Earlier this week, I started reading Letting Go by David Hawkins. A lot of stuff has resonated with me so far but the thing that’s stood out to me the most relates to consistently practicing mindfulness. I see it like using medicine to deal with major pain. While the pain is still there, there’s an urge to relieve it, so it’s natural and easy to keep using the medicine. As the pain gradually goes away, however, the urge for relief becomes lessened until the pain is completely gone, at which point there is no longer a desire for the medicine. When the pain has been gone for long enough, the thought of taking any medicine doesn’t even enter your head.
With emotional matters, however, it’s a different story. I focus heavily on life hacks that help me manage fear, anxiety, anger, and other similar sensations when I’m going through a hard time. Working on that stuff each day makes me feel better and eventually gets me to a place of peace and confidence. Once I’m at that point, I feel so good that I soon forget to practice the stuff that got me there. This causes me to gradually regress until I feel bad enough to start looking for relief again, and the cycle continues. I hope that I can get out of this cycle if I practice surrendering, letting go, and being present every day, not just during rough times.
I’ve thought about this before but I always forget about it and fall back into that cycle. Since I’m reading Letting Go and getting all kinds of great reminders to practice this stuff as well as learning more about how all this works, I think I’ll be able to make this a daily practice from here on out. What I’ve read so far has already gotten me through a rough week and gave me a great Saturday, so I’m optimistic about the future. I’ll talk more about this stuff in other posts once I’ve had some more time to work on it and see what it does for me.