Let Go, Let God (aka Does a Bear Hug a Pot in the Woods?) by Mark Reed, RScP In one of his many thought-provoking books, mid-twentieth century mystic and author Emmet Fox penned a delightful anecdote. He told of an ‘ole bear who crept out of the woods and stumbled upon an unattended hunter’s camp. The bear spotted a kettle of boiling water, its lid dancing about on top, and seized it. The boiling water burned him badly, but instead of dropping the pot, he hugged it tighter—this being a bear’s idea of self-defense. The more he hugged it, the more he was burned. The more pain he felt, the tighter he hugged it until, in Fox’s words “the bear was undone.” This story illustrates well the way we “hug our difficulties” by thinking, re-hashing, rehearsing, and expanding on them to ourselves and others—how we cling to our “problems” and make them worse by focusing on them and embellishing them. We believe that by thinking about a problem, we can alleviate it, but this is impossible. What you think about, you get more of. There’s another story about a man named Gary who had a flat tire on a deserted road. He became very angry when he couldn’t find a tire iron in his trunk, pumping his fists in the air, cursing and yelling. He saw the light of a farm house in the distance and decided to walk there. Surely they would have a tire iron. As Gary slowly stumbled across a fallow field on this moon-less evening, he began expanding his problem. He thought about the tire salesman who sold him that tire three months ago—the tire that was now flat. His thoughts sounded like this: “That salesman was a weasely little twerp, obviously a crook. He probably laughed at me after I drove off with that defective tire on my car. Did I buy the road hazard warranty? I don’t think so, it was an additional ten bucks and they’d already ripped me off enough. What a racket! Oh man, what if the people in this farmhouse don’t have a tire iron? What will I do then? Maybe they’ll give me a ride into town, I guess I could always take a taxi. Or what if they have a tire iron but they won’t loan it out to me? I wouldn’t if I was them… some stranger knocks on your door at midnight. I’ll be lucky if they don’t shoot me. Probably a family of hicks and they’ll think I’m some idiotic city slicker. I bet they won’t give me their tire iron, they’ll probably laugh at me. God, I’m such a moron!” By the time Gary reached the front door of the farmhouse, he’d worked himself up to a frenzy, boiling angry. An elderly woman finally opened the door after repeated knocking. “Yes?” she asked meekly. As Gary turned around and walked off the porch the woman heard him say “You can keep your damn tire iron!” This may be an extreme example of how the ego adds to and expands our problems, hugging them close to us, but each of us could think of a thousand variations of how we do the same. Here’s the point: most of the problems we have aren’t really problems, they’re just incidents, occurrences, happenings, instances, events, or facts. Life happens. It’s what the ego does with these things that makes them a problem. It’s the negative emotions attached to them that give them negative power. You cannot “add good” into a problem. The key is mentally releasing it, letting it go. Stop thinking about it. But the ego says, “No, I can fix this!” Or the ego wants to comment on it, judge it, criticize it, and turn it over in your mind for next few hours. The ego wants control, it wants to be the fixer, it wants you to rely on it. But release is the answer to all your concerns. Granted, you may want to analyze a problem, think of and consider possible solutions, and implement and evaluate a solution—those are simple problem-solving techniques that everyone learns in a management seminar—but these logical steps are vastly different than constantly thinking about a problem and adding negativity to it. Think about this for a moment: do you remember what you were worried about last month? Probably not, unless you have a persistent ego and a good memory. Why don’t you remember? Because everything worked out, didn’t it? It may not have worked out exactly as you envisioned, but it worked out. All that worry was for nothing. Life happens and you react. The question is “how” you will react. You have the choice of reacting negatively or positively. After releasing your problem from your mind, affirm your truth. “All is well in the present moment. I know this situation will work out in divine right order. The universe is working for me. I’m doing my best today. I choose to be happy and feel good about my choices. I’m grateful to be alive today.” If you have a tendency to “hug your problems,” do this: do everything differently today. Think differently, feel differently, and act differently. Be vigilant of your thoughts and see the real truth, not the ego’s perspective. You can’t fix life with a broken thinker. Have the courage to say to yourself, “Nope, I’m not going to rehash this. It’s already done, and I’m going to make the best of it.” Stay out of the future, it exists only in your mind anyway. Refuse to “rehearse” how life will happen and your problems will be solved in a distant future. Stay in the peace of the now. Have the strength and wisdom to follow your God-Self. Take complete responsibility for your thoughts and your life. Only you control your destiny. Align your will with God’s will by following your God-Self’s lead—you’ll never be led astray. You’ll see truth everywhere you look and a new life will not be on the horizon, it will be with you here and now. It is here now. Break away, start living the life you want to live. Lead the way by following your God-Self.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 21:29:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015