Day 182 – A beautiful Lao-Tzu quote opens today’s reading about aparigraha, or nonhoarding; it says, “We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” Aparigraha on the mat is the practice of letting go of “our expectations and…concerns of the day.” Rolf describes aparigraha as the “art of appreciating the emptiness in one’s life.” To do this, we must let go. Aparigraha reminds us “to always let go and never hold on” and it is the “cultivation of emptiness in our lives.”
Yesterday, I embarked on a 90-day journey to clear out the clutter in my life, staring a new blog on this process (letgodotblog.wordpress.com), so this was a timely, informative reading for me this afternoon. One thing that I’ve learned over the past two years is how to slow down and let go of the things that can’t be done today. I’ve often forced myself, in past, to push myself into activities and situations that I have always loved or that I feel I must do. My mantra was (and sometimes still is) “I have to…” In order to truly heal, or even to begin the healing process of my overtired, overstressed body, mind, and soul, I’ve had to–seriously, there it is again–let go.
Today, I am grateful I am in a place that I can start a journey to reclaim my life and begin to stretch back into some of those activities I miss, like dance, sitting with my husband in our backyard/porch late into the night and talking and singing and laughing, hiking, running, etc. My new #letgo blog is exactly about this, but will be through selfies or photos. I have a specific plan laid out, and a coach to help me through, but I’m hoping by July 14th, I will have accomplished all that I set out to do and my physical health will be better.
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