Welcome to day 17 of the 9:09 is Nurture Time Challenge!
Nature provides us with wonderful examples of nurturing – and acceptance of growth and change – and expresses its own inherent natural beauty with grace.
Today we’ll practice non-resistance.
When we make a choice that involves change, we naturally lose a piece of ourselves.
When you choose to make a commitment in a relationship, you lose the daily expression of your single self. When you choose to retire, you lose the daily expression of your career self. These choices reflect a change of seasons and open up the potential for increased joy and fulfillment.
However, the shedding of the old, for us as humans, is a challenge. We cling to something old because we are afraid of what we may lose. We’re not sure if the new opportunity will be painful or pleasurable. Sometimes we get stuck. It’s as if we choose to wear clothes that fit us when we were children, even though they are too small and uncomfortable, just because we’re afraid to make a change.
Nature embraces change without resistance. Something gestates underground, is birthed and grows, has its season and then dies. In death, it returns to earth, becoming the nourishment for something else to grow. This is the cycle of life.
Each new season brings something wonderful. The key is to be gentle with our selves in the letting go process.
Let’s choose to let go of the resistance that keeps you from choosing to make space for the new opportunities and new seasons in your life.
Ready to begin?
First, pause for this moment and totally focus on yourself. Close your eyes. Let all the distractions fall away. Breathe in. Breathe out. Reflect on a time you chose to make a change in your life. Remember the letting go. Remember the feeling of surrender. Remember the joy that came. The outcome was unexpected. Yet look to see how that choice opened up an opportunity for the next change. Without the first decision, you would not have had the next one to make. You made the first choice without having context, without knowing what would come next. Yet see how all things worked together for your good.
Center in on the thought: I love and appreciate healthy changes in myself, and my life.
Practice staying in the place of faith, where even though you cannot anticipate what may happen in the future, even though you are missing context, you see that changes work together for your highest good. Practice the art of letting go.
Photo by Karl Smith on Unsplash