Instructions for Letting a Feeling Arrive

Feet on the floor.

Shoulders soft.

That’s enough.

Instructions for Letting a Feeling Arrive

Do not hunt for it.

Feelings can hear footsteps.

They retreat when chased.

Begin instead by clearing a small space—

a chair by a window,

a breath that is not in a hurry,

your shoulders remembering they are allowed to drop.

Turn off the voice that asks,

Is this working yet?

That voice scares everything delicate.

If the feeling you seek is peace,

do not demand quiet.

Peace arrives through permission,

not silence.

If the feeling you seek is joy,

do not ask it to perform.

Joy refuses auditions.

It comes when you forget to watch yourself.

To create a feeling,

tend the conditions, not the outcome.

Water the soil.

Do not pull on the sprout.

Name what you are not willing to carry today.

Set it down gently—

shame bruises easily when dropped too hard.

If a feeling becomes overwhelming,

place your feet on the floor.

Count five ordinary things.

Extraordinary emotions need ordinary anchors.

Avoid the feeling that comes from comparison.

It wears the mask of urgency

and smells faintly of panic.

Avoid the feeling that demands proof.

Real feelings do not argue their existence.

When the feeling finally arrives—

do not grip it.

Say, You may stay as long as you like.

That is usually when it stays.

And when it leaves,

do not call it abandonment.

Call it trust.

Feelings return

to places where they were welcomed

without being owned.

— Flower InBloom