Friday, September 5, 2014

Not Giving Up (Fine Line) Letting Go


 Well hello there Feel Gooders! First things first, sorry about my recent absence, among the litany of excuses are: family issues, a car crash and a vacation but to be completely truthful it’s just not been there for me the last couple weeks which can happen, everything in stride.

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Many of my activities over the past several months have been around the idea of moving on and letting go. I've done everything from meditation and yoga, going to festivals, binge music listening, dancing, weeping, binge partying and wild behavior, exercise, eating, dieting, I started a blog and made a bunch of art and I even did some shopping for needless shit.

As I did mental battle with myself over the past year and did this work on letting go, I realized that part of the arduous nature of it, the knee scraping climb out of the dirt while memories and lessons of life form strenuous grabbing, pulling, blocking hands of resistance… that it’s hard not because I can’t let go, but because I don’t want to give up.

So I poked around real quick when I knew I wanted to write about the similarities of the two (Giving up and letting go), boy am I late to the party… literally the thought is discussed at nausea, blogs, articles, scholarly journals, shitty annoying quotes and memes, etc.

So in the spirit of being brief, and not boring you with something I’m clearly the last to make correlation on, I’ll just say that I think it’s OK to tell ourselves, from time to time, it’s acceptable to give up.  It was clearly an internal battle for me of right vs. wrong, attachment vs. commitment and damage vs. preservation. All in all, I think we do ourselves harm in the hopes of holding on, because maybe even subconsciously, we think we’re doing what’s right.  I'm such an all in tough skin soft heart kind of man that I literally had to physically, emotionally and verbally tell myself it was ok to move on, to give up...

So today I want to tell you, it’s ok to give up, really, but you have to let yourself know… say it in your head, say it out loud, repeat it a bunch of times. It worked for me


“It’s ok to give up on that, let it go”


Now look at all that space you have for growth, it’s pretty great!



The last bits of a lost love burning in Temple BM14

"To gracefully retreat in a heated atmosphere is not easy; however, it has the advantage of preventing the compromise of integrity and a loss of grace. This can only be achieved by the exercise of superior character. In this case, it is only inferior characters that suffer, losing the guidance of the superior. So, rise to the occasion. Proper handling of a setback is an opportunity for greater progress in the long run"

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"When all signs point to retreat or resignation, the proper course of action must be followed without regret. Sometimes great issues resolve themselves; in such cases, it doesn't help you to remain attached to futile goals and ambitions. The most successful approach is a cheerful acceptance of fate, and a willingness to proceed along the open road -- even if it leads you into unfamiliar realms. If you can leave them smiling, this is a great success."