How To Let Go This week I had a chance to consider letting go in a new light. Ive written before about how I rarely find the admonishment to let go helpful when Im hanging on by my finger tips, even when I can see that what I am hanging on to is not particularly useful. I have found the inner directive to let it be somewhat more fruitful in helping me loosen a desperate grasp and rest in what is. Letting go of beliefs or mental/emotional preoccupations that are causing suffering isnt so much an intellectual decision (oh that it was- most of us can see when its not doing us any good!) If we believe it is well probably bury what we think we should let go of in our unconscious- and that only makes matters worse. Now were hanging on, but we arent consciously aware of hanging, so how could we possibly let go? Not a step in the right direction. At the beginning of a yoga class last week, the instructor urged us to rest deeply while laying on the floor. And then she said, Make sure you have what you need to lay on the floor comfortably- because your muscles cant let go if youre uncomfortable, if the way you are laying down is causing strain. If you can find a supported way to be here, your body can let go much more deeply. And something in my brain lit up as I thought, Oooooo, what would that look like when we need to let go mentally or emotionally? What might help us find a supported position emotionally or mentally from which we could more easily and deeply let go of preoccupations that are causing us suffering? The first things that came to my mind were tenderness and mercy. When I slip into the feeling of tenderness, of holding my own or others thoughts or emotions without judgement but with a sense of real caring, I am more comfortable with whatever arises- and I can let go of those thoughts or emotions more easily, allow them to rise and fall, to appear and pass away. It is, strangely, the very act of judging and tightening against what arises that makes it hard to let go. We often think that trying harder will get us where we want to go. And sometimes, it does. But in the letting-go-endeavours- whether physical, mental or emotional- finding an inner or outer place where we can rest comfortably with what is, is much more likely to help us truly let go where we may have been unintentionally holding on. Oriah House (c) 2014 You can subscribe to Oriahs weekly blog at oriahsinvitation.blogspot.ca/
Posted on: Wed, 07 May 2014 13:00:00 +0000