Welcoming All Of You

Welcome.

Find a comfortable position where your body can soften.

Let yourself be supported.

Take a slow breath in and gently breathe out.

There is nothing you need to improve or to fix right now.

Today we are practicing something simple and not always easy,

The practice of welcome.

Welcoming not just the parts of you that feel calm or kind but also the parts that feel overwhelmed,

Reactive or afraid.

Sometimes when a part of us feels most intense,

What it needs most is not correction but closeness.

Bring to mind a part of you that feels tender,

Perhaps a part that feels lonely or angry or misunderstood.

You don't need to analyse it,

Just notice how it feels in your body.

Imagine offering this part a gentle presence like a warm arm around the shoulders.

Or a steady hand holding it close.

Silently say to this part,

You are welcome here.

Sometimes we live in a world that only welcomes the easy parts.

But human beings are not made of easy parts alone.

When someone is most distressed it is often because they feel unseen,

Unheld or alone.

Notice what it feels like in your body to offer presence instead of distance,

Care instead of rejection.

Every time you meet yourself with welcome,

You make the world a little less lonely.

This is inner sustainability,

The capacity to stay present with what is real.

Take one final slow breath in and one slow exhale out.

When you're ready,

Gently open your eyes,

Carrying this sense of welcome with you.