As we all emerge from our winter sleepiness the sudden newness of spring seems to cry to my soul, “Out with the old and in with the new!” In fact for much of history, many cultures celebrated the new-year in the spring. Lent is the perfect time for us to begin the initial clearing cobwebs in our habits, modes of thinking, and lives. Right now the kids and I are working on a unit called, “Blessing and Letting Go.”
These two actions are linked, in that the unhealthy things that we hold on to are keeping us from seeing the blessings in our lives. So, letting go of our bad habits, or ways of thinking is like letting down the floodgates to allow the immeasurable blessings of this life to flow through. My Lenten journey has been to really take inventory of the things in my life that allow me to feel blessed. (For instance, reading a good book makes me feel stimulated and relaxed at once, whereas watching television generally makes me feel numb and uninspired.)
In yoga, teachers often say, “Let go of anything that is no longer serving you” to help students better achieve a pose or more fluidity of motion. One of the important strategies to achieving this is to make peace with the things in life that are no longer serving us, rather than becoming opposed to these things. (In other words, saying “goodbye” to those things rather than “Don’t let the screen door hit you in the…” –well you get it. So, take a good hard look at the things that are like blessing black holes, and kindly, say “goodbye.”
These two actions are linked, in that the unhealthy things that we hold on to are keeping us from seeing the blessings in our lives. So, letting go of our bad habits, or ways of thinking is like letting down the floodgates to allow the immeasurable blessings of this life to flow through. My Lenten journey has been to really take inventory of the things in my life that allow me to feel blessed. (For instance, reading a good book makes me feel stimulated and relaxed at once, whereas watching television generally makes me feel numb and uninspired.)
In yoga, teachers often say, “Let go of anything that is no longer serving you” to help students better achieve a pose or more fluidity of motion. One of the important strategies to achieving this is to make peace with the things in life that are no longer serving us, rather than becoming opposed to these things. (In other words, saying “goodbye” to those things rather than “Don’t let the screen door hit you in the…” –well you get it. So, take a good hard look at the things that are like blessing black holes, and kindly, say “goodbye.”