Let Go and Let God

What in the World Does that Mean?

I love to sit by “my morning window” and talk with God every morning as I watch the sun rise. That is my personal time. This morning I became aware that I was rushing to get things done. I was in a hurry and became afraid that if I didn’t get these things done, then what I wanted to happen wouldn’t happen and people wouldn’t show up, etc. etc. (we all know how that goes!).

This morning I caught myself in this cycle of thinking and told myself to slow down. I took some time to look at my fear and where it came from. I had lost trust in some fundamental way. I was trying to shape my life instead of implementing my ideas and being myself, moving with the changes that naturally occur, and letting myself be guided by them. I took a look at my current life, but I couldn’t find a current cause for my lack of trust. I then looked into my past to see what early parts of myself are still struggling with this issue. I found a couple of early times in my life where I was scarred by events and was very scared. Back in those days, before I was even seven, there was reason to be scared. I had a scared and depressed mother. I moved from a wonderful place to a new and unknown place. Like any child I did what I knew to do at the time. In my seven year old way, I tried to control my life. I tried to take the reigns in my little hands.

As I went through these old events and spoke with my “little selves” I gave the old fears to God (so to speak) and I was able to breathe and really take a full look at the sun rising in front of me. I slowed down and allowed myself to be the best of me: active, adventurous, and fulfilled.

It is when we try to shape things our way instead of moving with the changes that we feel stressed. There are so many ways we try to shape ourselves and our lives. We try to shape our bodies, and if our bodies don’t conform to the norm, we feel bad. We try to shape our hair, our marriages, our children, our homes, and more.

What would happen if you didn’t try so hard to shape your life into some predetermined form?  What would it feel like if you let your life and relationships take their own shape? What fears do you hold that might prevent you from letting things in your life just find their own shape?

Shift Your Story: Guided Visualization and Meditation:

Find a comfortable seat near a window where you can see the outside and be in the sun. Feel the sun warm you from the outside in and inside out. Ask yourself: how old were you when you can remember your fears beginning? What was happening in your life at that time? Is this a repeating pattern or not? Remind yourself that you are living here and now, in the sun, and ask the sun to illuminate these shadow areas so they can be in the sun and be seen. Take as long as you need to explore this interior terrain.

Afterwards take inventory of how you feel and the amount of fear that may be shaping your thoughts. Then imagine you giving those old feelings and fears to a higher power.  Try this meditation as often as needed.

Recommended Resources:

Living a fulfilled life is how we care for our heart, mind, body, and soul. Caring for the whole person is caring at a deep and nurturing level that allows your full and lush self to see the light of day where it can grow and finally find its true shape. I heartily recommend reading Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore if you want to nourish and nurture a more graceful and soulful way of living that tends your heart, mind, body, and soul.