Inside Out – Letting Go; Put the rubbish out and don’t pick it up again

Just as we put the rubbish out for collection, in the same way we can put out the rubbish from our minds and hearts. Throw out the wasteful thoughts and get rid of all the piled up toxic emotions. And remember; once you’ve put the rubbish out, don’t pick it back up again! Keep your mind and heart clean, and you’ll have space for clear thinking and happy emotions.

The hardest prison to escape is inside your mind.

What we run away from blocks our light of positivity and remains a lingering shadow within. This makes us feel trapped or heavy and results in tolerating periods of unhappiness. Such subtle darkness will remain until we turn around and courageously face it with true knowledge and divine intellect. Once we overcome the darkness of our waste thoughts of doubts and fears we can accomplish anything we truly desire. 

F.E.A.R. has two meanings: 1. Forget everything and Run or 2. Face Everything and Rise. The choice is yours!

Just as the bird has to find the courage to let go of the branch in order to fly, so we also must let go of our branches of attachments if we are to know the exhilaration of flying, soaring to the highest potential of our life.   

The branches we hold to are our inner attachments – our beliefs, ideas and memories, and our outer attachments – people, possessions, positions and privileges are a few. As long as we hold on to them we will live in fear of letting go and loss, and never be free. As soon as our happiness is dependent on anything outside, we become a slave to a substance, a condition, or perhaps a person, position or place.

For example, love in the form of attachment suffocates, represses and controls, whereas pure love frees and empowers the other as personal power leads to freedom. Attachments turn love into fear, peace into anger, and distort our attitudes and actions towards others. This is neither relaxing for ourselves, nor those around us, which is why detachment is the secret to living lightly and lovingly.

And watch those ‘detached’ birds. By letting go of one branch they are able to spend the rest of their life alighting on a million other branches, and enjoy the view from each. Are you flying and soaring in your life, or are you stuck on one branch, thinking waste thoughts as others fly past.  

Introversion, the practice of looking within, enables one to be in constant touch with oneself and one’s true nature. It helps us express these inherent qualities of love, peace and happiness in everything we do. Because of having practiced for a long time with them, these qualities emerge very naturally at the time of need.  

Go on, try it; let go!

(Yvonne Risely, from Owego, N.Y., can be reached at bkchirya@gmail.com or chriya.risely@peacevillageretreat.org. Sister Chirya is a student and teacher with the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University for over 40 years. She has a BSc from Cornell University in Education, and is published in several national publications and the Daily Guardian in Delhi.)