Set For Life, Making Adjustments and Letting Go

In January I wrote on the theme, if you can relax in any position, you will be set for life. I’m pretty sure it will take a lifetime or more for me to learn this skill! As I write I notice a twinge in my left shoulder, take a breath into it, and shift my posture. The twinge continues. Can I relax with the twinge? Can this, too, be okay?

So often we fight with ourselves about what is real for us. We decide a twinge shouldn’t be in our shoulder or some other thing shouldn’t be. We can move, breathe, adjust our thinking or whatever we want to do to take care of ourselves and yet sometimes things just are and our adjustment is about accepting whatever it is. Maybe we don’t want to accept it. Can we be okay with that? Maybe we are scared. Can we be okay with that?

An ultimate part of relaxing, an ultimate part of being set for life is letting go. Surrendering to the reality before us and loving ourselves enough to be okay with whatever arises next. This reminds me of one of my favorite Rumi poems, The Guest House. This poem reminds us that everything we experience is valuable and necessary.

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Inviting you to meet all of yourself with laughter and joy,

Cathy