The only practice, or “non practice”, that may be helpful during the process of letting go is the practice of just sitting in a state of “no doing”. If you practice this for an hour everyday it will slowly, but surely, release all the “conflicting” energies in you and move you into alignment with life.
Just sit and let go of control
It’s really simple, all that you have do is to sit in a comfortable setting, in such a manner that your body is fully supported (may be on a comfortable couch or your bed), and just let go of your body, as if you are dead. I call it the state of Awake Sleep, because you let go into complete “non doing” like in sleep but you are also awake and conscious at the same time.
Remember these simple pointers when you are “sitting” in this place of non-doing
1. Don’t try to control your thoughts or emotions
2. Don’t try to observe your mind (if observing happens let it happen)
3. Don’t try to focus on anything, just let go of your attention, let it rest where it wants to
4. Don’t judge or analyze anything, just let be
5. Don’t try to attain something
6. Don’t try to figure out anything
7. Don’t try to stay aware. If you become lost in thoughts, let it be so
8. Don’t hold your body in any way. Relax all tension in your body in a total letting go, as if the body were dead
9. A lot of latent energies might well up, let them come and go, don’t fear them
This state of sitting in a “full let go” is a very powerful place to be. As you practice this “non practice” you will notice a lot of suppressed energies come up, and create sensations in your body. Don’t try to push them away, they are coming to the surface so that they leave your energy field. If you don’t suppress anything all the negative, or disharmonious, energies will start leaving your space of being. Don’t underestimate the power of this practice, it’s hugely transformative and healing.
Move more and more into effortlessness in your daily life
The whole idea of letting go is to come out of the mindset of “Effort” and move into the flow of life which always feels effortless. Action can be effortless, and only this kind of action is free of “fear” and lack. Effortful action always comes from a place of fear, control and holding on. As you start letting go more and more, you will find yourself taking effortless action as a norm.
Don’t feel guilty about being effortless. Don’t let your mind make you feel that you are doing something wrong. Remember that life creates effortlessly and all effort stems from the wrong vision of the mind. If you want to experience the true abundance of life, you will have to let go of your addiction to effort.
The mind will constantly try to get you to make effort, to make you move back into the old way of living. Just observe this tendency in the mind, but don’t be suckered in by it. Don’t let the mind fool you or blackmail you. Let go of the mind, let it make as much noise as it wants to, just don’t associate with it anymore. Be relaxed, be at ease, and trust completely in life. A tremendous power will take over your life when you become free of the personal will; this is the same power that created this universe – the power of life itself.
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Hi Sen,
I have social phobia and I have one question how to use Art of Letting go in conversations or interactions with other, because and i struggle a lot what to say so its wery frustrating. Need some advice! Thank, love your Post. Nenad from Slowenia
I used to do Yoga many, many years ago and I want to return to the state of mind that I had while I was doing it. The tv program that helped me with the Yoga was Lilias, yoga and you. I quit smoking and became happy and would not allow myself to feel any negativity.
Thank you so much for this insightful and interesting article! I really enjoyed reading it!
Hopefully, over time I will also master the “art of letting go.”
Sen.. Thanks for the article.
I wanted to know, how to ‘let go’ toxic memories completely, when you are bound to live with a person, who produced all the bad memories in your childhood or in the past( but not now). I know the fact that art of letting go surely works by having strong will power, but how our mind deal with such situations?? how to let go all toxic memories ‘completely’ by having that person around? is it possible for the mind to deal this tricky situation?
Sat, there is a difference between not being interested in a memory and being afraid of a memory. If you are associating the label of “toxic” to a memory, it just means you are giving way too much interest to the memory and hence you will keep it very active in your mind. Rather if you see the memories as just an event that happened in the past, and stop giving any further interest to it and stop associating your identity with it, it will effortlessly fade away from being active in your consciousness. If the person instigating the memories is in your presence, and they are behaving in a manner that’s re-creating the toxic memories, it’s just an indication that you are attracting this reality through your own obsession with those memories. When you change your relationship with memories by no longer associating so much importance to them, and you stop making them so serious, they will fade away from being active in your consciousness. Remember that from the absolute perspective of life, nothing is serious and it’s only your human perspective that’s giving a meaning to the situation – the more negative meaning that you give the more strongly you become attached to it and thus keep attracting its content in your reality.
Beautiful article
Hello, Sen! I’m just a bit confused…
How can you let go of your own “will” AND be a deliberate creator at the same time?
If you let go of your wills/your desires, how can you deliberately create?
The mind in its struggle-based mode can get into a lot of unnecessary actions to manifest the desire, and most of these actions may be counter productive to the actual manifestation. Your mind can only operate from its past conditioning, and hence is not really equipped with the insight/understanding to manifest a present desire, hence instead of working through the mind’s will-power if you let go and allow yourself to be moved from the inspiration of your life-stream your actions are aligned and productive towards manifesting your desired reality in a struggle free manner. I did not say let go of your “desires”, I just said let go of being moved by the mind’s forced will which mostly stems from its past conditioning. You become a deliberate creator when you can consciously let go of moving from a place of struggle, and be willing to be moved by the inspiration that comes forth from your connection with your space of being, because this way you will be aligned with the intelligence of your life-stream to guide you towards the manifestation of your desired reality. Moreover, the mind can hold on to several “deluded desires” which it really doesn’t but imagines that it wants them owing to some misguided thinking, connecting with your space of being gives you the wisdom to see through you own deluded desires because you gain a better understanding of yourself. You can read these posts for a better understanding
http://www.calmdownmind.com/a-clarity-of-intent/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/letting-go-of-the-mindset-of-struggle/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/the-science-of-manifestation/
Hello, I have been searching for so so long and apart from a few glimpses here and there. I have gave a go at “practicing” letting go using Adyashanti’s cd and your suggestions, but what i have found is as soon as i relax and let go i become really tired, exhausted actually to the point that sometimes i fall asleep, which i guess is not what is meant to happen. Why do i become suddenly so so tired, should i do something different. When i relax into myself and let go initially relief and a soft joy permeates and then the feeling of extreme tiredness. Could you shed some light.
thank you
Sen,
When you were out with friends or outside your comfort zone, did you stay open in letting go or did you ‘do this’ when you were at home alone? I ask because sometimes I let go ‘fully’ when I am at work just to see what will happen, but the signs are not so encouraging infront of people. Sometimes, an uncomfortable feeling will arise in front of people, and their reactions lead me to think I am doing the ‘wrong’ thing. I know I should not be taking on opinions and judgement but I feel as though I don’t want to scare people, but on the other hand I cannot help the feelings that arise.
Dave, basically it’s not necessary to practice it as a “technique” to be executed all the time, rather use it to bring awareness to your own imbalances whenever you can – initially its best to just do it when you don’t distractions around you. When you true come to inner stability you won’t feel like you are executing a technique, but it will just feel like you are moving from a natural place of inner freedom.
Sen,
This concept of ‘life’ that you say in your blogs…..does it require worship like we do in the temples and churches. Does this life associate itself with any of the form that we worship.
Also I mean is worshipping and praying for things actually useful in life for them to get materialzed…………….
Do you believe in any religion ? or do you have respect for all religons.
Lets take the example of this country I am staying in………its highly developed in every sense like technology, infrastructure., farming, industrialization etc. etc.
But here I never see a potrait of any GOD or any Saint anywhere. Not in offices,office desk , not in shops ,hotels not on road sides ( i cannot say homes because I have not been to many homes) . Yet what i see in this country is a happiness in people and development which I do not think I can see in my Home country in this lifetime.
What your opinion on my observation.
Amit, it doesn’t require worship, rather it’s about understanding that you are the same life-energy and what’s needed is that you connect with the intelligence present within you by deepening in your space of being instead of being anchored in the mind movement all the time. There is nothing higher or lower, everything is life, including you as the human form, basically all is the one force, the one being, so there is no “need” to worship rather what’s needed is to connect within yourself, and sense your oneness with life – to see that any sense of separation is purely created by a thought in the mind, without these thoughts of seeing yourself as inferior or isolated, you will know that there is inherently no separation, everything is just one space of life.
Indeed it is a very good article.
Amit, In which country do you live?
I totally understand the concept of letting go & truly have no qualms about letting go & trusting that life will take care of u. I’m even able to surrender to mindless consciousness my question is what can a person do to allow the natural flow of life pull them in if like myself I’m on medication that i must take daily like a diabetic, it’s something i do out of that fear that i could become ill.I’m under a doctor’s supervision of course, it’s nothing illegal but i originally didn’t want to take this medication because i felt like it would be unnaturally controlling my actions but i came to realize i was worse off self medicating in other ways in order to compensate for the chemical imbalance. How can i truly b free if my avoidance of the medical diagnosis keeps me feeling trapped? I feel stuck inn do many ways. Plz help! Thanks
I have not been meditating really for the past year, and as such sometimes I am lost in thought and am rarely in the present moment. Though I can witness this all happening. I don’t want to wait another 3 years, practice this and practice that. Am I in a position to let go?? or must my awareness first be solid?
Dave, you can move into the practice of “allowing”, to release the momentum of your mind and emotions – which are at the background of your feeling disconnected from your inner wholeness. It’s possible that your mind may be indulging in techniques, and setting time-limits, because of its fear of truly facing a release of your emotional energy.
Sen, I find myself simply unaware of how to actually stop ‘trying’ to do anything. Everytime I wish to fully let go, I sense my mind trying to do it and not my awareness. How do I actually create space between my thoughts and my awareness? I feel them being the same thing even though I know they aren’t.
Self, you are trying to hard to “do it right”, rather just see the state of allowing as a means to surrender your struggle – just be open and do get pulled into to the whole “am I doing this right”. The space gets created in your willingness to let go of figuring it out, to just “be” without requiring to know if you are doing it right.
Sen,
I am a college student as of now and I am trying to let go. I want to know if what I am doing is wrong. I haven’t felt like studying or doing homework required of me in college I have felt more relaxed. I don’t feel any remorse but should I? I honestly feel like college is the cause of my suffering or is something made due to effort. I have always wanted to be an actress but i don’t know if the universe wants that for me. Am I letting go in your opinion. Am I destroying my own reality.
I would like help please. I am confused yet I feel relaxed when I’m not doing the work.