The Guest House

Mindfulness & Meditation · By Angela S. McLean, LMFT

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teaches us that avoiding "bad emotions," or labeling experiences as bad or good at all, is how we begin to create suffering. Instead it recognizes that pain is a normal part of life that is best accepted and experienced as it comes. Rather than making a judgment and pushing away bad experiences or emotions, it is suggested that all are welcomed in and accepted. For many new to mindfulness, this is a new concept that is difficult to understand. The poem The Guest House by Rumi is very old and often used in mindfulness training to help explain this concept.

The poem imagines being human as a guest house with a new arrival every morning: a joy, a depression, a meanness. Rather than turning any of them away, it invites us to welcome and entertain them all, even the dark thoughts and the sorrows, treating each guest honorably, because each may be clearing us out for some new delight.

Related articles

• Mindfulness Teaches Resilience
• The Gift of Rest
• Attitudes of a Peaceful Mind