The strategies of resistance and control that we’ve learned and practiced throughout our lives can leave us feeling trapped in limited and limiting patterns and stories. These strategies keep us frozen in the emotionally triggering charge associated with everything in relative reality, unable to experience life in a fully present way. Stuck in that insignificant place, in the stories we tell ourselves about “reality,” we miss out on what living genuinely is, which is the experience of wonder and awe right here in this moment.
To break free of these patterns and stories, we unlearn—we uncover our core false beliefs and integrate what we have hidden in shadow. And in so doing, we let go of the idea of a limited self, a self that is separate from Source. We let go of all our thought patterns, all our beliefs, all those behaviors that keep us small and separate. And in letting go, we come into the experience of The Great Remembering: The deeply felt knowing that we are one with Source. We have returned to our state of original perfection.
This kind of letting go is a powerful component of spiritual awakening. There’s more power in letting go, in yielding, and in redirecting energy than there is in resisting, controlling, and pushing back.
When we’re struggling with addiction, we’re resisting. We’re pushing back against our inner need to be present with ourselves in the moment. Addictive behavior is simply that—a resistance to presence, a strategy for avoiding what’s here now because it’s too painful or too shameful. Letting go in the context of addiction means not only releasing the idea that we are inherently broken and need to change, but also releasing all the strategies we’ve perfected for protecting what we perceive as our brokenness. The ultimate surrender is not surrendering those parts of us that are “bad,” but surrendering to who and what we are as whole and perfect. This is not about looking perfect on the outside; it’s about resting in that original perfection, the blueprint that we are as spiritual beings.
One of the beliefs that many of us are unlearning is that life is about identifying problems and figuring out how to fix them. Letting go opens a major shift in that paradigm; as we let go of the idea that life is a series of problems, we can choose to see that the only problem that exists is a problem in we hold in our minds. The only thing keeps us from waking up to the truth of who and what we are is the idea that we can’t wake up. The only thing that blocks us from enlightenment is the idea that we are blocked from enlightenment. For some people, this shift comes in an instant. For many of us, it’s a lifelong practice of questioning, unlearning, and growing in awareness of our deeper selves.
Very interesting article. I am not a product of what I was but what I am now and how I handle what I learned from the past. As long as I acknowledge that with acceptance and not get stuck in the past because that is not my reality today.. Thanks for sharing this