Let Go - I Dare You!
What do I mean by 'Let Go'? 'Letting Go' is one of the Mindful Attitudes proposed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. To let go means to cease having control; cease ‘needing to know’; cease the need to always plan the journey ahead. Letting Go means allowing life to be, with less doing. Letting Go is allowing the 'stuff' we carry to float away. Such as letting that grudge go! (As Buddah says 'having a grudge is like swallowing poison and hoping that the other person dies). I absolutely love this quote because, not only is it incredibly clever, but TOTALLY true!
I have my own personal experience of Letting Go. I've let go more 'stuff', judgments, thoughts, unhelpful narratives, grudges, negative self talk - the list goes on, then there are shoes in my mothers' cupboard (and that's a lot!). Sorry to tell everyone about your shoe collection, Mum. Letting Go makes you feel lighter and freer. Imagine no longer being held back by fear, consumed by negative thoughts or struck down by others' opinions. Wow!
To be able to really participate in yoga or engage in meditation, a level of Letting Go is required to really feel (not just think about) the techniques and experience their benefits: let go of self judgment, judgments of others, past beliefs, doubts, fears and The Mind's chitter chatter. Letting Go is a form of trust or faith that things will work out fine. In fact, for me, the more I let go in day to day life, the more good that happens. But what exactly is faith or trust? You can't see these things so what are they? Can you have ‘faith’ without religion? Of course you can! Faith is the belief in something that cannot necessarily be explained or seen – and when you think about it (really think about it) there is a lot that goes on day to day that we can’t actually explain or that doesn’t have ‘evidence’ attached to it. I’m not raving on about paranormal things; but everyday things. A friend recently told me the definition of intuition: that which cannot be explained; lacks logic and ration; is a feeling. Listening to your intuition is having faith. If you’re anything like me (and maybe there’s a chance you are because you’re reading this blog!) you thought having ‘faith’ meant you believe in God or Christianity. This could not be further from the truth (the Dhamma). Because the truth is, having faith is an everyday event for most people. We trust that our partner will come home from work; we seek support from friends or a professional, trusting their advice; we believe that we’ll make it to work today without trouble; we have faith that the accountant at work will pay us on time and that the mortgage repayment then won’t be late; we love our friends and family. Love is another beautiful example of faith/trust. What is love? Can you touch it? Can you explain it? Not really. When I asked the people around me (literally, the people who were sitting around the dining room in the Ashram in Bali when I wrote this blog): what is love? The overwhelming response was: ‘A Feeling’. And what is a feeling? Something that is not easily explained; something utterly subjective. The love that I feel and experience is unique to me and yours is unique to you. Love is a form of faith or trust.
I can also tell you that the more I let go of the need to know, and allow things to 'just be' the more I find myself in places not by coincidence. Take Bali for example: I never wanted to go to Bali but for some reason (and I don't believe in coincidence) I was drawn there. This wasn't a need or a want, but a feeling - an intuitive feeling. Call it a 'pull'. After experiencing what I experienced at The Ashram in Bali I'm now even more convinced that coincidence is merely a word – it doesn’t actually exist. The story of how came to be in Bali is a long one (perhaps for another blog) - but the reason I ended up at a specific Ashram, doing a very specific type of meditation, is no coincidence. This meditation technique involved disconnecting the mind and feeling into the body and the universal energies inside of it. Actually, the more the mind came into it, the less effective the technique. So I practiced what I preached and I Let Go and allowed my trust, faith and intuition guide me and it showed me wonderful, life changing, transformative, things.
So, Let go! I dare you. Remove judgmental mind and see and feel things for what they are, and not what The Mind makes you think they are or ought to be! Accept whatever arises! Meditate to remove some of the chitter chatter that goes on inside! And, give Faith a go sometime - don't just take my word for it. Ask yourself - what do I believe in and how does this guide and teach me? Am I willing to Let Go?
