Hello and welcome to this short recording to help you with letting go.
There are many meditations,
Including some of my own,
That mention letting go,
But they don't always tell you how.
I'm going to share with you just two techniques for letting go.
These are not the only ways to do it,
But hopefully they'll give you some inspiration or motivation to find something that works for you.
The first technique I want to share with you is visualization.
For example,
Imagine watching clouds in the sky as they pass overhead,
Knowing that they'll always keep moving or disappear completely.
This is a great reminder of the often used phrase,
All that arises passes away.
Our thoughts can be just like clouds,
The image of the clouds moving across our field of vision,
Representing the impermanence of all things,
Including our thoughts.
Another example,
When we specifically think about letting go of attachment,
Is to visualize ourselves holding a balloon on a string.
With the balloon being the thing that we're attached to,
We can simply imagine ourselves cutting the string and letting the balloon fly away.
Another could be visualizing leaves floating down a river and you're just dropping thoughts onto each leaf that's in the water,
Watching as it floats away,
Similar to the balloon.
You can also visualize yourself holding something heavy.
Quite often that's what it feels like,
Right?
The thoughts are heavy,
A burden.
You could visualize yourself holding a large rock or even multiple bags of shopping and then allowing yourself to gently put them down,
Giving yourself the relief of no longer carrying the weight.
Finally on visualization,
And much like the leaves on the river,
You could picture yourself standing in front of three elevators or lifts and each time the doors open,
You place your thoughts inside and watch as the doors close and take them up or down,
Away from the floor that you're on.
The second technique I'd like to share with you is related to the idea of multitasking.
If you didn't already know,
Spoiler alert,
Multitasking is a myth.
It is impossible to be working on two different tasks at the same time.
The mind works in the same way.
It's impossible to have more than one thought at any given time.
Of course,
We can have a long list of thoughts we're ruminating on,
But we're only able to actually think about one at a time.
Sometimes,
When we're trying to let go,
What we might be doing is focusing too much on the letting go part,
When actually,
That could happen quite naturally if we just turn our attention to something else.
So for now,
Just consider that you have a thought that's troubling you and you want to let go of it.
You spend all your time and effort thinking about letting go of that specific thought and what ends up happening is that you're actually keeping it front and center.
What you want to do instead is to turn your focus to something else.
Your breath,
For example.
Making a conscious effort to let go of the thoughts and focusing on your breath will quickly help you detach.
This doesn't have to be practiced only in a formal meditation.
It could be as you go about your day and it doesn't have to be your breath you focus on.
Calling on your senses of sight and hearing can also be helpful.
Looking at everything around you or really paying attention to what you can hear,
For example,
Just by turning your focus to something else can automatically let go of the thoughts that are troubling you.
I hope you found some of this useful.
Please feel free to listen again whenever you need a recap and please check out my other meditations.
I hope to see you soon.
Take care.
