DeborahBurkeHenderson.com

RESIST NOTHING

How do you handle change? Is it as challenging as I find at times? Perhaps a new perspective is in order.

A dear friend often says, “It is what it is,” and she continues on with life, stepping forward calmly, moving ahead, taking the situation in stride. I’m going to borrow that page from her playbook and strive to find a leveling attitude. So here goes my new perspective—one I hope to adopt, with practice, from this point on.

Accept everything. Resist nothing. This, I think, is key to riding the ripples of change. Life changes, often quickly. Without warning, the path we have so carefully chosen takes us in a new and uncertain direction. Our instinct might be to resist the unknown, to protect ourselves from change and instability, but fighting change is futile. It’s all around us, continually, and unavoidably.

As legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has said, “There is nothing so stable as change.”

When we resist something, we prolong our suffering. Our resistance adds to the stress and anxiety we feel. It’s like a double whammy. We become overwhelmed with the initial incident itself, and then we fight it.

Recently, this saying found me: “What we focus on … expands.”

Think about this truth. Again, it is the mushrooming effect of dwelling on something and often on something that we have no way of changing.

Rather than struggling for control, stop long enough to ask yourself “What would it be like to loosen my grip? What if I let go of my agenda? What if I can learn, bit by bit, to get comfortable with uncertainty?” What, indeed. You just might find a new rhythm that allows you to flow with the current rather than struggle against it.

So, I’m looking at it this way. In each moment we have a choice, an opportunity to let go and find flow. In that releasing, that letting go, there is the potential of finding inner peace.

Perhaps you’ll join me. I’m going to set a daily intention to practice letting go in moments when I sense my resistance to something. I’m going to take a few, deep centering breaths. With each new, fresh breath, I hope to become a little more comfortable riding that wave of change. Over time, as I open myself to this practice, I can envision experiencing life with more grace and ease. Amen and let it be so.

Think about it. Will you try bringing this quality of non-resistance with you into each and every new day?

Blessings to you and yours,

Deborah

      ________________________

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.

Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

— Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher & founder of Taoism

My morning mantra:

"I arise this morning with a smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. 

I vow to live fully in each moment and to greet every being I meet with compassion."

        ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist 

                                                                                    [1926 - 2022]