When a young Black racer snake appeared in my garden this morning, not only was I thrilled, but she confirmed my choice of “Letting go” as today’s Peace Nurturing Practice.  Relinquishing old, limiting thoughts and gunk that no longer serve us is as essential for humans as shedding skin is for snakes. When we clear our minds and energy bodies of stale, limiting ideas we act in the same way as a snake who must release its old skin in order to continue growing. Through our comparable process of shedding, we expand to become lighter, clearer, and more peaceful.

How do we know what to let go and how?  We can take a few minutes and connect with our hearts which are able to tell us the truth: unlike our minds which can be willing to tell us what we want to hear instead.

Let’s begin by placing our hands on our hearts and taking some long, slow deep breaths.  When we are centered, we can ask ourselves, “When am I peaceful?”  Now we close our eyes and ponder. Next, we write down our realizations as to what situations, people, and places help us in our quest to be peaceful.

At this point, we ask ourselves, “What keeps me from being peaceful?” Once again, with our hands on our hearts, we close our eyes and ponder. Finally, we write down our responses in general and then to this specific question: Of the situations in which you are not peaceful, which is the most important for you to release first?

Now that you know what you wish to eliminate from your life, take your time and look at the photo of clouds which accompanies this post (at the bottom if viewed on a phone).  Feel whatever comes to you as you look at it.  Allow yourself to let go of whatever it is that you wish to release in order to be peaceful.  If you wish, see yourself floating up to the clouds, then sitting on one.  From this lofty elevation you may wish to let go of more of what does not serve you.  Notice how you feel once you have released all you wish to let now.  From this vantage point on high, all you see, hear, and experience is gentle, loving, and serene. You can return here any time you wish; all that is required is to want peace more than anything else.  When necessary, remind yourself, peace is mine whenever it is all I want.

Clouds and I

Float on high

Free of

Judgments - worries - woe

Peace

are

we

Reflections – My answers to the question: When am I peaceful?

When…

• I am in Nature.
• I am playing an instrument or toning OM.
• I am listening to discover.
• I listen to others to learn, not to make a point.
• I accept myself just as I am.
• I accept others just as they are.

What keeps me from being peaceful?

• My perfectionism
• Judgments about myself
• Judgments about others
• I listen to my mind instead of my heart.

When I stopped, connected with my heart, and listened, it did not take long for the most important issue for me to jump into my mind:  it’s perfectionism which includes judgments of unworthiness of myself and spending an inordinate amount of time in order to accomplish some tasks because they must be done perfectly!  As I am writing this, I can hear my Mother’s voice, “I wish you would get B’s in school.”  Her message is now totally understood if not always lived, at least I can see what I have done and still do more than I wish. Sometimes I am free of the old pattern and float along in a peaceful place. However, there are other times when I am ego bound to reach the unreachable and do it perfectly!

I love the cloud photo since I feel myself floating on the clouds.  Once floating up there, having jettisoned all that no longer serves me including all the belief the world will end if I do not do something perfectly, I am free to be me.  Yes, the real me, the loving, kind, and compassionate me, not the Donna of rules and expectations, the Donna who continues to let go of the old gunk and with every drop of an expectation or rule or judgment, feels happy and peaceful.

I am grateful to be jettisoning more of this debilitating old pattern I thought I had conquered and someday I shall.  Peace is definitely a choice in every moment.  Up here in the clouds, I am reminded of a delightful book by Marlo Thomas which says it all in the title:  FREE TO BE… YOU AND ME   And we are free to be the peace we came to be!

Your turn to reflect – What is most important to you to release now?  Why?  Once released, how do you feel?  If it some of it comes back in a week or month or year, please remember, it’s not unusual for there to be more to be released than happens at one time.  We didn’t gather all this gunk at once and it may not all go at once, but each time we let go of what is ready to leave, we are choosing to be peace.

Thank you for being a vital part of Peace on Earth by nurturing peace in your heart, in your life.  The more that you embody peace, the more peace there is.

Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.  (Click on the blue link below.)