The Welcome Practice

The video above is a wonderful explanation of the Welcome Practice developed by Mary Mrozowski, one of the founders of Contemplative Outreach and an associate of Fr. Thomas Keating.

As nicely explained by Wisdom Way of Knowing, the practice has three steps:

1. 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. ...
2. 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…) ...
3. 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. ...

I've found different responses that are included as part of step 3, but Bourgeault shares the "continuous litany" that Mrozowski used herself, the first three of which are linked to Keating's programs for happiness:

• I let go my desire for security and survival. 
• I let go my desire for esteem and affection. 
• I let go my desire for power and control. 
• I let go my desire to change the situation.

One key note. In another talk, Bourgeault reminds us that centering prayer is not meant to achieve any specific "bliss" state. Similarly, the goal of the welcome practice is not to "fix it" (see Bourgeault around the 21:30 mark). She notes, the practice "doesn't fix the situation so much as create an equanimity that no longer needs the situation to be fixed."

This reminds me of this snippet from Thomas Merton (in New Seeds of Contemplation):

If you regard contemplation principally as a means to escape from the miseries of human life, as a withdrawal from the anguish and the suffering of this struggle for reunion with other men in the charity of Christ, you do not know what contemplation is and you will never find God in your contemplation. For it is precisely in the recovery of our union with our brothers in Christ that we discover God and know Him, for then His life begins to penetrate our souls and His love possesses our faculties and we are able to find out Who He is from the experience of His mercy, liberating us from the prison of self-concern. 

There is only one true flight from the world; it is not an escape from conflict, anguish and suffering, but the flight from disunity and separation, to unity and peace in the love of other men.

It's well worth the half-hour to watch the video for Bourgeault's additional insights! For more on the history and the conceptual background of the practice, see Cherry Haisten's The Practice of Welcoming Prayer.