Week 2: Letting Go

 

What Can You Let Go of Right Now?

If anyone told you that "letting go" or "surrender" was an easy part of practicing yoga, chances are they had been practicing for hundreds of years!  Letting Go or letting things "be" is a life long practice and one that we use in our asana practice each day.  The list of what we can let go of can be quite lengthy when you really examine what you hold onto to "hold yourself together."  Yoga beckons us to "let it all fall apart" but how many of us are truly comfortable with letting our egos crumble, letting our judgments and beliefs drop, and truly being open to the way things actually are? What about hope and happiness? How hard is it to let those things go?

As I was thinking about this weeks lesson, I realized that I myself have been in a 3 years period of uncertainty when it comes to career, finance, and home stability.  It has been very scary to follow this path of teaching which I believe to be my Dharma (or life's work) but which is also not a stable enterprise.  My income depends mostly on who is coming to class minus the rent I'm paying.  I constantly seek positions that will provide a set amount of classes and a flat rate pay so at least I know what kind of paycheck I will be receiving in order to pay bills, rent, food, etc,.  What I have learned from this period of simply following my path step by step is that happiness has NOTHING to do with how many people are in class, how much money i'm making (or not making), whether I'll get a new class or not.   Circumstances are as they are and the only thing we can do instead of fighting them, is to simply "let them be."

So, my question to you this week is "what are you holding onto" what keeps you awake at night worrying?  These are the situations we need to pay attention to.  Here are some ways to think about where you can let go.

Physically:
1) Can you let go of the ideal body you think you "should" have and appreciate the one you're in today?

2.) Do you compare yourself to others?  Can you let go of thinking you should be different than you are?

3) Chronic Pain, Injuries etc,?  Can you practice letting go of wishing for a better circumstance? Not having the accident? Not living with this disease? etc,.

Mentally:

1.) Do you accept your intellect/intelligence level as it is?

2.) Do you put yourself down for "thinking too much" in meditation or not being able to "clear your mind."

3.)Can you accept your mind and all of it's distortions that are not based on reality sometimes?

Emotionally:

1.) Our emotions change like New England weather. Do you accept each state as passing or do you hold onto emotions such as "my sadness" or "my anger"?  Can it just be sadness?  Can you practice "sitting WITH anger?"

2.) Do you accept all of your emotions without labeling them as right or wrong?

3.) Can you let go of wanting things to be different, better, bigger, smaller, less painful, more happy etc,? 

As you go through your week I encourage you to be mindful of all the little moments when you can let go.  Furthermore, see if you can practice "Ishvara Pranidhana" :surrendering your problems etc, to a higher power or the universe.

Namaste,

Natalie