Let's close our eyes.
At some or the other point in our lives,
Most of us have been told,
Suggested to let go.
Let go of something.
This is especially told to us by friends and family who care about us,
Who love us.
And they see that holding on is causing us pain.
That's why the suggestion,
Let go.
But how do you let go?
Nobody ever tells us that.
I don't think I ever studied it in school either.
How do you let go?
It cannot happen without understanding the way into that thing.
We all remember the tale of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.
Where he gets stuck inside because he didn't remember what was the magic phrase.
But once you know your way in,
The details of your way in,
It's very hard to not find a way out.
But just like in the tale,
We are probably not paying attention.
We are probably distracted by all the treasures that surround us.
Or the potentiality of getting a treasure that blinds us to the mechanics of holding on to things.
Let the way out,
The letting go of whatever we are holding on to,
Becomes an arduous task.
So how do we hold on to?
What are the mechanics that are involved?
While holding on to something.
And the beauty is,
Whatever we are holding on to,
Whether good,
Bad,
Happy or sad,
Sooner or later it becomes a source of pain and misery for us.
Some happy memories from the past become a way of being stuck in the present.
They interfere with the current time and conditions.
Sad things that we hold on to only bring more sadness with them.
So there's never a good time or a good reason to hold on to something.
And don't take my word for it.
Check,
Check with yourself right now if my words are hitting your heart.
Because this is the first step of letting go.
Realizing that holding on is not good for me.
And has never been good for me.
And will never be good for me.
The treasures are in the now.
The illusion was in the past and future.
Many times we wait for permission to do something that we knew all along that is right for us.
But sometimes we do wait for this to come from someone else.
So this is your permission if you are waiting for one.
That it's okay.
It's okay to accept.
Accept that holding on to anything is not good for me.
Everything that is worth having is now.
The actual thing is available in the now.
The image of this thing or the projection of this thing.
The potential existence of this thing could be in the past or the future.
But now is the only place where the actual thing could exist.
If you have been hurt by the words,
By the actions of others in the past,
Check,
Verify for yourself.
If those words and actions exist now.
And if you are sure that they don't.
Then tell yourself,
I'm done.
I'm done carrying this weight around.
It's not mine.
I'm ready to drop it.
You you you The next step is to pay attention.
Pay attention to how we start holding on to things.
The biggest blow is to see that it is not helpful to hold on.
But the force of habit might still propel us to holding on to things.
And like any habit breaking exercise,
We need to understand how this works.
What needs are being met by this habit?
It's serving some purpose,
Whether physical,
Emotional,
Psychological.
You There's always a trigger for us to hold on,
For us to go grab at old memories on old hurts.
You What if when you saw this initial reaction to this trigger and were able to create some pause and see for yourself that what I'm about to grab on to is a hot piece of metal that's only going to burn my hands and cause pain?
Do I really want that in my life?
This pause is a practice.
It's a habit.
Just like we have encouraged the habit of grabbing on,
Holding on,
We can encourage the habit of creating a pause.
How do you create this pause?
Think of the time when you're talking to someone you love.
For me,
This happens many times when I'm talking to my mom.
There's a thought that pops up in my mind about something that she said.
And right after that thought,
I have this recognition that if I said this,
It'll hurt her.
And then I don't.
I'm sure all of us do that.
Where we don't open our mouth because somewhere we realize if I said this,
If I did this,
Someone will be hurt.
This is the pause.
So we are all familiar with this pause in some shape,
Way or form.
We just have to emphasize it more.
And like any habit-breaking exercise,
There'll be relapses,
There'll be mistakes.
That's where we need to be patient and kind with ourselves.
Healing is a hard work.
It takes a lot of effort.
Sometimes being sick and staying sick is an easy choice.
You This pause is the pause of intelligence,
Which we all have.
We don't have to practice being intelligent.
We have to let intelligence infuse our lives,
To let it take care of us,
Physically,
Emotionally,
Psychologically,
By avoiding all the unhealthy habits.
To make that sound,
To make that voice of intelligence so powerful that there is no negotiation when you hear that voice.
It's that loving assertiveness that speaks through for our own benefit.
It's not the voice of discipline or violence of a smaller degree,
But it's the voice of truth that you feel in your heart,
That brought you here,
To let it take over you fully.
Thank you.
You
