Photo by Andrew Roberts on Unsplash
Every once in a while—hopefully less often than before—you might notice a tightness in your body.
It could be in your chest.
Or your stomach.
A subtle contraction… or something more intense.
Often, when something is troubling us, it first appears as a felt sense in the body.
And almost immediately, something else follows:
“No… I don’t want this.”
“What is this? I don’t like it.”
And then—almost without noticing—we move away.
We distract.
We get up.
We reach for our phone.
We scroll.
We watch something light, funny, comforting.
We try to shift the channel.
Each of us has our own strategy—
a quick, practiced way of protecting ourselves from that uncomfortable, unfamiliar feeling.
Anything… not to feel it.
But what if, just for a moment, we didn’t?
What if we paused…
and took one conscious breath?
What if, instead of moving away,
we stayed.
Right there.
In that place we usually avoid.
You might gently bring your attention closer:
Where exactly is this feeling?
Can you locate it in the body?
What does it feel like?
Tight? Heavy? Buzzing? Hollow?
Rather than trying to change it,
you simply begin to notice.
And if more fear arises—
because you recognize where it’s coming from—
what if you didn’t try to fix that either?
No analyzing.
No arguing.
No pushing it away.
Just… staying.
Pema Chödrön, a beloved meditation teacher, offers a very simple instruction:
Stay with it.
Not as a strategy.
Not as a way to “get rid of it.”
But as a way of meeting your experience directly.
This isn’t always easy.
Everything in us might want to leave.
To distract.
To close down.
And yet—
in those moments when we don’t leave ourselves,
something quiet but profound can begin to shift.
Not because the feeling disappears…
but because we are no longer alone with it.
You are here.
With it.
And that, sometimes, is already enough.
I’ve recorded a short guided practice for you here—an invitation to pause for a few moments and gently stay with what’s here.