Welcome Practice

The Welcome Practice, as taught by Cynthia Bourgeault and others, can disarm a

difficult emotion or reality. It has three steps:

• Focus or ‘sink in’ to become aware and physically present to the particular

experience or upset. Bring your attention to what is happening as sensation in

your body. Without analyzing or judging yourself or your state, inwardly tune into

what is happening as the physical embodiment of the experience. Don’t try to

change anything at this stage – just stay present. This will help to avoid drawing

mental-cognitive conclusions, and will also ground you in the body’s experience

rather than repressing what’s arising. By engaging with this awareness to

sensation over time it can help us become more attentive to moments of

constriction and unconscious reactivity.

• Welcome and lightly name the response that is being triggered by the difficult

situation (such as “fear” or “anger” or “pain”). Acknowledge the response as

sensation, and recognize that in this moment, if the experience is not being

rejected or repressed, it can be endured. Ever so gently, begin to say ‘welcome’

(such as “welcome fear”, etc...) Though this step is counter-intuitive and the

impulse is most likely to try to push away the unpleasant emotion, Cynthia explains

“...by welcoming it instead, you create an atmosphere of inner hospitality. By embracing the thing you once defended yourself against or ran from, you are actually disarming it, removing its power to hurt you or chase you back into your smaller self.”

The flow of energy shifts almost immediately, becoming more spacious, and defenses

can relax sufficiently to allow new perspectives or more positive responses to emerge.

• Transition to a ‘letting go’, whereby the intensity of the situation can recede. This

enables the natural fluidity of sensation to come and then go. In the classic

welcoming practice methodology there are then four statements that you can

employ and recite to yourself at this stage:

o I let go of my desire for security and survival.

o I let go of my desire for esteem and affection.

o I let go of my desire for power and control.

o I let go of my desire to change the situation.

As Cynthia puts it, “This is not a final, forever renunciation of your anger or fear; it’s

simply a way of gently waving farewell as the emotion starts to recede.”