An excerpt from The Secret of Letting Go (Llewellyn Publications)
Everyone wonders whether or not there is one great secret for truly successful living. There is. And it is not a secret. It has been quietly, steadily telling itself right in front of us all along. We just couldn’t hear it over the clatter and chatter of our own secret demands. Listen quietly for a moment. Everything can change right now.
Learning to hear this supreme secret is no more difficult than choosing whether to swim against a current or to let it carry you safely to the shore. Let it speak its wisdom to that secret part of you that can not only hear what it is saying but that is, in reality, its very voice. Listen to it now. It is saying, “Want What Life Wants.” Locked within these four simple words is the secret of an uncompromising power for effortless living; a new kind of power that never fails to place you on the winning side of any situation. Why? Because when you want what Life wants, your wish is for Life itself.
The following paragraphs will not only make these life-healing ideas more personal for you, but they will help you to help yourself make a higher choice when it comes to what you really want from life.
When you want what you want, you are often nervous and anxious because life may not cooperate with your plans. But when you want what Life wants, you are never disappointed with what happens.
You are willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to get what you want, and this may include your integrity. But wanting what Life wants means you are always in the right place at the right time. When you’re guided by your wants, you are usually scheming in some way to win your next victory. But when guided by Life’s wants, you are quietly confident no matter what the circumstances.
Your wants always keep you in a battle or recovering from one. But when you want what Life wants, you are out of the reach of anger and anxiety. When driven by your wants, you are unable to rest quietly when you need to. But cooperation with Life’s wants keeps you awake and sensitive to your surroundings.
Your wants leave you easily angered when someone or something gets in your way. But being in tune with Life’s wants frees you of ever feeling as though you’ve missed out. With your wants, you are forever driven to want something else, but with Life’s wants, you are never thrown for a loss.
Your wants turn you against anyone else who also wants what you want. But when you want what Life wants, you are in total command of events. When you strive to fulfill your wants, you are certain that what you have is who you are. But when you want what Life wants, you are mentally quiet.
Finally, when you want what you want, you are always trying to convince yourself that you got what you want. But when you want what Life wants, you are eternally grateful for whatever Life has given you.
Always remember the following: If any want is the source of anxiety or sorrow, that want is yours and not Life’s. Never accept the presence of any mental or emotional suffering as necessary, no matter how much importance these impostors lend to a particularly pressing want. By refusing their dark presence, you make space for the present moment to give you its indefinable presence. This is where the Life that you want — and that wants you — is waiting.
Some might ask, “But what will happen to me if I give up my demands? Won’t I lose control of my life?”
You cannot lose control of something you never had control over in the first place. No human being controls life — his, hers, or anyone else’s. If it weren’t for higher energies coming down, filling and animating your body right now, you couldn’t be reading these words. If you want to measure the level of an individual’s stress, measure his insistence that life does as he wants. The only thing you will lose by learning to want what life wants is your fear of not being in control — which was never real control in the first place.
Here is the most important point of all: No human being needs control over life because, in reality, no one is apart from it. Who you really are, your True Nature, is not separate from life.
Let Life bring you itself. Welcome it. At each instant, it is new, full — untouched and undiminished by any moment before it. To enter into this full relationship with Life is to give yourself to your Self. Fulfilling the true purpose of Life is fulfilling your self.
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