Letting go

We create ourselves every day. We repeat patterns of thought and behaviours which together construct an image of who we are. Much of this is neutral and indeed necessary, but much is old, stale, and unhelpful. Thoughts and stories about how; useless, ugly, clumsy, stupid (insert your own list) we are. 

Previously I have spoken about the work of listening to these, facing them and seeing who's voice they are. 

In this post I wanted to suggest just letting go and to give you a simple method to do so. 

Using something that is always with us and totally free. The breath. 

The method is simple; 

Deliberately breath in through your nose, at the top of that in breath, let go. 

So the work is in letting go. You need to not breath out in an active way. You need to allow the breath to leave by just letting go. 

If there is a feeling of effort (and there often is) just try again. Let go, give in, yield, do nothing, collapse. 

Do it once, do it for 5 mins, do it a 100 times a day, whatever you have time for. 

You may find that with the letting go of the breath you start to let go of some of the other things we don't need to hold on to. 

There are lots of possible reasons why this works, but it doesn't matter too much. This is not a theory it's a practice. You can only experience the effects by practice. 

So, well; practice. 

Be aware that release can be strong. Things we have been holding can be released. These can be physical, emotional or spiritual (or a mixture). It can be shocking or difficult; for me the important thing is not to hold on, but to accept they are flowing through you. You may want to explore the feelings; counselling, group work, meditation or body work.