The Art of Letting Go
Recently I moved. A short-distance move, just a 20-minute walk from where I’ve been living the past 5 years.
As I unpacked boxes that had been hidden in storage since I arrived in the UK five years ago, I discovered a number of material things that I should have let go a long time ago.
Among these questionable treasures: a dented metal tin with an incomplete set of Caran d’Ache pencils. Just half of the original 18 pencils remain and those are worn down or broken to half their original height, all a bit grubby. My mum got the pencils when we lived in London when I was 5 years old. The pencils moved with me to New York, Philadelphia, Ohio, Washington DC, back to New York and most recently back to the UK. Possibly they were last used in Ohio in the early 90s. I don’t remember.
For me, the pencils represented a love of art and making things. I liked having them with me even when I wasn’t using them. I may get back to drawing and painting at some point. In the meantime, while I enjoy creating in other ways, I’ll let those old pencils go.
Letting go is a part of the yogic practice. You let go of tension, you let go of emotion, you let go of attachments. Ultimately, you let go of your physical body and this life. By loosening your grip – letting go – you can open up to new possibilities and find freedom to live and even love more fully.
The art of letting go takes practice. Meditation can help. Through meditation you can develop your neutral mind. In the stillness of a meditative state, you can connect with the timelessness of your own soul. When you relate to your higher consciousness and the realms beyond the material world, you may experience more ease with the impermanence of things – beloved objects, relationships, friends and family, this lifetime. You may grieve – especially in the case of loved ones who have passed on – but you also can accept. The two are not mutually exclusive.
A daily Kundalini meditation practice – even just 3-11 minutes each day – can help you cultivate the meditative mind and the ability to let go.
Our online meditation classes are a good place to start. You can join daily Online Meditation class, every weekday evening at 8pm.