LETTING GO OF ANGER AND RESENTMENT
Maintaining a sense of inner peace amid the chaos the world is currently in, means being able to let go—all the time, constantly, in every moment.
As soon as you begin to hold on to any emotion, whether it be anger or resentment, joy or pleasure, fear or sadness, you create suffering for yourself.
Your mind gets caught up in the emotion and you lose your state of inner balance. Letting go does not mean to deny your feelings—you let them come, and then let them pass.
Utilizing the rhythm of your breath and meditation can help greatly with allowing this flow.
I read a quote by the author of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach, several months ago that resonated deeply with me at the time.
“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have and step into the darkness of the unknown—believe that one of two things will happen to you. Either you’ll find something solid to stand on or you’ll be taught how to fly,” said Bach.
We are in a time of uncertainty that so many of us have never really experienced on this level in our lifetime. It makes me think about the fear and anxiety that mothers must have felt as their young sons went off to volunteer in the Second World War or how the Great Depression left thousands wondering where their next meal would come from.
But in our world today, many have been suffering and do we really stop to embody the compassion needed to reach out to those who struggle on the other side of the world or even in our own presence, homeless on our streets. I find myself asking the question in my quiet moments, “Why is this happening?”
I know that in consciousness we are individually given signs when we are going off track. It may start with a light tap and if ignored, the big board will often come down upon us. What is the earth telling us by this tsunami of tragedy that collectively we cannot avoid and must feel?
In the quietness of our time of enhanced isolation that is now occurring again, it will be our responsibility to each ask ourselves these poignant questions. Life as we know it will likely not ever be the same and perhaps this is the opening to a new and more thoughtful world.
It takes us each exploring ourselves deeply.
One of the greatest spiritual teachings is the awareness that all things are impermanent; that all things come and go; that you cannot cling to anything—not even pleasure—without also creating suffering.
As you integrate the truth of this teaching, it’s wonderfully liberating, for it brings you back into the present moment. If everything is so impermanent, including yourself and your feelings, then it is our task to embrace this in order to find peace amid chaos when life is so unpredictable.
It can be challenging and difficult, even unbearable at times, to focus our attention and intention on this.
The “Just Being Meditation” offered by Ed and Deb Shapiro, authors of Be The Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, is a practice that may help and enlighten you in these circumstances we have no control over. Find a comfortable place to sit and close your eyes.
Become aware of yourself, of your presence in the chair and in your room. Cast your mind around your body. Breathe into and release any places of tension. Now feel the flow of your breath as it enters and leaves.
Here you are: alive…breathing…sensing…your heart beating…your feet on the floor.
Be present with yourself and whatever is happening, without judgment. Now just sit and be and breathe… just sitting…just being …just breathing. Silently repeat, “May all things be well, may I be at peace with all things.”
Stay with this for a few minutes or for as long as you like. When you are ready, take a deep breath, let go and gently open your eyes.
This is a time of connection with your own inner landscape in quiet stillness to expand greater love and acceptance first of yourself, then to offer a greater compassion out to those around you. This is the calling to each of us to help heal the world. As the wise one Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
