Letting Go

I've written before about not carrying tension from one thing to another - whether physical tension or emotional tension - the same idea applies.  Tension, in a way, is unresolved or unrelieved stress or effort.  

Sometimes events of the past are integrated into our experience - we accept what has happened, perhaps learn a useful lesson, and let go of the rest.  Just another piece in the growing mosaic of our experience, the event has no undue hold.  Wait - that's a telling point of view, because in fact no other person or event has any way to hold on to us - the holding is all our own.   

Nearly all of us have some capacity to accept and let go of things, and also have aspects of life that we cling to dearly and won't or can't let go of, even when the effect is entirely to our detriment.  That's certainly true for me, although through practice my capacity for letting go has increased. 

Without holding on, life's experience flows by in a deep, rich river.  Attachments are like snags that catch onto us - though it is always really us holding on to them - and they interrupt and disrupt the flow - preventing us from full present experience. Without holding on, the future is limitless possibility, but everything we cling to limits us.  We feel that external forces are running our life - we feel that we don't have a choice - that we are boxed in.  In truth - we have made the box - we are not making the choice - and it is our internal attachments and holdings - not some external force, that is running our life.