Lately we have been talking about endings and beginnings as in our discussion Waking Up and Beginning Again  Often times when we think of transitions what comes up in discussion is letting go.  Lately I have been working through some of this (or trying to anyway:)  Letting go occurs in all different kinds of ways.  We can think about letting go of people, places, things, ways of being or simply a thought.  You know those thoughts that go round and round and round.  The proverbial hamster in the wheel that ends up just driving you totally completely batty or maybe it’s cute like the video above:)   People who you speak to are all “just let it go” and you end up feeling like that would be great if only……you could.  Letting go is a practice no matter what you are working on letting go of.   For me this morning, I would probably have taken a bebe gun to the hamster if I could have (I know not loving, kind, compassion or yogic but it is honest:)  Instead I went to one of my favorite yoga teacher’s classes and let the emotion under the thought flow.  For me, sometimes distracting myself from the hamster helps and other times i just have to go beneath the thought to allow the emotion to rise up.  I have learned that often it’s the emotion that is making the hamster run so damn fast in my head.  Holidays bring up a lot of stuff as we have discussed.  Some of that “stuff”  (i.e. emotional baggage) makes a recurrent visit each year at this time and some of it may be spurned on by the events of the moment.  Although the stuff feels like baggage, it’s just the part of us that is hurting.  I often speak with my clients about engaging with the hurt parts in a new and different way.  Instead of taking a pitch fork to those parts, we can see them as a loving child that is hurting and in need of love.   In our discussion Cool your jets we talked about Thich Nhat Han’s approach towards anger which is to embrace it like a crying baby.  When we embrace these hurt parts of ourselves, we are able to begin to work towards setting the hamster free to begin to run outside rather than in your head.  This morning in practice I think I may have been able to gain moments of love and compassion for the parts of myself that have been driving the hamster to act crazy.  Those moments felt quite freeing.

I share my experience as an offering of freedom that comes with practice.  Also to share that even when you have a practice of how to become more free, it does not mean that do not have hamsters reeking havoc in your head.  We are human, we have thoughts and we have emotions.  If we didn’t we would be robots which we are not.  We all have parts of us that yearn to be loved and the key is to begin to realize that the practice is to create that loving relationship within.  It’s a great time to begin to let go of the things we would rather not bring into the New Year.  It’s also a great time to begin to cultivate a different relationship with letting go.  In the process of releasing, we also have the opportunity to embrace as we have created more space within.  For today, how will you let go and embrace?  Is there anything kind you can do for yourself during the process?  For me, I am off to get a mani/pedi and then share the love with some yogis at my yoga class tonight.