Monday, February 22, 2010

Strategies for letting go

Many people claim that they know letting go will help them feel better when faced with a life difficulty but that they don't know how. The classic principles of meditation teach us both the why and the how. Here's a sample:

Do a meditation on impermanence... Sitting in silence, and seeing the coming and going of your feelings and bodily sensations, you become less attached to them. You more fully identify with your "true self" that exists like the sky beyond the clouds.

Change your self-talk. Stop saying "I am depressed," or similar things, even in your head. Learn to say "I feel depressed," or "The feeling of depression is passing through me," and the feeling will be less "real." Did you know that in Spanish you can't say "I am afraid?" You say "Yo tengo miedo," which is "I have fear." When you "are" something, it's harder to remember you can let go. When you "have" something, you are more likely to remember that you can stop having it.
Self talk is extraordinarily powerful. This is why it is invariably counter-productive to scold ourselves when we believe we've made a mistake.

I found the above excerpt on a page entitled "Letting Go" that is part of a website I just discoverd called The Meditation Site. I'm looking forward to exploring it.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:48 PM

    Thanks ellie,

    I like to alter it even more by saying, "anger is arising", identifying less with anger and seeing it as more impermanent.

    annie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:10 PM

    so awesome thanks for sharing the site

    ReplyDelete

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