Power of Letting Go | Everyday Mindfulness For Stressful Life

When I started practicing mindfulness for stress reduction I noticed that although I was successful in finding my bliss in relaxation when real stress hit I found it hard to stay present and tend to get away avoiding conflicts and confrontation. 

What I needed was developing the ability to stay present in the midst of difficult situations without trying to fight against or escape from them. 

Rather than trying to hide from challenges, I have to learn to believe I can handle them. 

Over the years of stress management mindfulness practice I have learned that sometimes it's important to not simply remove ourselves from the stressful situation, but to feel it in my body. 

Acknowledge stress. Meet it. Let my experience be what it is and practice observing it to moment to moment.  

Letting go is a way of letting things be. Of accepting things as they are.

We can stay present in a stressful experience without being controlled by it.

Most of us have experienced moments when the mind would just not shut down when we go into bed. This is one of the first signals of elevated stress. 

At these times we may be unable to fee ourselves from certain thoughts because our involvement in them is just too powerful. If we try to force ourselves to sleep, it just makes things worse. 

Next time when you experience insomnia I encouraged you to stop fighting it. 

Stop judging yourself or saying how bad it is that you must stay awake, stop resisting. 

Start observing thoughts, don’t push them away, or cling on them or judge. Just watch.

Holding on is the opposite of letting go. Breathe into the discomfort.

In mindfulness practice you let your experience be what it is and practice observing to moment to moment. 

When you train your mind to stay in a difficult situation without reacting to it, you transform your relations with stress  and stress induced emotional eating.

You stop mindlessly reacting to it and start respond to it mindfully.  

This automatically puts you in a position when you are in control vs. stress is in control.    

      

So if you can sleep you are already an expert in letting go. Now you just need to practice applying this skill in waking situations as well. 

What to do next: 

Apply power of letting go to stress eating and prevent weight gain due to chronic stress. 

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