I’m writing this after a harrowing experience that’s also reminded me about an important lesson in letting go. I’m in Illinois for my brother’s wedding. Getting here was an ordeal.
My partner and I arrived early at the airport to check in for a flight. The terminal was in absolute chaos. There were people standing about everywhere and few people to assist everyone. I was asking where to go to check in the bag and kept getting pointed in different directions. After running around for quite a while to check in the bag we finally found the right place. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to check the bag.
We then went from line to line and ended up missing the flight. We ended up on standby. Ugh! After going through and not getting on 4 more flights, we were beginning to get real concerned. I was wondering if we were going to make it for the wedding. I noticed myself having a hard time letting go and trusting that we would get there.
At the 5th flight we attempted, there were 4 people who didn’t board the plane. Hmmm, maybe we would get on this one! With less than 5 minutes to go before departure one person went running toward the gate to get on the plane. We were called to the gate to wait for a seat. This is when I really had to focus on letting go of my agenda and trusting that the right thing would happen.
Eventually we did get on the plane, the doors closed and we took off.
I was reminded that I have such a hard time letting go. I was very frustrated that I wanted to do something to control or change the situation, but there was nothing I could do.
Letting go is an important practice with our bodies too. Many times we want to control the situation or control the experience. When we’re trying to control the experience, we’re not experiencing it. I’m constantly reminded of the importance of letting go.
Even when I don’t want to!
What I have learn Ed is to listen to my gut instinct, and trust in the universe. The more I let go of control, and listen, whether it’s God, the angels, the universe or whatever you believe in, the more things flow freely and easily! It’s about breaking old habits and learning new ones!
That might be so but at the end of the day letting go means accepting you won’t get what you want in life. I think too much is made of the law of attraction and the universe knows it all what is best. That might be true but at what point do we go well that is the way it is? I had the same experience on a flight within Australia. The plane was late and from that moment on everything went wrong. I still have a fantastic trip. I tried to let go of the outcomes and achieved what i needed to, but at the end of the day it should have been better.
Let go and moving on are too used by our cultures Western and Eastern. It implies that you have to let someone or something take over. But at the end of your life no doubt you will look at those at the end of theirs and they will go I did X and why and you know you did not do what you wanted because you let go. They die happy – you do not, and then you get told by the ‘universe’ right come back to earth again.
This sort of thinking does the damage. If something is going to go wrong, it will, letting go is fine, but sometimes when you realise your body is going to fail eventually and you didn’t get what you let go of and others have whatever it is – that ain’t a nice feeling.