by Alan McAllister, CCHt PhD-phys
It is said that life is what happens while we are making other plans. The other day I had a number of things planned that I was looking forward to. Going swimming on a relatively warm day, doing some ceremonial service work, attending an evening of spiritual blessing, and drafting this newsletter. Then the head cold that has been hanging in the wings for weeks settled in more solidly and I spent the day resting and healing instead.
In Buddhist thought, the first thing I remember learning is that it is good to have goals, but better not to be attached to them.
In it’s isolation and separation the mind thinks it has to plan everything out, as if it is the only force at work in our lives. So when the weather changes and we get chilled too often and our body decides it needs a break, the mind feels frustrated. What about all those great plans? But today is today and we need to work with what shows up for us today. If the plans are really good they will wait.
Perhaps the first reaction to this situation is to buck up and gut it out, keep to the plan. I have at least learned this: that proceeding in that way will push my body harder and most likely enhance my head cold symptoms and mess up even more plans in the coming days. This thinking also leads to the idea that we need to not only plan for ourselves, but to manage the world around us to fit our plans. The more we can do this the better we are, and the less the weaker.
Of course at the end of the day the world is always bigger than we are. You can be the cleverest guy on the street managing financial risk, until the whole system meant to control risk turns out to be the riskiest thing around. You can plan for an earthquake, but forget about the tsunami. You can think that you know what other human beings are going to do, until they don’t.
Having let go of my plans for the day doesn’t mean that I fold up and go away. I make the choice to listen to some uplifting music, brew some good teas, take various herbal preparations that I know will help, rest, do some reiki, and through it all feel into my center that is whole and present, even when I’m ill. I notice the frustration, the concern about “getting behind”, and release it so I can be present with my body and call in the resources I need today.
When the world around us does things that are not in our game plan we could decide that we are somehow too weak (or too “fill in the blank”) to get/deserve what we think we want. Or we can choose to let go and find our Self. Letting go of the urge to control the world, doesn’t mean giving up. It means putting your attention on yourself, on the one thing you can control, though even that may take some practice. It means working with your own emotions, finding your own spiritual resources, owning what you do have.
Even in this “illness” I know that my body is doing a pretty good job of taking care of itself. Or perhaps I am releasing old stress or emotional residue, or letting it catch up with some significant energetic work I’ve experienced in the last few weeks. I let go into the trust that my body, emotions, sub and super conscious aspects, along with my guides are on the job and setting a new course.
Letting go of the impulse to control the world can come from a place of strength. The place where you remember that your inner self, your inner world, is always more powerful and important; where you trust yourself enough to know that you will always be whole even when your plans are shredded. This deep knowing has enabled human beings to survive concentration camps, to find their true calling in life, or simply get through another day of rest and recovery.
My experience this week was relatively mild, but I have seen my life implode and helped others though places that were far from their mental control. Some say the lesson in having the bottom fall out is so that we have to remember that we are more than we have *thought* we were. If so perhaps we can choose to find this place without so much catastrophe, to practice finding our Self, letting go the mental urge to control and finding that we can stand in power and have resources under any external conditions.
So when your plans go right and life goes left, take the chance to let go of something you thought you needed to control and find the place within that is unchanged by that letting go. Stand there and look around. You may be surprised at how differently the world looks and even how differently it reacts to you. Find your inner power and inner resources in the practice of daily life and they will always be present for you.
(© 12/2011)
