Relax

Around a week ago, I wrote a letter to Michael Singer. 

Who is Michael Singer?

He’s the Jewish author of “The Untethered Soul.” 

His works have touched souls around the world, including mine.  

In his book, he writes how we are not the mind, nor the body, nor our emotions.  

He says that we are simply the quiet awareness in the back, watching everything that is happening to us.  

Sometimes, though, we get involved with the mind.  

We get so caught up in our thoughts and our emotions, while the trick is to stay in the seat of consciousness.  

He speaks in a way that is very lucid and easy for me to understand, so I decided to write him a letter to see if he has some insight for me.  

I told him about certain fears that I go through and how I feel that my life is limited because of them. 

I told him how I feel that I am almost in a prison of my own creation, and that I really want out.  

He responded that I have to learn to let go of the small things first, before I can let go of the big things.  

So, this week, I tried it.

But first, lets take a look at his letter:

“Therapy is good, but you must also be willing to do the inner work to help yourself. There is a place inside of you that is noticing the anxiety—that place is not anxious—it is just aware of all the anxiety. It will not be easy for you, but if you want out of ‘jail’, you have to practice relaxing in the face of your mental problems. Start with small disturbances, not big ones. If your mind is complaining about some silly thing, take a step back and watch your mind doing its complaining thing. Don’t wait until you are in the midst of an anxiety attack. You must practice relaxing behind the mind’s chatter when you are doing relatively okay. When you can relax behind the mind’s small complaints and disturbances, you will then be able to let go of slightly bigger things. Practice makes perfect. Practice letting go of the problems your mind is creating. Make it a game. If you want, you can create nice thoughts to gently replace the negative ones that the mind is in the habit of creating. Always remind yourself that you are fine, and you just have a silly mind that is constantly creating drama. This is not an instant fix—it is a process of ‘breaking out of jail.’ You are obviously in there noticing your disturbed mental state—who are you in there noticing all of this. That is your way out.

Be patient but relentless in your relaxing in the face of the disturbed mind. They are just terrible thoughts—they cannot hurt you. Be bold and relax in the face of even the smallest mental disturbance. Be the one who is watching instead of what you are watching.”

Using these teachings, what should happen if someone said something that I didn’t like?
Well, instead of reacting or responding to that person or letting the energy inside of me trap me, I watch whatever goes on. 

I breathe in really deeply and remind myself not to get involved, because once you get involved with the energy, it’s harder to let go. 

Also, when I’m walking in the street, I’m trying to bring my consciousness to my body while acknowledging the talking that the mind is doing.  

The same goes for when I am sitting on the subway.

I’m trying to feel my feet in my shoes and the way that my back and legs feel against the subway seat.  

 Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way shape or form some type of guru or a person who has reached a high level of spirituality, or somebody who has, “discovered herself.”

I am a person who struggles a lot, but I’m learning.  

I think that when we learn to be objective, it makes it easier to ask ourselves, “Who is it that is scared?”