The simple principle of letting our thoughts and emotions be as they are, is incredibly powerful – if we then turn our attention within to the silence our mutual Heart-essence.
The object of letting thought-emotions be is to remove our attention from them, to stop feeding them, to stop nourishing and nurturing them simply by giving them attention.
Think of it like this: Imagine you are responsible for tending a flower bed. If you could remove all light and moisture from the weeds they could not grow; and they would die away without you having to touch them or do anything with them. Gardeners know this as the principle of mulching.
The same is true of the “weed-thoughts” in your mind. When you simply stop feeding them with your attention they will drop away naturally. You won’t have to touch them, change them, or do psychotherapy on them.
Then you can choose to feed and nurture the beautiful flowers. You can grow a beautiful mind.
But if we just let thought-emotions be, without turning our attention within (ie to the beautiful flowers), not much will happen. Or, if there is a release it will only have a short-term effect. The reason for this is that the core contraction will remain in place, which then gives rise to further symptoms of stress after a short period of relative peace.
It is crucial to the effectiveness of the releasing process to allow our attention to relax and rest into the silence of our mutual Heart-essence, into the feeling of Being.
Then, because what we give attention to grows and is who we become, the “weed thoughts” naturally drop away without our doing anything whatever to them. And the beauty living within us all, which the weed thoughts had been veiling, spontaneously bursts forth into the light of awareness.
Click here to download the “Heart Flower” meditation, which I created to offer an experience of the above principle (scroll down the page to Healing > The Heart Flower)
What about “letting go”?
In my experience letting go can tend to be construed as “getting rid of” – which is the antithesis of kind, welcoming acceptance. I noticed this in some of my clients many years ago, when I used to teach “letting go”, and so changed my language to letting be.
But even using the more elegant and accurate term “let it be” rather than “let it go”, if we only let a thought-emotion be without turning our attention within to the beautiful silence of our Heart-essence, only minimal results can be expected.
This is because, although our resistance to the thought-emotion may have substantially lessened, or even dissipated entirely, we will continue to sustain the core contraction that gives rise to the symptoms of stress just by holding the thought-emotion in the focus of our attention.
Therefore it is absolutely crucial to turn our attention away from the stressful thought-emotion, and to turn within to the silent peace of our Heart-essence, which alone has the power to completely dissipate the contracted energy we think of as being a separate “me”.
An interesting aspect of this principle is that we can only let go of that which is not who we truly are and is fundamentally separate from us. We cannot let go of that which is who we are – that which is an inseparable facet of our true identity as the diamond of Being.
Releasing the core contraction that gives rise to the symptoms of stress is a process of allowing, and not a technique of “doing” something to the contraction with the intent of trying to change it or get rid of it. It is the process of bringing unconditional loving acceptance to whatever we are experiencing.
Btw: The reality of releasing is that it is gentle and effortless. If you notice any stress, any effort whatever, arising then that is a sure sign that you are trying to release by using your mind. And I guarantee this will not work.
Releasing is a Heart-feeling process and it is only our mutual Heart-essence, which is the ultimate Truth of who and what we really are, that has the power to make us free. And to bring this power into your life all you have to do is turn your attention within and relax into the feeling of Being, which is the feeling of Divine beauty – your Heart Flower.
Namaste,
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