Pathwalking 11
When we are feeling defeated, and we can no longer conceive of the path, or find it at all – how do we let it go?
As I mentioned in last week’s post, the first step is to acknowledge and accept this limitation. We are imperfect beings, and as such we are going to falter, we will lose the path completely. This is not a weakness – it is a part of our nature. So we have to accept the bad days, and let them go.
This presents a whole other problem, of course. How do you let go when you are having that bad day? How do you move on when the path seems completely lost?
I find that there are a few things I can do that help me to let go of that horrid feeling. To overcome the sense of defeat. And I will share them here.
Journaling: Writing down what I am thinking, and feeling, helps me to put things in perspective. Whether it is something for public consumption here, or just for friends of myself on LiveJournal, or simply in one of my books – writing things out lets me analyze the matter.
As many times the thing causing distress is some sort of outside influence, writing it out helps to find the root – and address it. I have been actively journaling, in some form or other, since the early 1990’s. While there is plenty of stuff I don’t ever want to share with anyone – myself included – there are many instances where solutions that would otherwise have been overlooked to my issues are presented and analyzed.
I certainly find sharing my pathwalking experience via blogging (another form of journaling) to be somewhat cathartic.
Meditating: Sometimes you just need to pause, breathe deep, and focus/unfocus. Meditation means different things to different people – but I think that the process of taking time specifically to examine your own thoughts, to try to calm your mind and find your center is never time wasted.
The concept of meditation is often pigeon-holed into this notion that to meditate, you have to utterly and totally focus on stillness. You have to find the void, zone out, not think. My experience has shown me that this cannot be further from the truth.
Certainly meditation can take you to that void, that null space, that place of calm. But the process itself involves focused breathing, calming the mind, catching thoughts and ideas and passing them through, then letting them go. In my practice, meditation is a means to pause, consider, slow the breath, slow the heart, and know my place in this crazy world. It can be a very effective tool for releasing that sensation of loss and disquiet that may come from not being able to see the path.
Exercising: Personally, I need to do this more often. The release of endorphins always helps to redirect negative energies, and gets us to a better place. This can open up all sorts of pathways, as the blood flows, to help us to cope with those bad days.
Whether it’s a walk, a run, half an hour on an elliptical, weight training, fencing, or sex…exercise will help you to find that place, to deal with the lost feeling. It will allow you time to lose yourself, which in turn should help you to find yourself. Exercising releases toxins, releases hormones to help you to let go of whatever is making you feel like the path will never show itself to you.
Journaling, meditating, exercising – three of the most powerful tools you can apply to let go of the sadness, let go of the bad day, and relocate the path again. There are, of course, other tools you can use…but these are, from my experience, amongst the most powerful.
Letting go is not easy. Exploring, lamenting, laboring over whatever is holding us back seems to be an instinctive reaction at times. But when we can let go, we can find the path – and when we find the path, we can explore it at will.
It is a complex process. But I think a worthwhile one.
This is the eleventh entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
Follow me here!
