Letting Go

For many years, I resisted the concept of letting go. I resisted mostly because I didn't understand what people were talking about. I'd be loudly obsessing about something. "Just let go," they'd say. "Okay," I'd say. Then I'd walk away and wonder what they meant, and mostly how to do it. Soon, I caught on. 

Letting go is a behavior we can practice each day, whatever the cir****tances in our lives. It's a behavior that benefits relationships we want to work. It's a helpful behavior in insane relationships, too. It's a useful tool to use when we really want to bring something or someone into our lives, and in accomplishing our goals. It's a helpful tool to use on outdated behaviors such as low self-esteem and manipulation.

Letting go takes the emotional charge, the drama, out of things and restores us to a sense of balance, peace, and spiritual power.

Letting go works well on the past and the future. It brings us into today.

Paraphrasing the mystic writer Matthew Fox, everything that comes, comes to pass. Demystify letting go. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Learning the art of letting go really means learning to calmly let things be.

(from a Hazelden Tought for the Day awhile back)

Patti,

Thanks for sharing your Hazelden meditations when you find them appropriate.  They have some really great meditation books (use a lot of them in my work).  I have a few of my own.  One is called "Food for Thought" and it's designed for compulsive overeaters.  Any of their books can be purchased on their website or they have a bookstore in St. Paul (not sure where, I think on or near Grand Ave).

This meditation on "Letting Go" really helps me put my own life in perspective.  I am always trying to control everything - I think that I can somehow organize my life so that others will be impressed and see how "hard" I work to make things look good.  These exercises in perfection only exhaust me and often alienate me from others (and from myself).

Right now I am trying to "let go" of controlling my weight loss process.  I have been so frustrated that nothing I DO seems to make the weight come off any faster than it is.  I have been trying, trying, and TRYING to find that magic thing that will make it "pour" off again and stay that way.  But when I step back I realize that I am making very healthy decisions for myself regarding eating and exercise and I just need to get out of my own way and let this process happen in its own way.  Before this surgery I had a life that involved me doing a lot more than standing on the scale, talking with others about how much I weighed and why I don't way less, and thinking only of how much I was eating or exercising.  Because I am "hanging on" to these things I am missing some really important things in life.  Today, I will continue to focus on things in life other than my surgery.  I had surgery to live my life again and that's what I plan to do.

Thanks for sharing this Patti!!

((((HUGS))))  connie d

Patti,
I, too, enjoy the meditations you share. Thanks so much. I have gotten out of the habit of reading some of the books I have acquired over the years. Think I'll start again!!
 
Blessings to you,
Pat

Thanks for sharing Patti!