For Difficult Days

Welcome friend.

If your mind and body feel weary,

I invite you to take some space with me and rest here for a short while.

On days like today,

When the mountain in front of you feels too hard to climb,

It seems like the storm will never clear and the flame of hope is nothing but a small flicker of light in an all-consuming darkness.

All we can do is rest.

Rest in the softness that lives under the tension of gripping and resisting.

Rest in the warmth of self-compassion that you are so deeply deserving of now more than ever.

Both rest and compassion are the remedy needed when we find ourselves heavy under the weight of all that we have been carrying.

Honour your need for comfort by finding a space and position that invites ease into your body.

For now,

Let yourself be held so fully by the support beneath you that you can let the softness of your body spread.

You don't need to hold so tightly.

Whatever you may be facing or feeling,

You are safe to put it down here for a short while.

Let your eyes close and welcome the rest it offers them,

Letting the outside world fade away.

For now,

There is nothing to do,

Nothing to strive for,

Nothing to fix.

There is no one and no thing to perform for.

All of you is welcome here,

The light and the dark.

Settle into the support holding you,

Beneath that,

The earth holding you.

There is a strength and stability that the earth offers you,

Solid and unmoving.

When our mind is whirling with thoughts like debris in a storm,

We can anchor to that earth and let the dust settle.

Let the thoughts settle by connecting to the steadiness beneath.

Be where your feet or sit bones are planted and root down.

Let yourself land here,

Gather yourself back from where you have been scattered.

Bring yourself back from the circumstances,

Situations or people that have had your attention and arrive back to this body,

This breath.

For a moment,

Observe the breath that moves in and out of the body naturally,

Watching the tide pull in and move back out effortlessly.

This breath asks nothing of you,

Other than to simply be with it.

How often do you find yourself holding your breath,

Clutching or bracing for impact?

Let your breath create more space around the parts of you that hold tightly.

Let your breath soften your heart space.

I invite you now to take the deepest breath that you've taken all day and let it go.

Why is it that we tend to be hardest on ourselves during our most vulnerable moments?

We criticise ourselves as though navigating difficult feelings is some kind of moral failing or something to eradicate.

We can be in such a rush to return to our normal baseline of okayness,

Not realising that our resistance to discomfort only keeps us locked in a cycle of despair.

What if there was nothing to fix?

What if the only solution you needed was your own compassion and understanding?

You are a human being,

Having a human experience.

You are made of light and darkness.

You hold both joy and grief,

Stillness and movement.

Like the nature that surrounds us,

You are cyclical.

No feeling is final.

Let yourself ebb and flow like the water you are made of.

Like the breath that brings you back to this moment.

Accepting what arrives and clutching tightly to what we wish to stay only works against us.

To accept each moment,

Each feeling is how we welcome our ever-changing nature.

Each feeling a visitor,

With a message that brings you closer to the self that resides deep within,

Buried under layers.

The self who is compassionate,

Courageous and whole.

Open the door and meet what is here.

Let it teach you what you need to know.

Let it remind you of what you have forgotten.

I'd like to offer you the words of writer and poet Reina Maria Reicke.

So don't be frightened,

Dear friend.

If a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known,

Casting its shadow over all you do,

You must think that something is happening within you and remember that life has not forgotten you.

It holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.

Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness,

Any pain,

Any depression,

Since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?

Place a hand on your heart.

Take a deep breath in.

I am rooted.

Exhale the breath.

I flow.

While the winds may whip your branches tearing leaves from you,

Let yourself root down,

Be planted here and remember new life will bloom again.

Feel the support your hand offers to the heart that beats beneath,

The gentle fierce heart that wants to crack open and experience life and all that it has to offer.

Tend to it with care,

Water it with your own love and the love others wish to offer you.

Let the warmth of your hands soften your defences.

Let it anchor you into the present and guide you back to the unconditional love the true self seeks to offer you in all phases and stages of your life.

Do not spend so much of your precious energy being at war with yourself.

Everything within you,

Even in its own misguided way,

Seeks to keep you safe.

It's time to seek safety in your own acceptance and self-compassion.

Remember my friend you are not the storm,

You are the calm beyond its reach watching its dance unfold,

Holding the truth of its impermanence and the promise of clear skies that will always follow.