Let it all go!
Neuroscientist Daniel Siegel pointed out in a Boston conference a few weeks back that while dogs or cats may react to a scolding by slinking away, when they come back to their owner the enmity is erased and they are once more, like Zen masters, in a state of Beginner’s Mind. That’s what he calls bottom-up neural processing. We on the other hand, tend to hold on to our reactions with our top-down processing, which can gradually create a prison of resentments. So it’s time to let go of all the affirmations and resentments you’ve been storing in the closet of your mind—to stop holding on, holding in, tensing to push ahead in the name of dubious success. We could all profit from a brief pause in our tendency to correct ourselves, accuse ourselves, improve ourselves, and make ourselves “better.” You and I are who we are (which is beautiful!) and you don’t have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles to uncover another YOU! There are lots of books about liberation and we can read about it in many forms, through articles, poetry, myth and image. What’s more, we can, indeed, be free. But here’s the price: we must let go of our firm grip on all that keeps us tense, ‘on track,’ conforming, and wrapped up in our shoulds and musts. So how to move forward thru one’s life without preconceptions, “without a why?” I’m a big Why Person myself, always trying to figure out causes and reasons for, so giving that up is really hard for me. But this week I intend is to try opening to the unknown without asking “why?” all the time. Why? Because everything that happens in my day, everything that comes toward me, offers me something precious without the necessity of a why. The needed food for my being is an impression of the world and of myself. Do whys heal the wounds of the spirit? Do they help you to speak in your own true voice? At the core of our meditation and dreamwork, at the heart of our singing and dancing and working hard at what we do, we could kindle, for the millionth-trillionth time, that hope of Being freedom, inner and outer. Ours to discover if we can only let go.
Finding Time for Your Self 
Leave a Reply