Making Peace With What You Feel - Welcoming Experiences

Many of us spend a great deal of energy resisting uncomfortable emotions or wishing our experience were different.

This gentle yoga nidra-inspired practice offers an opportunity to meet thoughts, feelings, and sensations with greater curiosity and compassion. Rather than pushing away discomfort, you'll be invited to create space for whatever is present.

Through mindfulness and embodied awareness practices, you'll experience a welcoming presence that can hold all that arises.

Helpful for emotional overwhelm, self-compassion, stress, anxiety, emotional regulation, and inner peace.

Music credit: Charlie Gates

Transcript

Let's go on a journey together. To explore what it feels like to welcome experiences. Taking a moment to settle into your practice. To allow your body to be fully supported. To really letting yourself arrive here and now. To notice the simple fact that you are here. Breathing. Resting. . . . Being. Allowing the eyes to soften or close. As you notice the natural movement of your breath. Nothing to control. Nothing to perfect. Just allowing the body to breathe itself. And as you settle, Consider how much of our energy can be spent resisting experiences. Pushing away what feels uncomfortable. Holding tightly to what feels pleasant. Trying to predict what comes next. Trying to avoid what feels uncertain. This practice offers a different invitation. The invitation here is to gently welcome experience as it is. Begin by noticing what is present now. Right now. Perhaps physical sensations. Perhaps thoughts. Perhaps emotions. Perhaps nothing in particular. Whatever is here. Can it simply be acknowledged? Not analyzed. Not judged. Just noticed. Imagine opening the door of your attention. Making room. Allowing experience to arrive. Just as a guest might arrive at your door. Some guests are easy to welcome. Others are less comfortable. And yet each arrives carrying information. A message. A story. A need. Simply a desire to be seen. Notice if there is any experience present that you would normally push away. A feeling, A sensation, An uncertainty. A discomfort. You don't need to like it. You don't need to agree with it. You don't need to make it stay. Simply exploring whether it might be possible to make a little room for it. Just as it is. Welcoming does not mean resignation. It does not mean giving up. It means meeting experience before deciding what to do about it. Allowing yourself to know what is here. . . And can you rest now in this openness? Allowing your attention. And your awareness. To hold whatever is present. Nothing excluded. Nothing forced. Nothing fixed. As we prepare to transition to a close. Notice what it feels like. To relate to experience with curiosity. Rather than resistance. Perhaps there's a little more space. A little more flexibility. A little more trust. Taking a deep breath into that knowing. When you're ready. Slowly and gently returning to the space that you're in noticing the temperature against your skin. Any sounds or smells around you. And when it feels ever so right, Bringing in gentle micro movements. Maybe starting in the fingers or toes. Maybe just blinking the eyes open and closed a few times. And only when you're ready, Fully opening the eyes. Letting the experience that it is to be here right now. In through your visual field. Thank you for sharing this welcoming experience practice with me today. I hope that this supported you. In welcoming whatever it was that was at your door.