Welcoming Sadness
Jim McElroy gently reminds us that healing begins not by escaping our feelings, but by creating a safe place where they can finally be felt.
“The pain of the present moment is the price of freedom.”
-Thomas Keating
Most of us have learned to outrun our sadness.
The Welcoming Prayer offers another way.
Today, Jim McElroy gently reminds us that healing begins not by escaping our feelings, but by creating a safe place where they can finally be felt.
Welcoming Sadness
by Jim McElroy
Many of us have gone to extremes to avoid feeling–anything.
We’ve used substances and behaviors to run,
losing the opportunity to grow and learn how to be comfortable with ourselves.
We’ve used alcohol, drugs, people, food, excitement …
all to avoid our feelings.
We may tell ourselves that sadness is a waste of time.
We shame and criticize our feelings mainly because we are afraid that we don’t have the ability to handle them. That’s why it’s important to put our best thinking aside and open ourselves to the wisdom of the body.
Learning to put our attention inward opens the door to our heart,
the center of our being, that we didn’t know was there.
You are not alone in this search for wholeness and you will find others to support you.
You’ll be OK if you can just slow down, listen, and allow yourself to feel what is going on in your body.
Heart racing?
Tingling sensations?
Shortness of breath?
Tightness in your chest?
Heaviness of heart?
We can stop running and create a safe place for our feelings, sensations, and emotions to surface. We can coax our sadness out and let it rise up for expression. It is just another feeling and we are most whole when we can allow them all.
A Blessing
May you find the courage to slow down.
May your body become a place of welcome rather than resistance.
May your sadness be received with kindness instead of judgment.
And may you discover that what you once feared was never asking you to suffer alone, but inviting you into a deeper wholeness.
Welcome ...
Yes.
Thank You.
We can coax our sadness out and let it rise up for expression.
-Jim McElroy
Remember, in practicing the Welcoming Prayer, we are not manufacturing emotions, nor are we suppressing them. We are creating a safe, compassionate inner space where what has been hidden is finally free to come into the light. Take courage!
The beauty of living a sober life and welcoming our feelings from complete joy to deep grief, and everything in between. Welcome. No longer running. Welcome 🙏
Thank you for this. I found healing in also welcoming the version of me who began numbing those emotions decades ago as a survival strategy.