"Stop. Look around you. What can you see? The nearest human is over ten miles away. You are alone. Quite possibly more alone than you have been your whole life. There's a physical aspect to this feeling you're having, this aloneness. It's relaxing. Take a moment. Feel yourself relax. Feel your heartbeat slow. Feel you mind de-clutter and expand into a space no longer populated by others. Feel those invisible boundaries dissolve."

The voice paused and Karen became conscious of the slow drum beat that she must have been hearing for some time. She could hear the rhythm of her own body for the first time in so many years, unencumbered by the presence of others in her physical space.

"Now, walk on, in to the forest."