I am tossing and turning in bed haunted by racing thoughts: How can we ever get out of this financial issue? I feel totally trapped. I am sweating – it’s already two o’clock in the morning. There is no way I can sleep. Not with that problem. It has been going on for so long now. I can’t stand this anymore! Why is he not being more responsible with money? On and on the thinking goes, and I am being swept away like a dog being waged by its tail.
And then all of a sudden the thought strikes me: What does this have to do with you, followed by a deep stillness. Oh my goodness! What does this have to do with me? The whole thought circus stops in its track and I feel completely peaceful. Like a thunder of realization this truth strikes me: it’s just a situation happening. This is not me. I feel my heart expanding with gratitude. It feels like God speaks to me. I guess that’s what it is. Thank you so much dear God, I think, and I calmly fall asleep.
This loving wisdom is always inside of you. It comes from a deep stillness and peace which is beyond thinking. It is all loving, all accepting and all embracing. The perennial philosophies teach that this love, peace and immortal spirit is who you truly are. Not the body/mind, but the vastness which is aware of the body/mind and all life happening. The only problem is that we always forget it again and again.
PROCESS
When you feel upset, sit with your spine elongated, possibly leaning against a pillow, and take a few deep breaths. Allow your body to completely relax. Imagine each cell of your body releasing its grip and floating freely. Feel the weight of your buttocks sink into the chair or floor. Take your time. Just sit and be for a moment. How does that feel?
Now think of your upset and say out loud the phrase: What does this have to do with me?! Hold this question and let it open a space inside your mind. What on earth does this have to do with Me?! Relax, breathe and be. Allow yourself to fall into this opening the question created, and imagine yourself dissolving into it. Focus only on the breath now and enjoy being.
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In reality your upset does not have anything to do with you, it is just life happening. Your mind creates lots of thoughts and feelings about it, but that is not you. The situation may also remind you of something you experienced in the past and trigger lots of old beliefs which you may still believe to be true. Whatever may be happening for you, you are not these thoughts, beliefs, opinions, aversions; you have created them, you are not them. You have thoughts and problems like you have a dress. You can drop the dress to the floor, and what remains is You.…In the same way, when you drop or let go of thoughts, beliefs and emotions, what remains is freedom, deep stillness and peace.
My favourite image I am using to point towards your true nature is the blue sky. You are like the blue sky which is never affected by however thick and black the clouds may be, piling up ‘in front’ of it. The blue sky is watching these clouds, which are constantly changing: piling up and dissolving again…The blue sky remains infinite, untouched, free, still, peaceful…That is how you are. That’s why you can say to your upset: ‘What does that have to do with me; what does this cloud have to do with the blue sky?’
I AM NOT THIS STORY
I feel that for this summer, instead of writing long articles, I prefer to offer you short and succinct messages, each one with a powerful tool in it. I already gave you one above, so here is the ‘other’ first tool I’d like to offer you.
Whenever you notice you are getting off track in your mind, when you feel upset, out of control, unsafe, unsure, whenever you feel angry, hurt – it can be literally anything which does not feel harmonious…Each time you notice this, you can say to yourself: I am not this story.
Then pause for a while and feel the space this created. Yes, you are none of what is in that story, these are just thoughts tumbling in your mind, like dirty laundry tumbling in a washing machine.
I hope you are practicing this process of letting go, because it can have amazingly freeing consequences for your life, if you do it.
Maybe here we could say: ‘Just do it’:-).
Please share with us what you are getting out of this process.
Much love to you,
Marlise