personal transformation

Hearing Something in a New Way. She Just Let Go.

Posted by Barbara Techel
Hearing Something in a New Way. She Just Let Go.
a favorite driftwood art piece in my writing cottage. Can you see that it is a woman?

A few weeks ago I was driving to my monthly women’s mastermind gathering. There are four of us and each month we take a turn hosting our circle in our homes. This month Monica hosted.

I often listen to a local radio station in the car that plays what is often referred to as “oldies but goodies.” Sometimes this makes me chuckle because the oldies I listen to are from the 70s. So does that mean I’m old? Or better yet, perhaps it just means I’m a goodie since I’ve been around a while now.

I’ve heard this song, dare I say, thousands of times. But I never heard it in the way I did this day. I was really struck by the one line in the song, which is also the title. It’s by Charlene and it’s called, I’ve Never Been to Me. You can listen to the song and find the lyrics here if you wish.

The thing about the song is that it talks about how we think things outside us, people and places, or material things, are better. That what we have within the context of our own lives is somehow not enough.

We search high and low for what we think is paradise and as Charlene sings, I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me.

I’m often moved to tears when something lands as truth in my heart, besides being sensitive by nature. It brought me back to revisiting the darkness and emotional pain I experienced last winter and how I felt trapped and as if life was passing me by.

For years before this I was content with the simple pleasures of life and seemed to take more in stride, but I came to a point of not being able to cope. There was a blessing within it all as I learned to move inward and go to the core of what was causing me so much angst.

Through the wisdom of animals and oracles, I faced my inner child who felt wounded. Hearing this song it resonated because how often we think our challenges are outside of us and we try to mask them with other things. Though I recognize that we aren’t always consciously aware of this.

But feeling angst, pain, less than, or unworthiness is an opportunity to explore what that is about and peel away the layers. Having taken the time to be with me, to see all the many parts of me, the sad, the scared, the wounded, the lonely, helped me to appreciate and value even more the parts of me that did all she could to protect that little girl from further hurt and pain.

And this brought me back to me. Nothing in the outside materialistic world could have done that for me. 

Arriving at Monica’s house I shared with the group how I’d really been moved by the song I heard. Monica brought it up on her cell phone and we listened to it. She then had copies of a poem she’d found a few days earlier that she wanted to share with us. We each took a turn and read following the flow. 

How often synchronicity is at play in our lives and how we are being supported if we are aware. And this poem by Rev. Safire Rose was just that, and I just had to share with you:

She Let Go

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of fear. She let go of judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go…She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go. She let go of all the memories that held her back. She let go of all the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go, she didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go. She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.

No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.

XO,

Barbara

Subscribe to my newsletter here for a bi-monthly digest of my blog posts and more OR Subscribe here to receive my blog posts as they are published.

When Life Happens (blog)

Posted by Barbara Techel

 

When Life Happens (blog)
A sign of support from the universe

March began with sub-zero temps here in Wisconsin. The bird feeder hanging outside my writing cottage window awaits refilling.  In just two days the birds emptied it with gusto in an effort to stay warm.
 
But the promise of spring is right around the corner.  I hear the drip, drip, drip of melting icicles and snow, the chattering of many birds, and feel the warmth of the sun streaming in through the windows.

I now have a subtitle for my upcoming book! The title as a reminder is, I’m fine Just the Way I Am,” and the subtitle: Healing Emotional Pain through the Wisdom of Animals and Oracles.
 
As I approached the last chapter of the second draft two weeks ago I thought I’d have it complete by the end of the month.

But life had other plans.
 
In the span of two days, I had a family emergency, then learned of a dear friend’s passing which I posted a tribute to her here, and my dog, Gidget required a visit to the vet for a bladder infection.

This had me on the brink of spiraling down the proverbial rabbit hole.
 
Writing this book has been emotional at times, and with recent life events, I realized I was caught in the perpetual fight/flight mode, and turning toward things that weren’t supporting me, but only can keeping me in a scarcity and fearful state.
 
Fortunately, I surround myself with like-minded mentors, and practices that help ground me.

It was the honest sharing in a newsletter I subscribe to from writer and writing coach, Cynthia Morris, who shared her recent fall down the rabbit hole that stopped me from completely getting sucked into the same vortex.
 
I’m also much more aware of my energy these days. So sooner rather than later, I recognized I was being invited to yet again trust in the flow of life, instead of pushing against it, or getting swallowed up by it.
 
My manuscript could wait. It was more important that I spend time tending to my hurting heart, finding my footing again, and incorporating self-care.
 
The truth is that when I’m in a place of emotional pain, such as the loss of my dear friend, and the unexpected family emergency and feeling helpless for a loved one in pain, it’s not easy to just jump right back into my writing. I have to first be with, and process my emotions.

But I didn’t always do this. Instead I’d often just power through because as a society we don’t always value the importance of being with our feelings and taking a time out.
 
Guilt also tried to rear its ugly head trying to scold me that it was bad I wasn’t working on my book, that I didn’t meet my deadline for getting this post up, and that I also didn’t get my monthly animal message recorded by March 1st (though it’s available now and you can listen here).
 
But I had to be with that space of not wanting to really do anything and just be with what I was feeling. I couldn’t push it, while at the same time, trusted that I’d be back to my writing when I was ready.
 
Something I’ve come to understand more and more is how important our emotional state is. While I do my best to eat healthy, exercise, and take supplements, the emotional component is vital to our feeling whole.

This is something I also write about in my upcoming book, and how I finally got to a point of feeling worthy and that my quality of life matters.
 
So staying in alignment with where my heart needed to be was all that mattered. Everything else needed to wait and would fall into place as it was meant to, and it did. The more I trust this, the more I experience peace.
 
And the more I’m able to share from the truth of my beliefs, the more I hope it helps those that need to hear this same message. Because it truly is a gift to give ourselves the space and love we deserve.

XO,

Barbara