Ever miss the time when your kids were young? When you held them as babies or when they were little before they became grown up teenagers, learned to drive, moved to college or moved away to live on their own?
Yes? Then this may be for you.
What if I were to tell you that you do not actually miss those versions of them. What you actually miss is the version of YOU at that age when you witnessed them or experienced life with them. Shocking? Possibly but it is the truth. It is the version of our younger self that we remain attached to, the same version that is seeing, holding, talking through those senses. That version is not dead, even though it is in the past, for that you is still alive just out of phase in another time-space slice or dimension.
We can access this version through our hearts. Why do we look back in to the past then? Well do you ever imagine a version of yourself 10, 20, 30 years in the future “experiencing “ life with your children as they too are 10, 20, 30 years older in the future. Can you imagine your body older, your mind more withered, and the burdens of life wearing you down for you to see those older eyes at life? Most of the time,the answer is no.
The problem stems from us gripping on to our old identities, old narratives, old wounds and old pains. They are familiar and so we hold on to them, with increasing weight as time goes on. How do we let go?
We just do. We would not hold on to a hot potato for too long before we drop it, correct? Same here. When the pain of holding on to the old version of who we were is greater than the fear of letting go we make that shift. When we have this awareness of distinction things shift. If things do not change then it is our own refusal to feel the heat or the pain that binds us to the old paradigm and we become depressed and sulk about the “ good old days”. In that reminiscence we struggle, looking outwardly at those experiences that gave us comfort in the versions of old.
It begins with awareness. Letting go is an allowing of recognition for the reality as it is. The moment awareness occurs, the attachment to the weight of what kept us stuck is given permission to be let go or held on till the weight is too heavy, the pain is too great to bear. Simple Physics. The load cannot be carried beyond the muscle’s ability to lift that load, it then is dropped.
Yet there is a third part to this process. The letting go. The release is not a misery, but a freedom from resistance, a relief of the burden being lifted. An opportunity to rest and recover. Allowing space for growth. It is perfectly acceptable to let go of who we once were. Not with disrespect but with honor and love. What does not serve must be set aside for the path to be created forward. This is consciousness in action. Feel the pain, the wound, the old programming, and let it go. Without shame or guilt. Let it all go. And in this surrender we find something that was always there as part of the fabric of our life, holding us together, tethering all versions of ourselves from the heart space. A ribbon of love.
…………
I love you
