Mindfulness Based Personal Growth
We look for reasons to love others, to want to be close to them—certain character traits, similar life circumstances, their opinions—and this is natural, normal, understandable, and very limiting. What if we could love others even without these labels? What if we had the ability to see beneath immediate judgments, to be able to gently be with every expression that appears before us?
The moment we occupy ourselves with things that are not our own, trying to take responsibility for what is not in our control, we are essentially investing energy in a barren field. The common mistake is to think that busying ourselves with others' affairs grants us control, when in fact, it strips it away. Instead of managing my own life, I am living within the movie I project onto them. The result: worry, comparison, self-criticism, and the very detachment from life itself.
A sensitive question: “How do I know if I am accepting something – or just closing my eyes?” Acceptance of reality as it is does not feel like disconnection. It feels like breathing. Like presence.
Sometimes letting go seems like weakness. As if we are leaving something that is supposed to be important to us. But letting go is not giving up – first of all it is an open question: Am I still holding on to it – because it is alive in me, or because I am afraid to let go?
Mindful Education 