Bernadette

Well 10 Day Challengers this has been fun... definitely a challenge to make the time to walk every day - but not insurmountable...

Let's wrap it up and let it go.......

From Coping:
"Letting go of the uncontrollables and unchangeables in life is:

Admitting the obvious truth - that you are not responsible to affect a change or correct a problem which is beyond your competency, power, authority or responsibility.

Releasing over-responsibility - giving permission to yourself to be free from an overresponsible sense of obligation, duty, or requirement to make everything "perfect'' in your life and the life of others.

No perfectionism - Allowing yourself to rid yourself of the perfectionistic need to control every aspect of your life so that nothing goes ``wrong'' in it.

Getting rational about what you can and cannot do - becoming realistic about what is and is not your obligation or duty to correct, change, or control.

Releasing self to "No" - allowing yourself to be able to say "No'' or "I can't'' when faced with tasks be they unacceptable and small or insurmountable and out of your reach."

-----Many people I met in AlAnon spoke of "letting go" and their "higher power" in the same sentence. I always used a kind of benevolent Mother Nature/Universe as my HP or a very, very classic & iconic "Mary" from my Sixty Saints for Girls picture book I loved as a little girl! Different circumstances required different HP's!! I appreciate this concept so much - because it doesn't have to be a religious "GOD" but it does have to be a power that evokes reverence - a power greater than myself...

How do you all let go? Do you use the concept of a higher power or not?

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar."
-- Raymond Lindquist

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar."
-- Thich Nhat Hanh

"The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there's gold in letting go of them."
-- John Seely Brown

Happy Trails,
B.

Barbara52

When I need to let go, I use 2 things.

First, my faith in God. I trust God to handle all in my life, especially all those things I cannot change.

Second, a tool my therapist taught me. I visualize a container for what I need to let go of. This container in which I can put any thing I am handing over to God and those things cannot leak out unless I let them. So I put them in there and hand that container off to God. I visualize that container in God's hands and know that it is out of my control, no longer my problem/worry and let it go.

GiveLove

Thanks so much for this challenge, Bernadette! I've logged about 900 calories burned, lots of good thinking time, and the fresh air & sunshine have helped my moods a lot

Today's walk (down to the post office and back), I thought about letting go, and what my feelings about it were. I don't have the same beliefs around God that most people do, but I do believe in the connectedness of all things, people, events. I believe there's a benevolence about the universe that gave us all a full toolkit at birth that allows all of us to have a happy life if we just use it.

So I guess when I let go, I trust in life's ability to make things right. Bad events turn into priceless lessons that let us go on to be happier ("...oh, so THAT's how I DON'T want to live! I get it! ) Troubles with addiction/alcoholism build bonds between the people who are struggling against it (like SR), bonds that wouldn't have happened if we lived these perfect fairytale lives. Pain is the fire that bakes us into perfect porcelain vessels that will hold more compassion later on.

I have faith in the way things are, that everything happens for a reason, and that happiness is always, always possible, no matter how dire things look now.

Relaxing into that faith this morning, as I air my sneakers out in the sun.

:ghug

Barbara52

I admit to not walking the past 3 days. With the heat being at 85 in the morning and 98 during the day, its just not healthy to go out walking. But I'll pick it up again when the weather breaks.

GiveLove

I'm worried about you back-east folks! We've had good walking weather (I usually do it at 6-7am anyway, but on hot days even that is unpleasant) but gosh, when's it going to break for you guys?

Barbara52

At 7 this morning it was 85 or so. And it doesn't cool off at night either.

Supposedly its gonna "cool off" to the mid 80s starting tomorrow. Welcome to summer in the DC area.

aztchr

A lot of people walk around the malls here in AZ when the temps get too high. Just leave your money at home.

Bernadette

I dunno Aztchr I would LOVE to "let go" of some money at the mall!!! If I had any....*sigh* I'll let that worry go!
;-)
B.

Lilyflower

Just remember to think c006:

Lilyflower

lily xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx