Let go and Live

Image above is by the amazing artist Rick Berry. View his work online at www.braid.com.

These words are so beautiful and so true; embrace them. 

Let go. 

Live.

Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life.
 

What is it you would let go of today? 

--Mary Manin Morrissey

Fear and Freedom

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

To live with the conscious knowledge of the shadow of uncertainty, with the knowledge that disaster or tragedy could strike at any time; to be afraid and to know and acknowledge your fear, and still to live creatively and with unstinting love: that is to live with grace.

--Peter Henry Abrahams, The View From Coyaba

Wow, this brought tears to my eyes. I love the line, "to be afraid...." You know, this is the point isn't it? As human beings we can not usually completely conquer our fear, but to be able to sit with it, to hold space within a quivering heart for courage and perseverance is truly what makes us the exceptional creatures that we are. To live with a boundless, loving heart in the midst of uncertainty and fear is the definition of courage; it is the definition of Freedom.

Keeping an Untroubled Spirit

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The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

– Marcus Aurelius

I love this quote because it so simply sums up the philosophy of yoga. First, we must calm the mind, then we can reflect clearly on what really is, seperate from the illusion and ignorance of avidya. But, as always, easier said, than done.

Two things that help me to keep an "untroubled spirit" when I find myself getting caught up in the illusionary drama of a situation.

1. I sit down and breathe a 5/5 ratio 5x (5 breath cycles of an inhale with a count of five and an exhale with a count of five.) If that doesn't work, I do five more rounds...and then another...another, and so on.

2. I think of 5 things that I am grateful for right now at this moment in my life and I think of  five things that are going right. (These could be big or small. Sometimes it might be just being grateful that I am not out of milk for my morning coffee, or happiness that I am doing a better job flossing my teeth at night. I am not being cute here. When the chips are down it is important to remember that there are always some small, wonderful things going right and to be grateful for. We need to start there.

Please leave some comments and share some ways that you keep an "untroubled spirit" and a clear view of things as they are.