Living a fulfilling life is less abut holding on than it is letting go. Letting go of what?
First, it’s about letting go of your long-held ideas about the way things should be. It takes clarity, determination and courage to recognize how things really are. If you need to make changes you make changes–but you start by being radically honest with yourself about your current life situation. Getting lost in the past or tangled up in the future is an avoidance of your here and now reality. When you’re eating a sandwich, can you just eat the sandwich, fully showing up for that simple moment, however satisfying or disappointing? It’s about facing reality head-on rather than trying to “negotiate” with your life experience.
Second, it’s about letting go of your carefully cobbled together ideas about who you are. I’m not suggesting you get rid of your core values, but I am suggesting you invite more flexibility into your habitual approach to your life. So much of your life people have been telling you who you are–which probably has a lot to do with who they want you to be. Trying to concretely define your identity is like trying to catch a flowing river in a teaspoon. Who you are keeps changing. You are an ever evolving process. What’s true about you today may not be true about you tomorrow. To lean into change–with all its mystery, potential, discomfort and uncertainty—is to lean into life.
