Stay.
Not because this moment is easy.
Not because you suddenly know how to heal.
Not because the fear has disappeared.
Stay because leaving yourself has cost enough already.
Some of us became experts at leaving.
Leaving the body.
Leaving our feelings.
Leaving our needs.
Leaving the moment before the moment could leave us first.
Some of us learn to disappear while still remaining physically present.
Smile,
Perform,
Caretake,
Achieve,
Numb,
Dissociate,
Scroll,
Overthink,
Anything to unvoid the unbearable feeling underneath.
Stay.
Maybe no one ever taught your nervous system that it was safe to remain.
Maybe staying once meant exposure,
Danger.
Humiliation overwhelmed.
Maybe your body learned the safest thing to do was leave yourself first.
And so the pattern continued.
Not because you were broken,
Because the body remembered.
But every time you abandon yourself to survive a feeling,
The original wound quietly repeats itself.
The body whispers.
See?
Even you leave me.
Stay.
Stay through the tightening in the chest.
Stay through the trembling.
Stay through the urge to distract yourself away from your own life.
Stay through the old instinct to run the moment something becomes unbearable.
Not every feeling is an emergency.
Not every emotion requires escape.
Not every wave is here to drown you.
Some waves are trying to complete themselves.
And what if healing is not becoming someone new?
What if healing is finally remaining present with the person inside you who never felt fully accompanied before?
Stay with them now.
Stay with the grief.
Stay with the anger.
Stay with the exhaustion.
Stay with the longing.
Stay with the part of you that still wonders if love must be earned through self-abandonment.
You do not need to solve your whole life tonight.
You do not need to transcend being human.
You do not need to become enlightened by mourning.
Maybe all the body is asking right now is.
.
.
Can you remain?
Can you stay long enough for the nervous system to realize you are not leaving this time?
Can you stay through the unfinished feeling?
Can you stay through the silence?
How can you stay without turning yourself into a problem to fix?
The body learns through repetition.
And perhaps healing begins here.
One moment of not abandoning yourself.
Than another.
Than another.
Stay.
Stay.
Stay with the breath.
Stay with the body.
Stay with this moment.
Even now.
Especially now.
Stay.
And if all you do today is soften your jaw,
Unclench your hands,
Take one honest breath,
And remain with yourself for one more moment,
Perhaps that is enough.
Stay.
