Journaling: This is the spell-checked version of something that found its way into a response early this morning, and its topic was the same as the name of this thread, so I am including it as today's entry.
At some point, you will begin to understand that the root of all of the negative emotions (e.g. anger) is "fear". Fear can be a healthy response when you are threatened by real physical violence, robbery, and so on. That is a very temporary thing however.
What is the process of "Letting go"?
The fear, anger, regret, resentment, and so on ... that you feel are not who YOU are. It's OK to feel them. In fact, the only way to move beyond them is to feel them and understand that they are part of your unconscious mind at work. You should always be aware of what you are feeling, and then understand that these emotions would like to take over, but they cannot do that unless you begin to identify with them. They are like demons that want to take over. So feel them, understand them, and know that when you are able to watch them when you feel them, they lose their power to take over. They cannot withstand the light, so to speak. So long as you are aware, and you watch them, they lose their power to control you.
Likewise, your ego is not really who YOU are either, but it wants you to think it is YOU. Your ego is a tool, but it is insecure because it fears its own annihilation constantly. You ego cannot exist in the present, the NOW. It cannot exist without TIME. The ego is rooted in the past and visions of the future.
You need your ego to set goals, make reasonable plans, to learn from your past. It is who you are when you are "thinking", when your mind is busy, but it is not who you are when you are in the moment. It is a tool, but it is a tool that ceases to be when you are not thinking about the past or the future, so it would like you to believe it is who YOU are so it can stick around.
So you have the unconscious emotional patterns that want to take you over so they can continue to exist, and your ego would like to keep you constantly in the past or the future so that it can always exist, but then... there is who YOU are when you are just living in the moment.
So... getting back to letting go.
You have to be able to live in the only real time that there ever is: NOW. The past and the future do not ever actually exist. The past is filtered memories, the future is hopeful or fearful fantasy, but the only time you can DO anything is NOW, and the trick to letting go is that you have to be aware of who you are when your ego is silent, when the demons of your unconscious mind have been put to rest, and when you are just living in the NOW, when you are just "being".
I don't usually waste much time trying to explain all of where I am coming from to people here. I usually ask folks to try to make gratitude lists (list 10 things for which you are grateful. do this every day for a month).
The point of the gratitude lists is to shift your "mind" (ego) to start noticing the good things in life. But to really, really experience joy, you have to be in the present moment, your ego has to be silent, and you have to overcome identifying with your negative emotional patterns. You have to just be. The gratitude lists are a nice stepping stone to the NOW and letting go.
It's a nice day, isn't it?
M-47,W-40,No kids D-filed 5/27/2010 Piecing - 10/21/2010 -=Soon to be banned=-
Just read it. Is it bad to be envious of his state of mind and bettering sitch?
ATF
No. Take an example and lead.
It is bad to tell yourself "I can't do it. I just can't."
You can.
Look ATF. Most of us here arrived hysterical, depressed, angry and confused. You can only control yourself. It will get better. Trust me.
“Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.”
