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People
don’t like to give things up. Even
if it’s something we don’t particularly want, letting go or cleaning
house isn’t easy. How many
of us have piles of old magazines lying around just in case we need to
remind ourselves what shoes were in style five years ago?
Useless stuff, even harmful stuff, somehow takes on meaning because
it is ours. Even losing weight
or getting rid of a chronic ailment can make us feel oddly cheated---like
we’re giving up a part of ourselves.
Yet life is about change---change is the only thing we can count on---and
it’s hard to take on new opportunities if our closets are stuffed with
old clothes, and our heads are stuffed with old ideas.
Whether it’s a change we’d like to make, or one that life has
made for us, the best way to disentangle ourselves from the past is to
focus on what we’ll be gaining. Canceled
plans turn into newfound free time, and losing weight becomes gaining a
fit body. The more we do this,
the more we see that life isn’t so much about losing and gaining, but
about transforming how we express ourselves over time, physically,
mentally and spiritually. No
matter how much this expression changes, deep down, we’re still "us"---part
of the One
Life---and we haven’t really lost anything.
So the next time we have trouble moving on, lets try distracting our minds
with thoughts of what we’ll get, so that by the time we notice what
we’ve given up, we realize that we don’t need it anymore.
Sure, this approach is a bit sneaky, but the point is, we have
nothing to lose!
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