Let Go and Love
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Naomi Crain |
In my usual way, I spent the weeks between Christmas and mid-January planning the year ahead.
(I’m not talking about this year – the pointless nature of early planning for 2020 is another post entirely)
Once I’d planned, it was clear there’d be a lot on my plate in the first third of this year. While it was exciting, it's also scary and potentially crazy-making. So planning and clarity about what I was doing, and what I would not do, would be the only way to survive and meet the intentions I'd set.
I'd done resolutions, goals, dreams and visions in the past, all of which didn't end up sitting right. But this year, instead, had decided on a ""gentler-where-possible"" approach, so I set much simpler intentions.
But intentions can arise from genuine smarts & good planning, or out of naivety and ignorance.
Intentions are set, and if you realise them, great. But when life happens, as it inevitably does, many a goal, vision, dream or resolution remains unmet or unrealised.
And this is why I’ve come to like “intentions”.
When life interrupts your movement toward an intention (at least in my mind), you simply acknowledge that your intended action is now not possible.
And you revise the intention.
So what were my intentions for this year?
I have a habit I use to determine these things. About mid-December I begin to pay very careful attention to things that fall into my lap - articles, blogs, books, talks etc. These often provide a very clear direction for me.
By late December, I was re-listening to an old Martha Beck class recording, and the following phrase jumped out:
Let go and Love.
Beck was talking about an experience she describes in the opening pages of her book "Finding Your Way In A Wild New World". She was tracking a rhinosaurus in Africa (as you do) and she & her colleagues found themselves dangerously standing between a mother rhino and her young baby.
Not a good idea.
A rhino could trample and impale a human without blinking an eye, and a mother separated from her baby gets angry very quickly.
Beck noticed, at this point of imminent death, that her mind let go of all its agenda.
All the plans and worries and considerations of the future.... all that she had structured as "her life"….she just let go of it all.
And in its place, there was just love....
…love for the stressed mother rhino,
…love for the scared baby rhino,
…love for the land on which they stood, (which had been dead land from over-farming but reclaimed and brought back to life),
…love for the whole crazy world.
She saw, in that moment, that in letting go of agenda and allowing inspiration in, we find love.
And in that moment, her purpose landed, clear as day, in her mind.
Let go and love.
Again....perhaps easier said than done.
But this line jumped out at me, from a 90 minute recording that's full of nuggets of goodness.
So that New Years Eve, instead of partying or socialising, I meditated on this idea.
Let go and love.
As I did, one thing after another came to me.
Things to let go of and allow love to fill me instead.
I got a picture in my mind that, rather than the pushing and the striving and decision making and commitment coaxing that so often accompanies goals, visions, dreams and resolutions, I simply saw my desires and the love that they would fill me with.
And then it came to me that instead of hitting the new year’s ground running, “making it happen”, I needed to sit (as in, my meditation spot) and allow each stage of the year to come to me.
The required work will be obvious at the time. Love, the force that longs to see us fulfilled and happy in our lives, is answering my desires, if only I would drop my insistence that it must be done by me, my way.
Instead, I needed to allow it to come to me, moving forward as it is revealed. My job is to sit, present and in the moment, letting go,
Stop resisting (that's the let go part) and just sit in love.
So I did that for a while.
The things that had “landed” as I’d been pondering through this were:
My job is to stay in a state of love, for what is, for whomever I’m with and regardless whatever path I’m asked to take.
I share this with you because today, in July 2020, I feel like those ideas, the letting go and loving approach to all things, is more needed than ever.
The gentle intention setting that simply says to the loving and life-sustaining forces in the universe “these are the things that would make me happy” is a great mid-year intention setting goal.
Then sit still, find peace, grow love, feel joy.
(I’m not talking about this year – the pointless nature of early planning for 2020 is another post entirely)
Once I’d planned, it was clear there’d be a lot on my plate in the first third of this year. While it was exciting, it's also scary and potentially crazy-making. So planning and clarity about what I was doing, and what I would not do, would be the only way to survive and meet the intentions I'd set.
I'd done resolutions, goals, dreams and visions in the past, all of which didn't end up sitting right. But this year, instead, had decided on a ""gentler-where-possible"" approach, so I set much simpler intentions.
But intentions can arise from genuine smarts & good planning, or out of naivety and ignorance.
Intentions are set, and if you realise them, great. But when life happens, as it inevitably does, many a goal, vision, dream or resolution remains unmet or unrealised.
And this is why I’ve come to like “intentions”.
When life interrupts your movement toward an intention (at least in my mind), you simply acknowledge that your intended action is now not possible.
And you revise the intention.
So what were my intentions for this year?
I have a habit I use to determine these things. About mid-December I begin to pay very careful attention to things that fall into my lap - articles, blogs, books, talks etc. These often provide a very clear direction for me.
By late December, I was re-listening to an old Martha Beck class recording, and the following phrase jumped out:
Let go and Love.
Beck was talking about an experience she describes in the opening pages of her book "Finding Your Way In A Wild New World". She was tracking a rhinosaurus in Africa (as you do) and she & her colleagues found themselves dangerously standing between a mother rhino and her young baby.
Not a good idea.
A rhino could trample and impale a human without blinking an eye, and a mother separated from her baby gets angry very quickly.
Beck noticed, at this point of imminent death, that her mind let go of all its agenda.
All the plans and worries and considerations of the future.... all that she had structured as "her life"….she just let go of it all.
And in its place, there was just love....
…love for the stressed mother rhino,
…love for the scared baby rhino,
…love for the land on which they stood, (which had been dead land from over-farming but reclaimed and brought back to life),
…love for the whole crazy world.
She saw, in that moment, that in letting go of agenda and allowing inspiration in, we find love.
And in that moment, her purpose landed, clear as day, in her mind.
Let go and love.
Again....perhaps easier said than done.
But this line jumped out at me, from a 90 minute recording that's full of nuggets of goodness.
So that New Years Eve, instead of partying or socialising, I meditated on this idea.
Let go and love.
As I did, one thing after another came to me.
Things to let go of and allow love to fill me instead.
I got a picture in my mind that, rather than the pushing and the striving and decision making and commitment coaxing that so often accompanies goals, visions, dreams and resolutions, I simply saw my desires and the love that they would fill me with.
And then it came to me that instead of hitting the new year’s ground running, “making it happen”, I needed to sit (as in, my meditation spot) and allow each stage of the year to come to me.
The required work will be obvious at the time. Love, the force that longs to see us fulfilled and happy in our lives, is answering my desires, if only I would drop my insistence that it must be done by me, my way.
Instead, I needed to allow it to come to me, moving forward as it is revealed. My job is to sit, present and in the moment, letting go,
Stop resisting (that's the let go part) and just sit in love.
So I did that for a while.
The things that had “landed” as I’d been pondering through this were:
- a difficult relationship I've been trying to make better. I needed to let go of trying to change it, and just love it for what it is.
- my fears around my intentions for 2017 in my coaching business. I needed to let go of fear and just be in love with those I help. In love, I can be fully present and truly hear them, which will help me help them better.
- the churning in my head, thinking, worrying, insecurity, busyness - let go of all that takes me out of the present, including worrying about me and what people think of me, and just love whatever situation I am in, and whomever I am with.
- all the self-improvement ideas I'd had. I needed to let go of trying to make myself into something else, and simply love who I am, in the moment
- all the thinking and analysis I do of others and the world. I need to stop trying to solve everyone's problems, let go of "out there" and enjoy the peace and intuitive motion of being conscious of the "world behind my eyes", as Caroline Myss calls it.
- the striving to move forward, just letting the year come to me.
My job is to stay in a state of love, for what is, for whomever I’m with and regardless whatever path I’m asked to take.
I share this with you because today, in July 2020, I feel like those ideas, the letting go and loving approach to all things, is more needed than ever.
The gentle intention setting that simply says to the loving and life-sustaining forces in the universe “these are the things that would make me happy” is a great mid-year intention setting goal.
Then sit still, find peace, grow love, feel joy.
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