April 15, 2020
During this period of the pandemic I am working with Letting Go. What does this mean? It means seeing when I am hanging on to wanting something to be other than it is, particularly when I have no agency over making it be different. Often, wanting things to be other than they are simply leads to more distress or suffering. Of course there are times when we need to address situations like when there is injustice, prejudice, poverty, violence and so much
more, but there are times when our not wanting what is, or wanting something else or struggling with impatience (another variant of wanting) can only be addressed in a skillful manner by letting go. So these days, sometimes I simply breathe in "let" and breathe out "go." This becomes another anchor for attention rather than ruminating about whatever it is that I am currently railing against - something my husband did, somebody who stood too close, the fact that no one answers the phone or I wait for an hour to get through to the bank
and so on.
The practice then is to investigate when wanting or not wanting is present and see if there is another way to be with and manage that difficulty other than trying to solve a problem that can't be solved the
way I would like. Sometimes the answer is to
simply let go.
- Anonymous Contributor #1
The author of this post has chosen to remain anonymous. I have assigned a number to each contributor who opts to remain anonymous. This is so readers have a sense of the number of different contributors that are involved in this continuously growing community.