So welcome everyone.
And thank you.
Thank you for listening.
And thank you for being here.
So this is a guided practice for building safety from the inside out.
And I want to say one thing at this start.
Because it will save you the trouble later on in the practice.
Most safe space meditations.
Ask you to imagine a place where you feel safe.
A meadow,
A beach,
A cabin,
A place from your past to a one you invent.
And for some people,
This works beautifully.
And for others,
Like me,
And I suspect some of you,
It doesn't really work.
The imagination doesn't quite produce a felt sense.
And the body doesn't quite believe the image.
So you try to visualize a meadow and you find a nervous system unmoved.
So if that has been your experience.
You're not failing at the practice.
You're simply someone for whom safety,
When it eventually arrives.
Is going to come differently.
It is going to come not from a place you imagined.
But from a quality of attention you offer yourself.
Because safety in the end is not a location.
It's kind of a company.
So today we are going to build safety in a way.
That in my experience actually works for most bodies.
By becoming the safe presence ourselves.
By offering to whatever is inside us in this moment,
The kind of company that creates safety,
Simply through being there.
There is nothing to achieve.
There is nothing to perform.
If you fall asleep that is fine.
Your only job is to be here.
And the rest will do itself.
Just find a position you can stay in for the next few minutes.
Lying down,
Sitting or anywhere else you are relaxing.
If your eyes want to close,
They can close.
If they don't want to close,
That's fine.
If you are comfortable,
You can soften your gaze.
And just let your body be supported first by whatever is underneath you.
Maybe it's a chair,
Maybe it's a mat,
Maybe it's your bed,
Maybe it's your car seat,
Whatever.
Just let yourself be supported,
Fully supported.
By whatever is underneath you.
And take a moment now to arrive.
Notice the weight of your body.
The places it is touching what is underneath.
And the temperature of the air on your skin.
Notice gently.
That the body has made it through everything it has lived through and it is still here.
It has carried you.
And for the next few minutes it is allowed to put the word down.
Now very gently I want to ask you something.
Bring your attention to whatever is loudest inside you right now.
It might be tiredness.
It might be tension.
It might be a knot of something you can't quite name.
It might be a faint hum of anxiety.
It might be sadness.
It might be a part of you that is bracing for something.
Whatever it is,
Just notice it.
Don't try to fix it.
Don't try to make it different.
Just notice.
And if you like,
Internally.
Name them in this way today.
The one inside me who is something.
Whatever something is true tonight for you.
The one inside me who's tired.
The one inside me who is bracing.
The one inside me who is afraid.
The one inside me who has been waiting to be noticed.
And whichever one is here.
That is who we are going to build safety for tonight.
Note abstract safety.
Safety for the specific one who is here in you now.
Now here is the thing about safety that almost no one says clearly.
Safety is not the absence of difficulty.
Safety is the presence of company.
When a small child is upset.
What calms them is not the difficulty going away.
It is the steady presence of someone who is not going anywhere.
So the one inside you right now needs the same thing.
Not for the difficulty to be solved.
For someone to be there with them steadily.
Without any agenda.
And in this moment right now.
That someone is you.
Now slowly when you're ready.
If you like.
You can bring one hand to your chest.
Over the heart.
And just feel the weight of the hand.
The warmth between the palm and the chest.
The hand on the chest is what small children do when they are frightened.
It is what people do automatically when they hear something tender.
So your body recognizes this without being taught.
Just stay here.
Just the hand.
Just won't.
Now internally.
Turn your attention towards the inner one who is here.
Whichever one you named.
The tired one the bracing one.
The afraid one.
Whoever is here.
And offer them a sentence.
I'm here.
I am not going anywhere.
I am here.
I am not going anywhere.
That is the whole sentence.
That is the whole safety,
Not a place,
Not a visualization.
Just a small true sentence offered from one part of you to another.
If you can say it once and mean it.
Even slightly.
The inner one registers something.
Maybe a small softening.
Maybe a wave of a feeling.
Or maybe nothing observable.
The registering is happening below what you can see.
So,
If your body allows,
Say it again if you want.
I am here.
I am not going anywhere.
The inner one inside you.
Whoever they are tonight.
I've been waiting for this kind of attention for a long time.
Possibly their whole life.
They have been waiting not for someone to fix what they are feeling.
Not for someone to talk them out of it.
And not for someone to upgrade them into a better feeling.
They've been waiting for someone to simply be there with them.
Without leaving.
Most of the people in their life.
Including the idle version of you who has been running things,
Have not stayed.
The adult has been busy.
The adult has had places to be.
The adult has been trying to fix the inner one's feelings rather than just being with them.
For the next few seconds.
The adult is here,
Not fixing.
Not solving just present.
And let the inner one register that.
Let them register slowly.
That someone has actually stopped and turned towards them and is staying.
Now,
As you stay here.
.
.
With the hand on your chest.
With the inner one finally being attended to.
The body often does small things.
A yawn may come.
A sigh.
A breath may slow on its own.
The shoulders may drop a faction.
Tears may come.
And none of these are interruptions to the practice.
But they are the nervous system regulating in the presence of safety.
So let them come,
Whatever they are.
Don't try to make them happen.
Don't try to stop them.
The body finally being held does its own.
Small completions.
Notice if you can,
What is happening here.
Safety has not arrived from anywhere outside.
It has not arrived through visualization.
It has not arrived through any specific technique.
Safety has arrived because.
.
.
In here.
Two parts of you are now in a different relationship with each other.
The one who has been carrying something.
And the one who has finally turned towards them.
Saying,
I am here.
The one who has been carrying something.
And the one who has finally turned towards them,
Saying,
I'm here.
This is what safety is at its deepest.
It's not a place.
It's not a state.
It's not a relationship.
The kind of relationship that does not require anyone else.
And once you have learned how to enter it,
You can return to it whenever you need.
Now I want to say one thing before we begin to slowly come back.
What we've been doing today is not a one-off experience.
It is a place.
It is a real place.
But it's not located in any meadow or any beach or any imagined room.
It's located in the relationship between the part of you that notices and the part of you that needs to be noticed.
You can come back to this place whenever you need to.
Hand on the chest.
The phrase,
The turning towards whoever is loudest inside and simply saying,
I am here and I'm not going anywhere.
You can do it on the bus,
You can do it in a meeting.
You can do it lying awake at 3 in the morning when something has awoken you.
The place is portable and the place is in some real sense you.
Now if you want to stay here a bit longer.
You are very welcome to pause this meditation here.
Now we will slowly begin to come back to ordinary attention.
There's no rush.
Can I notice the room around me?
Can I notice the sounds?
The light,
The temperature.
Can I notice my hand on my chest?
There's no need to rush.
Let your awareness widen now.
And if your eyes were closed,
They are still closed.
You can open them.
Now,
The body like any system responds to repetition.
Slowly you can teach the body.
That safety is in fact available and is available from the inside.
For now.
Thank you for giving yourself this.
The inner one who needed it has been met.
And that is not nothing.
That is the beginning of everything.
So take very gentle care.
And until next time.
.
.
Namaste.
