This practice was inspired by a recent poem by Dana Folds,
So I'll begin by reading the poem,
Learning to let go.
There is a flow from the unseen,
An invisible river of grace that's strong enough to carry me,
But only if I stop flailing about in fear.
The key is to relax and float,
To let the current take me.
I'm so used to struggling and striving.
It is surprisingly hard to stop,
Even when I remind myself that what I'm releasing into is love,
Light,
Harmony,
And healing.
It's still not easy for me to trust.
I'm learning,
Though,
Slowly,
Very slowly.
I'm learning to let go.
We do not need to fight ourselves,
To stay present in our lives.
We have a choice.
We can relax and let go that which is holding us down,
Keeping us a prisoner in our minds.
We can breathe into our hearts and open to all the beauty,
All the love that is always within us.
We were all born as love and light.
It's only over time and conditions that we forget,
That we bury our innate,
Natural state of unconditional love and turn towards fear.
And we can consciously make the choice to release fear,
To breathe into and let go of our tensions,
Our dis-ease.
We can soften our bodies,
Our hearts,
And open them to just be love,
To approach ourselves and others from a place of loving awareness.
It's simple,
But not easy.
We start in each moment that we feel physical tension arising in the body,
Maybe a contraction of the neck and shoulders,
A compression in the chest,
Or a tightening of our belly.
Our bodies are wise and will let us know.
So we listen,
We feel,
And we offer ourselves compassion,
Maybe placing your hand over your heart as a gesture of loving support.
I feel you,
I see you,
And I'm okay.
And then we breathe into our bodies,
Taking an intentional deep breath in and slowly exhaling through the mouth as if we were blowing through a straw.
And another deep breath into your entire body,
Filling every cell with oxygen,
And slowly exhaling,
Emptying your body completely.
And one more deep inhale,
Long slow exhale,
Emptying,
Letting go,
Softening,
Softening the body,
Allowing your nervous system to reset,
Moving from fight or flight to a state of rest and digest.
And then settling into your natural rhythm of breathing,
Doing nothing but placing your awareness on the breath,
Moving in and out of the body,
Trusting that your body knows exactly what is needed.
You don't need to do anything but breathe in and out.
And if you're like me,
You may find yourselves evaluating,
Judging the breath,
And this can be a part of the practice as well.
Acknowledging thoughts,
Noting them,
Judging,
And if you discover the quality of breath feels sticky and unpleasant,
Maybe noting this.
Sticky,
Resisting,
And then without doing anything at all,
Letting go of the manifestations of the mind and returning awareness to this soft body,
Doing what is natural,
Taking in your life force,
Your breath,
Always coming back to the breath.
As it carries you gently into stillness,
This body,
This breath,
Maybe noticing how thoughts begin to thin out,
Your mind opens to a spacious awareness.
Can you trust that this spacious awareness is love,
Light?
Feel the flow of the river of your loving awareness move through you.
Trust that this is all you need,
All you are,
And lean your head back and let the current carry you.
Let your loving awareness soften and maybe release fears and dis-ease as we spend some time in silence flowing gracefully in the current of love,
Light,
And harmony,
Trusting that this is within you always.
Now,
Placing your awareness on your breath,
Feeling into the weight of your body on your cushion or chair,
Reorienting yourself within your physical space,
And just checking in with yourself.
How does letting go,
Softening and releasing fear feel even for a short time in the body and in your heart?
This is a practice you can return to whenever you discover fear revealing itself within your body.
Practice this daily and trust your loving awareness will be there whenever you need to relax into love,
Light,
And harmony.
Allow this to heal your conditioned fear-based reactions.
Just flow in the river of grace,
Trusting that it will carry you.
