Sanctuary Within: Staying With
Day 3 ~ Staying With as the sensing towards safety
This series has taken shape from my own sense and feel through what it means to connect to the Sanctuary Within. It’s not preplanned, it’s not prescriptive, it’s embodied, honest, and unfolds from my own edge of experience. From the subtle art of inner listening…I am sharing a gentle, genuine guidance that is ongoing...and this is what this Sanctuary Within is all about.
This is what that space (in me) is saying.. Learning the lesson of staying with. Staying with emotion, staying with sensation, stay “inSelf”. Not about staying with 1 practice perfectly or 1 routine rigidly or 1 way of DOING…rather staying with, staying in oneself as the practice. Learning to stay as the unfolding path of safety, sensed in sustaining. Sustained, steady, safe…because of the staying with. To stay..sit..sigh..and simply be with. I am in this space with myself..learning to stay, stay in “new ways” — meaning not stay with a routine or habit or way of doing, rather the “staying in” as staying certain in my safety of staying with myself…staying with myself even if a scary thought comes in, or a stressed state (shutdown or surge) or whatever might come through. It’s human, it’s natural, it’s okay. The safety, the safety from within comes when staying with, staying with oneself underneath the story of shame or stress, comes the subtle power of seeing for oneself what can be sustained, through sensing the way through. The way to shape one’s own sanctuary within.
Today I invite this exploration… What would it be like today, instead of this space for Self being carved out in isolated moments of “self-care” at the beginning or end of day, if you wove in this subtle staying with. The “staying with”..was what guided and allowed for safety to stay with you all day as you moved through whatever stress, emotions, thoughts, etc…because you never leave you. I invite you (at least 3 times) today to stop, take a breath, find some point of contact with your body — this can be clasping hands, bringing a hand to your heart or head, or pressing your feet into shoes, socks, or the floor beneath you — as you say the following words…”may I know it is safe to stay”…and notice what comes forward in your presence, in your body, in sensation. How your system responds to your own stillness, a momentary acknowledgment of saying you will stay…you will stay with yourself. Discover what dialogue might emerge when we stop running outside ourselves, and simply decide to stay. Even for a moment. These are the steps into safety…the Sanctuary Within.