Tag Archives: letting go

Life

Why Not Knowing Is Not Bad

By Peter SperoEverywhere you turn the world will give you a piece of its mind.  Well-meaning loved ones, TV talk show hosts, commercials, and Yelp are all here to help you figure things out.  As we get older we add beliefs on top of beliefs until there are only a few corners of our minds left available to be filled with new understanding.

We are so accustomed to being able to figure things out that a lack of understanding can trigger fear, anxiety, and an immense amount of pain.  If life situations that leave you scratching your head are disturbing to you, that is a sign to let go of your need to know.

Letting go of the need to control life through your thoughts is not only liberating, but it is also your best chance for you to experience your best possibilities.

Advertisement
Standard
Life

Joke’s On Me

RenewToday I had the great pleasure of visiting the DMV for the first time since I had my license renewed five years ago. Everything really had been going smoothly until I was called up to take my new license picture.

I looked at the blue dot and smiled.  A few seconds after sitting down in the waiting area the man who had taken my picture called out to me saying, “One of your eyes was closed in the picture.”  I stood up to retake the picture when he said, “You can’t retake it, it says right here all you need is one eye to be open for a valid picture.  Just don’t do that while you’re driving.”

I sat back down in utter defeat.  My brow furrowed, all I could think about were the looks on the faces of all the people who I would have to hand my license to. I looked as if I was about to cry.

A couple of minutes passed and my license finished printing.  I walked up to the counter, and the man handed me my license with a big grin on his face.  The joke was on me.  He was kidding.  The picture was just fine, and I laughed out loud.

Life had caught me taking it too seriously.  Getting upset about a bad license picture, really?  Getting upset about the prospect of a bad picture on your license is like getting upset about the prospect of having to listen to smooth jazz during call waiting.  It will probably happen, and it can do nothing to hurt you.  And sometimes, as in my case, you get a mixed message about a situation, when everything is fine all along. Either way, make sure to laugh about it.

Standard
Peace

A Call To Action

By Peter Spero

Do you ever feel “off”? Sometimes I feel out of sync with the present moment.  In those moments I remind myself, that even when I feel out of sync I am still one with the present moment.  I am still in it.  I still am it.  I can’t not be.

While in the midst of the human experience it can easily feel as if we are swimming upstream.  Letting go feels like a big risk. But life will then give you a sign that everything is as it should be by the experience of pure peace, which is unattached to circumstance.  Today I challenge myself, and any who want to join in, to let go of low-level fear, worry, and unacceptance. Let us see how life responds.

Standard
consciousness, spirituality

Letting Go – Of Everything

Per the advice of spiritual teacher Wayne Dyer I decided to start reading E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality by Pam Grout. I am so excited about this book. I can barely put it down. In the coming weeks I will talk more about creating dreams, and living the highest potential of each moment. I have been blessed already with seeing my inner dreams manifest in my out outer reality in ridiculously amazing ways, but as is the nature of life, it is a moment to moment practice. As I was reading, this particular passage moved me:

 

When I find my consciousness operating outside “the now,” which is unfortunately a great percentage of the time, I gently remind myself of this analogy: The UPS driver just delivered to my house every single thing I’ve ever wanted, but because I’ve left the building, I don’t even realize it. I’m out hunting for paltry substitutes. Everything is right there, once I bring my consciousness back to the timelessness of “now.” (Grout 12)

 

Keeping your attention on the now opens up endless possibilities for your good, it is the only place of power, the only moment you’ll ever actually experience. I was reminded of a post I wrote a couple weeks ago but hadn’t yet published. As I re-read it now, I see that the practice of letting go I was experiencing, was the practice of moving back into the present:

I was on a walk today and some anxious thoughts were running through my mind. Some were trying to figure things out, some were about my health and what I should and should not be doing. (For you those thoughts may manifest differently.) As I was walking along it dawned on me that I could make the decision to let go of the anxious thoughts, to not create problems with my mind. This realization dawns on me quite often, which I appreciate, because every moment is a moment to let go of.

I then began thinking that letting go of something, ultimately leads to letting go of everything. Eventually when you discorporate you will be given the opportunity to let go of all things. The peace that comes with such a radical relinquishment can be enjoyed now, while still in this reality. As I walked, new thoughts kept coming into my head and I kept saying, “I can let go of this too.” Then I would place my attention on my immediate surroundings, moving more deeply into the now. Each thing that came up that I let go of gave me a new sensation of peace and appreciation for the experience of the present moment.

Then my mind said, “What about your loved ones? Can you let go of them?” And I tried to figure it out. I had more thoughts trying to reason how I would be able to let go of the people I loved when they passed on. I couldn’t figure it out. So that became what I let go of. I let go of not knowing how to let go. The brilliant thing about the universe is that when you can’t let go of something it helps you along. Someday I may be in a position to let go of those who I love and am extremely attached to in their current form.  But that doesn’t exist for me in my current now.  And when it does, it will still be the now, the place where all miracles, love, and power reside.  I haven’t let go as of yet, haven’t accepted that we all change forms, and that I can accept and let go of.

And with that as I walked along, I was brought back into the timeless, deathless now, the radiant glow of existence revealing its majesty more and more with each “letting go.”

Standard
consciousness, spirituality, Uncategorized

The Bed Bug Incident Part 3 – Conclusions

As the days passed before the extermination I experienced great fluctuations in my state of consciousness.  There would be brief moments of clarity where I felt fine, peaceful, above my circumstance.  Then I would soon despair again.  I had to pack up my apartment as if I was moving, treat all my clothes.  I had to live apart from my boyfriend who graciously stayed at the apartment, per instructions from the exterminator, while I fled to my parents’ house in the suburbs.  We’ve lived together for years and now we were in separate places, both without any of our “stuff.”

My mind constantly tormented me with the fear that I was going to bring the bugs to my parents’ house.  But as the days went by, my moments of clarity were able to shine through more and more.  I was learning to bring acceptance to my outer circumstance.  The negative thoughts were so obviously unwanted and unhelpful at this point that I made the choice to start letting them go, one by one, as they came up in my mind.  And they came up all the time.  So this was a lot of great practice at letting go of negative thoughts.

I then had to go back to the apartment to “test” the results of the extermination.  Everything was fine.  On my fifth day back I woke up and went to work.  As I was typing on my computer I noticed one of my fingers was swollen.  Then I felt something on my thigh, went to the bathroom, and saw it had swollen up the size of a large tomato.  I had been bitten.  I left that morning assuming I would see my boyfriend after work.  But now I’d be driving back to the suburbs, living apart for another two weeks while the second round of treatment took effect.  I emailed the exterminator.  I called my boyfriend to tell him what had happened.  I called my mom to tell her I was coming home.  And I was okay.  I had been through this once before, I was learning how to let go of the circumstance.  I was learning to be okay with uncertainty.  I was learning how to accept what happens, because to not accept what happens is to cause yourself unnecessary suffering.

The universe gave me a round two, another opportunity to try again.  And this time it was easier not to freak out.  It didn’t feel like a horrible struggle prepping my apartment for extermination, or commuting to work from the suburbs, or not knowing when I would live at my apartment again.  I’m still learning to accept that bugs exist.  But now, in comparison, the other ones don’t seem so bad.  I’m now back at my apartment and haven’t had any bites again.  Although that doesn’t mean they won’t come back.  And I am okay with that now, I have learned to be comfortable with the not knowing.  I really don’t know what is going to happen, where I’ll be living day to day, if the next apartment I get will be bed bug free.  From experiencing the suffering I caused after having bed-bugs I have learned that it is much more helpful, peaceful, and joyful to let go of those fears and be in the moment I am in.  After all, it is the only moment I will ever be in.  So if I’m afraid and worried now, it is likely I’ll continue to be afraid and worried.  But if I’m peaceful and accepting now, it is quite likely that my future moments will also be peaceful.  After all, the future never happens, when it does it is called the “now.”

So what can you let go of now?  What uncontrollable circumstances in your life can you bring acceptance to?  What negative thoughts repeat in your head that you are ready to let go of?  The bed bugs taught me many things; the universe always gives you the lesson that is most helpful for your state of consciousness at that moment (as Tolle puts it).  And while I perceived the situation as suffering while in the midst of it, it was for my learning, for fostering greater peace, joy, love, and awareness in my life.  What a gift.

PS- I also have a different relationship with things now.  Although I don’t perceive “stuff” as a burden as I did after getting bed bugs, I am not as interested in having more “stuff.”  I would rather have just a few things to tend to.  It has actually stopped me from wanting to buy clothes and other things.  All I wanted after having bed bugs was to be just me, to feel clean and untainted.  While that is an extreme that would be detrimental to stay at, it pushed me more to the middle in terms of my desire for objects, another blessing in disguise!

Standard