A Meditation for Letting Go
What if your only job in this lifetime was to find all the knots in your body, the tangles in your mind and the fear in your heart and dissolve them? Where would you start? How would you begin?
Individuals are here to discover how to open, how to love and how to live in compassionate awareness with, and of, one another. In order to bring forth this compassion, it is necessary to let go of the tightness and constraint held within the body.
Mindful Tip
This is a wonderful practice if you need to relax and let the day fall away. It will help you come back to your senses and find the clearing in your awareness where calmness resides.
PRACTICE
1. Begin by finding a comfortable posture and by bringing your attention to the breath. Take a few moments to let yourself arrive and allow the breath to draw you gently into internal awareness. Allow the gaze to soften, the eyes to close
2. Bring awareness to the mind and offer it an invitation: Let go. Repeat the words Let go five times and allow your mind to release, expand, ease and relax. Take five breaths here.
3. Now bring attention to the eyes. What are they doing? What sensations are present? Really feel them. Take five breaths here.
4. Silently choose three words to describe what is present.
5. Now, invite the eyes to Let go. Imagine them softening, relaxing and releasing. Take five breaths here.
6. Bring the focus of your awareness next to the tongue and notice any small sensations that arise. The tongue is an extraordinary muscle, which moves in unique ways. Lengthen and shorten it, play with its width, height and shape. Consciously move it around your mouth. Allow it to explore. Take five breaths here.
7. Now, silently choose three words to describe this experience of your tongue. Take five breaths here and then invite the tongue to Let go. Feel it soften, relax and release.
8. When ready, transfer the focus of your awareness to the shoulders and describe what you feel. Be curious, specific and detailed in these observations. Now, invite the shoulders to Let go. Imagine they are dropping by just a few millimeters. Take five breaths here.
9. Now bring your awareness to the heart and invite it to Let go. What happens? Inhale. Exhale. Let go. Where is your heart holding on? Inhale. Exhale. Let go. Where is your heart ready to release? Inhale. Exhale. Let go. Take five breaths here.
10. Let go. Let go. Let go. Take five breaths here.
11. On the next breath give your whole-body permission to Let Go. Take five breaths here.
12. Return to wakefulness in your own way.
13. Record your experience in a journal. Note any areas of the body where it was easier or more challenging to Let Go. If practicing with others, take turns sharing your discoveries.
