Welcome and I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.
Today I'd like to talk a little bit about letting go.
It's such a hard thing for most people to do and yet doing so will change your life.
In order to find peace within you need to make your life more tranquil and more joyful.
Our lives are filled with too much stuff.
We are constantly hurrying from one thing to the next.
That causes us to have too much stress.
Our lives are overloaded and overwhelmed with things to do and places to be.
We need to learn to tone it all down.
On top of that we do everything in a rush,
Hustling and bustling no matter what we're doing.
And we fuel ourselves with a flood of caffeine in coffee and tea and soda and energy drinks.
And we have too much anxiety because we're constantly rushing,
Constantly moving,
Constantly stressed.
Adding to the confusion we have a plethora of machines vying for our attention.
Our smartphones beep and tweet and blink as do our computers and printers and fax machines.
And even when you're trying to calmly sit and do something you're interrupted by things popping up to remind you of something else you need to do.
What we need to do is ignore all of it and just sit quietly.
Silence all your devices,
Put your phone on do not disturb and notice the silence.
In this moment you don't need to do anything.
There is nothing you have to do and nowhere you need to go.
No place to be other than here,
This,
Here,
Now.
This moment is for you and thoughts may bounce around in your head.
In a never-ending stream of ideas but these thoughts are nothing but a distraction in this moment.
Just let them go,
Let them pass away like clouds floating across the sky or waves moving across the lake.
For now the world is on pause and you will resume all of it soon enough.
But this moment is yours.
This moment is yours.
Silence your phone and your computer or tablet.
Find a place where you can just be,
A place where you won't be disturbed for just 10 minutes.
Close your eyes now and let's get in touch with our breath.
It doesn't matter if you're sitting,
Lying down or standing.
The only thing that's important is that you're comfortable and alert in this moment.
Remember the present moment is always there and this moment is yours.
First let's scan our body as we begin to relax.
Relax your neck and your shoulders.
Unclench your jaw,
Unfurrow your brow.
Relax your arms and your hands.
Unclench your fists.
We're not going into a fight,
We're going in to relax.
Let go of any tension in your chest or your belly.
And feel yourself getting heavier with each and every breath.
Relax your legs and your feet.
And as you begin to relax,
Start to focus on your breath.
Inhale slowly and then gently exhale.
Notice your breath as it flows in.
Notice where you feel it.
The cool sensation is it comes in through your nose.
Or perhaps the movement of your chest and belly as your breath flows in and flows out.
Just continue to breathe at your normal pace and don't force anything.
Just let your breath move in and move out.
Let your breath flow like a river.
Sure and tranquil and calm.
Thoughts will always be a part of us.
They're a constant part of our world.
But you needn't concern yourself with them when you meditate.
The concerns of the world will still be there when we return from this moment.
But for now,
It's just you and your breath.
Don't concern yourselves with our random thoughts.
Just focus on your breath.
Each and every breath.
And let the thoughts pass across your mind and out again.
Right now,
We're only concerned with our breath as it flows in.
As it flows out.
If you hear sounds in the room,
Let them go too.
Your breath moving slowly in and slowly out is a powerful river of calm.
A river of peace.
A stream of tranquility.
Getting in touch with your breath on a regular basis can have a powerful effect on your life.
Being able to get in touch with this current can transform your life.
It's transformed mine.
It can help you to deal with tension and insecurities.
With stress.
With sleep problems.
Following the river of your breath can help you to deal better with the problems in your day.
Just by breathing in and breathing out.
One breath at a time.
Now,
While you continue to breathe,
Just listen to my voice as I share with you a poem by Nelson Mandela called Letting Go.
And he said,
To let go doesn't mean to stop caring.
It means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off.
It is the realization that I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
But to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
Which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another.
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for,
But to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
But to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
But to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging outcomes,
But to allow others to affect their own outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective.
It is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
But to accept.
To let go is not to nag,
Scold,
Or argue,
But to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
But to take each day as it comes and to cherish the moment.
To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
But to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
But to grow and live for the future.
To let go is not to fear less,
But to love more.
I think he described letting go so beautifully,
Because when we truly let go,
We learn to accept what is and what we all are without judgment.
To let go is to make the most of each day,
To see ourselves as we are,
And to see everyone else as they are,
And remembering that we don't need to fix everyone else by constantly nagging them,
But rather by supporting them in what they're doing or what they're going through.
Letting go means remembering that we can only change ourselves.
It also means that we can't protect others,
But that we have to let them experience reality,
Experience their life.
And each time you let go,
The next time it gets a little easier breathing in.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
One breath at a time.
When we're able to let go and start accepting things as they are instead of how we'd like them to be,
We find that we'll suffer less stress.
We have to let go of things that tie us to the past.
Let go of all our attachment to things.
By letting go,
You set yourself free.
As an example,
When I had my third stroke,
I was in a very bad place.
And while I was in the hospital,
I asked to see a psychiatrist.
This doctor came to my room and we talked.
I talked about my upset at my left side being paralyzed.
By my upset with how that affected my guitar playing,
I talked about how I was embarrassed to have to drag myself around with a cane in front of my young daughters.
I went on and on about how this illness had taken so much from me.
And then he looked at me and he said the words that I have never forgotten.
He said,
I think you're spending too much time thinking about all the things you've lost and not thinking enough about all the things you still have.
Your life,
Your mind,
Your daughters,
Your family,
Your friends,
Your co-workers,
Your home.
And in that moment,
I realized that he was right.
I had to let go of those things because it could not change any of it.
It was out of my control.
But what I could change was how I looked at my life and all that I had.
And I had so much.
Too often we hold on to things that do not serve us.
We cling to things.
We cling to the past.
We cling to a memory.
When all we really need to do is let it go.
Just let it go.
And now as we come to a close,
Take in a breath through your nose and blow it out through your mouth,
Letting out a sigh.
Each one of us has the power to let go.
Just get in touch with your breath and live in this moment.
We're now ready to go back about our day.
Turn your phones back on and your computers.
But remember,
At some point,
What you need to do is let go and have these moments to yourself.
I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session.
Till next time.
