A good Daily Om today, especially for control junkies like me.
Letting The Curves Take You
Control
Trying to maintain control in this life is a bit like trying to maintain control on a roller coaster. The ride has its own logic and is going to go its own way, regardless of how tightly you grip the bar. There is a thrill and a power in simply surrendering to the ride and fully feeling the ups and downs of it, letting the curves take you rather than fighting them. When you fight the ride, resisting what’s happening at every turn, your whole being becomes tense and anxiety is your close companion. When you go with the ride, accepting what you cannot control, freedom and joy will inevitably arise.
As with so many seemingly simple things in life, it is not always easy to let go, even of the things we know we can’t control. Most of us feel a great discomfort with the givens of this life, one of which is the fact that much of the time we have no control over what happens. Sometimes this awareness comes only when we have a stark encounter with this fact, and all our attempts to be in control are revealed to be unnecessary burdens. We can also cultivate this awareness in ourselves gently, by simply making surrender a daily practice. At the end of our meditation, we might bow, saying, “I surrender to this life.” This simple mantra can be repeated as necessary throughout the day, when we find ourselves metaphorically gripping the safety bar.
We can give in to our fear and anxiety, or we can surrender to this great mystery with courage. When we see people on a roller coaster, we see that there are those with their faces tight with fear and then there are those that smile broadly, with their hands in the air, carried through the ride on a wave of freedom and joy. This powerful image reminds us that often the only control we have is choosing how we are going to respond to the ride.
Control is always an illusion anyway, one that we insist on and find it hard to give up. While we can certainly try to maintain some measure of control over those things which we can assert some control, so much more of our daily lives is beyond our control -- and we make ourselves crazy in trying to control them.
Tags:
I like the metaphor of the roller coaster. When I rode one for the first time in decades, I had to consciously let go of the fear (more like terror) and tension. I did so by SCREAMING! It helped.
ReplyDeleteI'll check out the DailyOM. I had not heard of it. Thanks.
And thanks also for "speedlinking" to some of my articles. I've been kind of blah about the blog. Your links keep me alive in the down time. Cheers...
D