Hi,
It's Brooks.
Thanks for joining me.
It's good to be here with you.
Today we're going to talk about having a looseness to life.
And we're going to take a look at what that means.
And I like that term looseness.
First off,
There's relaxation in that word.
There's a real ease about that.
And I like that because it's the opposite of tenseness in life.
Because it's really easy to be very tense in life.
There's a lot of things that can grab our attention.
And create a bunch of adrenaline in us and our mind can hook onto that.
And then we can go for a long ride on being really out of sorts and tense.
And that can really exhaust us,
Take a toll on us.
And I really like the idea of looseness.
Having a looseness in life.
And I like it too because it makes sense.
Things are coming and going in our life.
Some things are here longer than others.
But things come and go.
And that's the nature of change.
And what really creates tension,
What really creates stiffness,
That overwhelming life,
Is the feeling of holding on.
Holding on to things.
Resisting change.
Because change is going to happen.
Sometimes it's going to be good change,
Sometimes it's not going to be good change.
But the one thing that remains is you.
Some things are coming and going.
But as long as you're aware,
As long as you're alive,
And that's the part of you that never changes.
And I'm talking beyond the body.
Because our experience in our life is that the body changes.
We start out really small.
And we get bigger,
We grow up.
You know,
That's quite a change.
And then once we're grown up,
The body continues to change.
But what remains is being alive.
The awareness,
The existence.
And essentially that's the source of the looseness.
Because things are coming and going around that awareness.
Circumstances in our life are changing.
The people that we know in our life are coming and going.
One day we're studying,
Later another time we have a job.
And then at some point that job changes and then we have a different job.
Or maybe we lose a job and we don't have a job.
And we get a job again.
And our body is changing.
Sometimes we weigh more than we do at other times.
Sometimes our body feels good and sometimes we get sick.
And step back and forth.
But what remains is the awareness of the change.
Ah,
I don't feel so good.
There's an awareness of that.
Alright,
Wow,
I feel really good today.
There's an awareness of that.
I like that word,
Awareness.
Existence.
I exist.
Things are coming and going and I'm aware of that coming and going and I exist.
And the more we're able to let go of things when they go,
Then that's the looseness.
And maybe we recognize,
Maybe we're aware that we're holding on.
Or we're aware that we're resisting something.
Or we're aware that,
Oh my god,
This shouldn't be happening.
That's another word for resistance.
And that awareness,
That's the looseness.
And it's real simple.
You know,
Like,
The simplest things are,
They always go unnoticed.
Because they're always there.
What we notice are the complexities,
The complications,
The conflicts.
Because they're more entertaining.
They grab our attention.
But awareness is the subtlest thing there is.
Maybe you can notice it right now as you're listening to me.
That you're aware of my words.
Or maybe you're aware that you're thinking about something else and you're no longer aware of my words.
Or maybe you hear me say something and you feel like,
Yeah,
That's it.
Or maybe you hear me say something and you're like,
Oh,
No,
I don't know.
You don't like the sound of that,
You know.
You're aware of that.
There's so many things that are happening in our life.
But the one constant is that we're aware of all the things that are happening.
And again,
That's where the looseness is.
So perhaps you're in the midst of the day and you're caught up in stuff.
And then you remember what we were talking about.
The feeling of looseness.
That simplicity of awareness.
That's always there.
And suddenly you relax and you feel calm come over you.
And that's the looseness.
Maybe there's this tension about like,
Oh,
This is changing.
I don't like this at all.
I really don't like this.
And along with that is an attempt to resist it.
Maybe even resist it mentally and emotionally.
Even after a change has happened,
It's like,
I don't like this and this should never have happened.
And suddenly we get an awareness of the tension that's created from feeling that way.
The holding on,
The resisting.
And then there's the looseness again.
Everything is simple.
So this is not about always living from a place of looseness.
It's that spontaneous remembrance of,
Oh,
Yeah,
Right.
Things are coming and going.
People come and go.
Activities come and go.
My body's constantly changing.
How it used to be.
It's not today.
It's not that way anymore.
And I'm aware of these changes.
And that awareness is the only thing that's always been with me since as far back as I can remember.
And then the looseness comes in.
And the peace comes in with it.
So this is something I encourage you to consider,
To think about.
See what feels.
And I wish you the best.
Take care.
Bye.
