The Guest House Meditation

In this meditation, Dr. Julien Lacaille guides you in becoming the host of a guest house who welcomes the various experiences that come and visit each moment.

Transcript

Thanks.

So settling into our meditation posture.

And as we notice what posture we're in,

Both physically and mentally,

Asking ourselves the question,

What changes would I make in this posture,

Internal and external posture,

If I were a little bit more accepting?

Understanding of what is from moment to moment.

And then just noticing how the mind and how the body kind of shift slightly,

Maybe open slightly more,

Maybe soften,

Maybe the curve of a smile forming in the body or on the face or even in the mind.

A welcoming smile.

As though we were getting ready to kind of host a party,

Host an event.

And we wanted to practice being as welcoming as we could be as a person.

Just making these slight adjustments in our posture,

Setting this attitude.

Maybe even noticing kind of a resistance to being a bit more open,

Maybe a bit more vulnerable,

Honoring that also.

Just seeing what's possible for now.

So for now,

Just resting seated or lying down with this accepting stance.

And our first guest is the breath.

Seeing if we can welcome our own breathing into our awareness.

The breath is always there,

But we're not always allowing it into our awareness.

It's an often neglected friend.

Just as practice seeing what it's like to acknowledge this friend.

Ah,

There you are.

I see you.

You're breathing in.

Now you're breathing out.

Welcome.

OK.

So just sitting here,

Lying here,

Allowing the breath in to our awareness.

Seeing if we can even allow it as it is,

If it's shallow or rapid or not quite how we would like it,

If even that can be okay for now.

Kind of putting our judgments aside and just seeing it for what it is right now.

And the second visitor or visitors that we're gonna see if we can allow into our awareness are just the body sensations in the whole body that are present from moment to moment,

Just right now,

As I'm sitting here as I'm lying here.

What would it be like if I opened myself up to the pleasant sensations,

Maybe of warmth in my hands?

Of feeling grounded and in contact with the cushion or the floor?

And just scanning the body for those slightly pleasant sensations.

Those are usually pretty easy guests to let in.

And then seeing if we can also let in other visitors,

Other sensations,

The more neutral ones.

The tingling here,

The touch there,

Contact with their clothing,

With the air,

The movements.

We tend to ignore these,

But now we're not.

We're opening the door,

We're saying welcome.

And then seeing if we can keep up this practice of accepting and seeing if we can open the door now to even slightly unpleasant sensations.

The pins and needles,

The pain,

The discomfort,

The numbness,

The itching,

The spasms,

The tensions.

That whole family of sensations that we usually just shut the door to,

Turn our heads from.

You're practicing something different.

Returning toward with an open and inviting stance.

Sure,

We don't like them.

We don't want them.

But can we practice welcoming them into our experience?

Because they're already there.

They are part of this guest house.

Almost as an experiment.

What would it be like?

Let's see what happens if I open the door to even those sensations and let them just be as they are.

The pulsing,

The shooting,

Stabbing,

Whatever the sensation is.

Let me see you and let me invite you in.

Let me even wish you well.

And the And noticing that there are these other visitors too,

Right?

So there are the unpleasant sensations,

We're letting those be.

There are the neutral sensations,

We're letting those be.

The pleasant sensations,

We're letting those be.

Our good old friend the breath,

We're letting him or her be.

Good old friend the breath,

We're letting him or her be.

So aware of the body as a whole,

Just sitting here,

Just lying here in the presence of all these various body sensations that keep changing,

Aware of the whole spectrum of sensations.

If we lost that accepting stance then finding it again,

A little more straight,

More open,

A little more smiling inside and outside of us.

So,

Again,

A little more straight,

More open,

More smiling inside and outside of us.

And then turning our attention now to other guests that are already here also and we may be ignoring.

And those are the thoughts and the emotions kind of run in the background of our awareness for most of the day.

We become aware of them when we ask ourselves the question,

How am I feeling right now?

What's on my mind?

So just checking in now with those visitors,

Who's here?

For noticing an emotion,

Maybe just naming it.

For noticing a thought and naming it.

Oh,

Worry,

I see you.

There you are.

Hi.

You're welcome here.

Oh,

Sadness.

I see you.

You're present right now and that's okay.

You're welcome here.

Being kind of your own way of meeting and greeting these various emotions and these And as we touch these thoughts,

As we touch these emotions,

Kind of noticing what shows up in the body.

So maybe new sensation visitors are showing up.

A pressure in the chest,

A knot in the stomach,

Heart racing,

A ball in the throat.

And we notice those seeing if we can keep this open and receptive stance to even those.

And if it's appropriate,

Even maybe putting your hand on one of those sensations wherever you notice it with a kind and reassuring touch.

Like,

Oh,

I see you and it's okay.

You can be here.

You're welcome.

You're welcome here.

You're welcome here.

And seeing if it's possible to be aware progressively more and more of all the visitors that are here,

The thoughts,

The emotions,

And all the body sensations in addition to the breath and then just breathing with all of these visitors.

Noticing that all these visitors make up who we are.

They are part of who we are.

By practicing accepting them,

We are practicing accepting ourself.

In other words,

Is it okay to be me just as I am right now?

Feeling the way that I'm feeling,

Thinking the way that I'm thinking.

Okay.

Be recognizing that there's some wisdom in accepting ourselves in this way.

In acknowledging ourselves in this way.

In allowing ourselves to be how we are right now.

How we're feeling right now.

?

Bell bell bell bell bell

Reviews

A clear and helpful guide to sitting with difficult emotions thank you 🙏

Lovely meditation. Looking forward to trying more of these.

Thank you! Have to return some other time during the day when im less sleepy haha

This was wonderful. I welcomed "good enough" in. So helpful.

A great meditation for working with all kinds of thoughts, sensations, and emotions, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Excellent guidance. Thank you!

Wonderful meditation thank you 🙏

Powerful metaphor, delivered with perfect cadence, tone, inflection, and gentleness.

Excellent thank you 😊🙏🏻

I really love this meditation! I'm sure I will do it many more times and the future. I only wish there was a little more guidance at the end as you're coming out of the meditation.

Very skilled practice. A lovely enactment of the Rumi poem. Thank you so much.

Nice slow pace. Loved it.

Great meditation extended from one of my favorite poems. Well done. Thank you. 🙏

Love all of these meditations, especially good for self acceptance and becoming less judgemental

I have a lot of back pain and fibromyalgia pain and this meditation thought me a new way to invite pain and recognizing it instead of fighting it. Very good.

Love this meditation, soothing, calm, open, accepting and loving
Thank you 🙏🏻

It's fantastic the image of an open door to our experience. Thank you very much!

Very usefull to find balance, thanks!

Very calm and warm meditation. Thank you so much for sharing 🙏

Good pace with nice spaces of silence. Thank you!

Like the poem, an excellent metaphor for receiving, accepting all of life, pleasant and unpleasant.