocks and more like one continuous body slumped and resting Napping. It has enormous mass. It blocks the wind. It holds warmth. It casts a huge shadow. the rock feels patient dominant it has been here for millions of years and will remain here for millions more this national park is opening up to you. Between the rock formations, the desert floor stretches out in open patches. you see creosote bushes with their tiny yellow flowers you see different types and sizes of cacti growing low to the ground and as you continue the Joshua trees are coming into clearer view they stand scattered across the landscape not technically trees but a type of yucca plant their trunks are thick and fibrous and their branches twist in irregular patterns each tree seems to gesture differently some reaching upward others outward some leaning it's as if Dr. Seuss designed them before he discovered color as the sun gets closer to the horizon the shadows of the Joshua trees are stretching across the sand. A Joshua tree can live between 150 to 300 years. and reproduces in two distinct ways. Either it clones itself and sends out shoots from its base, creating genetically identical plants, or it flowers, is pollinated, and creates seeds. but the bees don't come to pollinate the Joshua trees. The only creature attracted to its flower is the Joshua tree yucca moth and it pollinates only Joshua trees. Here, on this land, and nowhere else. The Joshua Tree existence is a delicate operation in a delicate place. A narrow climatic band suited perfectly to the Joshua Tree. Here the winters are cold enough to trigger flowering but the climate is not so cold or hot that seedlings fail this is a tiny specific region and the perfect balance of elements has lately become precarious although old Joshua trees are easily found the young trees are having difficulty taking root so the desert you see tonight may be very different in a hundred years. You approach a Joshua tree. it is a muted green but where the sun is touching it it is edged in gold it has stiff fibrous leaves that point like needles Joshua trees don't grow in a tight forest. They're spread about like people at a cocktail party. They have independent spirits. And as you walk among them, the air feels open. and spacious. There is room here for breath, for movement, for your thoughts to loosen and flow. Joshua Tree became a protected place not because it is useful but because it is irreplaceable. The light is changing. The sky is shifting from pale blue to deeper tones as the sun lowers toward the horizon. Shadows deepen at the base of rocks, trees. And the temperature is dropping slightly. You feel the desert coolness on your hands, cheeks. The breeze is dry and clean. as you go deeper and even deeper. You hear the crunch of your own footsteps. A bird calls in the distance. You stop walking for a moment now and look toward the horizon. The sun is touching the edge of the distant hills and the sky is melting into bands of color, soft orange, Pink. Lavender. The rocks around you glow briefly. Their surfaces reflecting the last light of day. and now as the sun sets they look grey and beige As dusk descends, the Joshua trees are becoming silhouettes. Their shape's even more mysterious now. Almost gothic. The desert is cooling more noticeably now, as the heat stored in the stone and the sand gently radiates upward. This is a transition time, and the desert is shifting. The blue of the sky is deepening. And gradually, the stars appear. First one. Then another. And another. You lay down on a flat rock and look up. the night here is deep and exciting you see further into the sky than you can see from the city and as your eyes adjust more stars are revealing themselves pinpoints at first then clusters of stars you relax going deeper and deeper. After a while, you can make out the faint band of the Milky Way. stretching across the sky, creating a soft, luminous path. And it takes you deeper. And even deeper. Humans have looked up into this same sky for hundreds of thousands of years. navigating storytelling pondering existence and humans in the future will look up at these exact same stars feeling this exact same awe as you go deeper and even deeper you get up now and walk a short distance to a small clearing flat ground surrounded by rocks. You notice light flickering against the rocks. And as you pass a large boulder, you see a small campfire burning gently. You feel pulled to its light. and sit down on a small rock to collect its warmth. You feel hypnotized as the flames leap and dance, casting shadows. As you go deeper and deeper, the fire pops and hisses. And as it settles down, you feel so sleepy. A few yards beyond the fire, you see a tent waiting for you. you go to it and step inside it's a warm safe cocoon you crawl inside the sleeping bag and relax. You feel cozy and safe. And the desert air is crisp. But the sleeping bag is warming around you. taking you deeper and deeper. You hear the embers of the fire crackling a bit. They dying down And you are slowing down as your thoughts begin to drift in the stillness of the desert. and the stars move up above slowly Slowly. Slowly. As you drift. and float. And dream. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
