SRS Session 12 | Letting Go

In session 12 we focus on the determined grip with which we grasp life, and learn that letting go is a practice that heals and opens us to possibility. This meditation includes a visualization and an affirmation practice. The Spiritual Recalibration Series is designed to help you expand your awareness into a new, more open, curious and expansive way of being in daily life. This impactful series comprises 33 sessions, each with a short topic (the recalibration) followed by guided meditation. Meditations include affirmations, visualizations, and brief periods of quiet, musical stillness.

Transcript

Okay,

Welcome back to the Spiritual Recalibration Series.

Thank you for embarking on this series and opening yourself to a new way of being.

My name is David,

And this is Session 12,

Letting Go.

Find a comfortable seat in a space where you can allow yourself 20 minutes or so,

Undistracted,

To focus just on you.

A quick reminder,

To get the most out of this series,

Please be sure you've listened to the Welcome Session,

Session Zero.

Here we go.

It's one of those things,

Golly,

Don't we hear that just all the time,

Just let go,

Just let it go.

It's a good bumper sticker.

It's one of those things that's easy to say and kind of seems like common knowledge,

But it's all in the practice.

It's all in the how.

The way this came up was actually in yoga practice,

I noticed something that had opened up and that was a nice experience.

And I found myself thinking back to,

So you know that my sister is also a yoga and meditation teacher,

Been for much longer than me,

Actually.

I remember she told me just a quick little story.

She asked when she was in India,

She asked her teacher,

This kind of yogi master,

I guess,

What's the biggest thing that Americans,

I don't know if she said Americans or Westerners,

Do wrong in yoga.

And what he said was,

All he said was anger is stored in the hamstrings.

And I always remember it,

I always remembered that.

And I started earlier this week,

I'm thinking about my own practice and thinking back years ago.

I mean,

I was,

It's interesting,

You don't realize I'm an angry guy.

I was an angry guy,

Believe it or not,

Right?

I know we,

With our practices,

It might be easier to think that everybody has anger is my point.

But,

So at the time when I first started,

I was listening to,

I was exercising a lot while working out and listening to angry,

It was angry music I was pumping through my headphones.

And it was interesting that the very first yoga class I went to was in a YMCA that shared a wall with the same place where I was,

Where I was not long before doing that exact thing,

Working out or listening to angry music.

My favorite t-shirt at the time had a skull on it.

And it's interesting to just think about just how far away that music and that t-shirt is from this version of me.

We all have,

So like this version of you today,

There'll be a new version of you tomorrow.

So we kind of have these,

Have these versions of ourselves.

But I was noticing that,

And when I first started yoga,

My,

I could barely lean forward.

Hamstrings are so tight.

A lot of you guys can probably relate,

Especially,

Especially men,

Especially dudes,

Tight hamstrings.

And now that's not the case at all.

Not to,

To not to have like a goal oriented thing,

But I get my hamstrings are very open now.

I can straighten out my legs and I can touch my nose to my shins and it's,

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

Every time it happens,

It's amazing,

But that wasn't intentional.

So I think back to that yogi master talking about anger and the hamstrings,

I don't feel anger is a very different experience now.

My hamstrings are very different experience now.

So isn't that interesting?

So there's must've been some kind of letting go that just happened there.

So that's what I was thinking about.

And as we think about letting go,

If you,

By sitting here and doing these practices,

Think that you're not practicing yoga,

You are,

There are eight limbs of yoga and those postures that I was just talking about.

It's just one of the limbs.

The breathing,

The breathing exercises,

Pranayama,

That's one of the limbs,

The concentration techniques,

That aspect of meditation and meditation itself.

That's one or two of the limbs.

That's kind of the whole,

Everything is,

Is the,

Is the meditation and,

And,

And the way of being in the world,

The kindness and the compassion and all the things we talk about.

That's,

Those are,

That's all yoga.

So as we think about letting go,

It's interesting.

I was listening to a,

A while back,

I heard somebody on,

It was,

I think it was a podcast maybe was talking about an article that they read in,

I think it was like psychology today.

I think is a,

One of is a magazine,

How people actually,

They're talking about like therapy,

Like talk therapy that people don't,

That we don't actually want to be rid of our problems that we're attached to that,

That we're actually attached to our problems.

And I remember when I heard that,

I was thinking,

I can,

Yeah,

I can put my,

I can put my finger on that because the thing about our problems is that they're familiar.

It's,

You know,

The stuff that holds us back,

That's familiar.

And it's kind of honest to be without that one problem or that set of problems to be without that stuff is unfamiliar at least that.

So that's the,

That's what I heard when I,

That was my interpretation of my experience with when I heard that idea that we're actually attached to our problems.

So what,

How do we let,

How do we let go?

It's pretty courageous,

Right?

It's always courageous when you take a step into the unknown,

Even in this case.

So what I've been playing with is those wonder questions we've talked about before,

I wonder.

So I've been asking myself,

I wonder,

I wonder what self-limiting belief thought pattern or story I can let go of today.

So just with open curiosity,

Asking that question and then seeing what happens.

Michael Beckwith,

Who I think I've mentioned before,

I think I heard him say sometimes things get mixed up for me,

But that as soon as you put your attention on something,

It has already changed like the power of attention.

So it's not so much using our mind to figure out how do I let go?

It always seems to me it's kinder and more playful to get curious,

I wonder.

And we could do that with something specific too.

I wonder what,

I wonder what self-limiting belief thought pattern or story about my relationship with fill in the blank,

My relationship with my parents,

My children,

My partner,

My colleague,

My boss,

I can let go of today.

I wonder,

I wonder what self-limiting belief thought pattern or story about my business,

About my money flow,

About my career,

I can let go of today.

So there's all these questions we can ask and then just see what happens,

Open to seeing what happens.

It's hard to control the timing,

But there's something about simply opening with those questions because letting go,

It can be hard,

But it's like everything else we talk about.

It's about awareness,

Being aware of sometimes I think just asking those questions can help you become aware of a story,

Aware of a thought pattern,

Because that's what we're doing as we're cultivating the self-awareness,

Right?

Just becoming more aware of those beliefs and thought patterns and stories and most of those are limiting.

So if we,

As we become aware of them,

Only good can come from that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Went on for a minute or two longer than I probably wanted to there.

But so let's practice,

Let's practice a little,

A little affirmation.

This affirmation,

It's kind of like has a visual aspect to it on letting go.

Yeah.

Cause maybe that can help too.

So let's kind of reach,

Recheck our posture,

Sitting up nice and straight hands,

Palms up or palms down on the thighs at the juncture of thighs and abdomen or a little bit further forward if that's more comfortable for you.

I just took a nice breath in and out.

So maybe let's do that into the nose and out through the nose,

Drawing the shoulder blades together gently,

Closing down the eyes.

That's comfortable for you.

Closing the eyelids gently,

Eyes soft behind the eyelids,

Allowing yourself to focus on the words of this affirmation about letting go.

I am a mountain stream with trust,

Grace,

And ease.

I let go,

Relaxing into the gentle flow of life.

I am a mountain stream with trust,

Grace,

And ease.

I let go,

Relaxing into the gentle flow of life.

Seeing now,

If you can tune into the feeling behind the words,

As soon as you start to memorize them,

Allow yourself to say them.

I am a mountain stream with trust,

Grace,

And ease.

I let go,

Relaxing into the gentle flow of life.

With intention and determination,

I am a mountain stream with trust,

Grace,

And ease.

I let go,

Relaxing into the gentle flow of life.

Softly now,

Softly in your words and softly with yourself.

I am a mountain stream with trust,

Grace,

And ease.

I let go,

Relaxing into the gentle flow of life.

If you're saying it out loud,

Just in your mind now,

I am a mountain stream with trust,

Grace,

And ease.

I let go,

Relaxing into the gentle flow of life.

Allowing the words to resonate for just a few moments,

The feeling behind the words.

Good.

Now letting the words go,

Beginning to watch your breath for just a moment,

See if you can notice it in your nostrils.

Now just a short visualization of that mountain stream.

Sitting on a flat spot on a small hill with a stream running next to you,

Sitting in meditation on a beautiful day.

See if you can hear the sound of the stream,

The trickling of the water,

The sound of birds up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

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Up and your islands.