CST - Welcome Thoughts

Welcome thoughts. Be the spacious awareness in which thoughts freely arise and freely dissolve.

Hi friend!

Purpose

The Welcome Thoughts meditation technique is designed to help you move down the continuum of the Central Story Model through the following axes:

The instructions provided here, like all CST instructions, are not meant to guide or influence any decisions you make in your life. Please refrain from using what you learn here to make or justify any life choices. The sole purpose of this meditation technique is to help you experience more spaciousness, lightness, unification, peace, fulfillment, defusion from the Central Story (“I am …….. and I need …….. to be happy”), freedom, flow, acceptance, silence, and presence¹.

Active Ingredients

The active ingredients in this meditation are:

• Welcome thoughts, and,

• Be the spacious awareness in which thoughts freely arise and freely dissolve.

Explore how you can best bring about and maintain these active ingredients. I will describe one way of doing this but please consider the following description as a suggestion and not a rigid protocol. As long as you welcome thoughts and are the spacious awareness in which thoughts freely arise and freely dissolve, you will be successful with this Welcome Thoughts CST technique. Let’s go! 😎

Description

Sit in a quiet place with your back straight, your whole body relaxed, your mouth closed, and a gentle smile on your lips and eyes².

Keep your mind open and light³.

Then mentally tell yourself, “Welcome thoughts”.

Welcome all thoughts without judging, categorizing, or trying to control them. Remember that you are not thoughts — you are the awareness that recognizes thoughts.

Be this spacious awareness, and allow all thoughts to freely arise and freely dissolve in you.

From time to time, calmly tell yourself again, “Welcome thoughts”.

Do not try to prevent thoughts from coming up. Do not resist them. And do not get caught up in them either. Be the spacious awareness where thoughts naturally appear and naturally disappear.

Welcome thoughts.

Understand that this technique is not a new, sophisticated way for you to control thoughts. It is an invitation for you to abandon all battle with thoughts, to unconditionally welcome thoughts and to be the open space that is unfazed by thoughts.

Be the spacious awareness in which thoughts freely arise and freely dissolve.

Advanced: Welcome Consciousness

Once this Welcome Thoughts meditation technique has brought you further down the continuum of the Central Story Model, you may like to experiment with a more advanced technique called Welcome Consciousness⁴.

Simply think, “Welcome consciousness”.

This is an invitation for you to explore,

• What is it that can welcome consciousness?

• What can consciousness return to?

Keep looking. Be patient. And never settle for an intellectual answer.

Troubleshooting

If practicing this Welcome Thoughts meditation technique is not helping you move down the continuum of the Central Story Model, read the instructions again carefully, and try practicing it again.

Then, if you are still having difficulties, try any of the following (in no particular order):

• Make sure you are not subconsciously practicing this technique with the aim of suppressing thoughts, and be genuine in welcoming thoughts.

• Focus on the dissolution of thoughts in space, or the link between thoughts and space.

• Combine this technique with any other CST technique that works for you.

• Describe your problem in the comments section at the bottom of this page so I can try to help.

If, after experimenting with all of these tips, this Welcome Thoughts technique still does not help you move down the continuum of the Central Story Model, put this technique aside for a while (knowing you can always give it another try later) and practice another technique that works.

🙏💛

1. For more information on what these mean, read my introduction to the Central Story Model.

2. Stretch the corner of your lips and eyes softly so that your smile is almost imperceptible from the outside but you can still feel it, and maintain it throughout the meditation.

3. Do not contract your attention and try to control the content of your experience, as this would prove counterproductive. Instead, maintain an open, free-flowing attention throughout the meditation.

4. Or, “Welcome Awareness”.