Recordings & Self Reflections
Week 1 - Safety, Stillness, and Compassionate Observation
“Self is not something you have to create. It is what remains when parts feel safe enough to relax.” — Richard Schwartz
“The moment a part is truly witnessed, it begins to change.” — IFS principle
1. The Observer Position What was it like to “lean back” and observe rather than engage? Did any part of you try to do this practice “correctly” or manage the experience? How did it feel to take the role of compassionate witness, even briefly?
2. Parts That Showed Up: Did any parts make themselves known during or after the meditation (sensations, emotions, images, thoughts)? What might that part want you to understand, without needing to change anything? Does this part have a role in your system?
3. Offering Presence: What was it like to place your hands on your body or sense your own presence? How does your system respond when you send the message: “I am here to attend to and take care of you”? Are there parts that appreciate this? Parts that feel wary of it?
4. Carrying This Into Daily Life: Where in your daily life might it be supportive to gently remind yourself: “Right now, I am safe”? How might compassionate observation look outside of meditation—during a conversation, a pause, or a moment of overwhelm?
Remind yourself
“Nothing needs to be fixed. Something needs to be met.”
1. The Experience of Allowing
What was it like to let things be exactly as they were—without needing to stop, change, or understand them? Did any part of you feel relief at not having to do anything? Did any part feel uncomfortable or unsure with this level of allowing?
2. The Body’s Response to Reassurance
As you offered messages of safety (“right now, I am safe”), how did your body respond? Were there places that softened, resisted, or stayed neutral? What might those areas be communicating about what they need or don’t yet trust?
3. Efforting Parts
Did you notice any parts that were trying to “do the meditation right,” stay focused, help, fix, or improve the experience? How did it feel to acknowledge their good intentions and invite them to rest—even briefly? What happens in your system when effort is no longer required?
4. Safety in Small Moments
Outside of meditation, where might it be supportive to slow down and offer your body a quiet reminder of safety—during a transition, a pause, or a moment of internal pressure? What would it look like to bring this same allowing quality into daily life?
Gentle reminder
You don’t have to arrive anywhere.
Your system doesn’t need to be calm to be cared for.
Presence is already doing the work.
Week 3 – Wisdom of Witnessing Without Fixing
“Nothing needs to change."
Gentle “If” Reflection Questions
• If nothing needed to change right now, what does that allow you to notice?
• If your body could speak in a whisper, what might it be asking for—or offering?
• If there is a place inside you that already knows how to be with this, where do you feel it?
Somatic / Body-Oriented Prompts
These work beautifully with hands-on-belly, hands-on-heart.
• If your breath were a message of reassurance, what is it reassuring you about?
• If your body already trusts you, how does it show that?
• If your body feels you listening, how does it respond?
Pick one to be with for the next minute, hour, day...
• “Nothing is required of this moment except to be met.”
• “You don’t have to go anywhere to arrive.”
• “Rest is not the absence of movement, but the presence of listening.”
• “Your body already knows how to come home.”
• “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to rest in the water.”
Gentle reminder
Hold yourself, the body loves your kind attention