Letting Go – Day 1
Letting Go – Day 1
Birth
The beginning is always the birth of something, in this case, the birth of a new month, of a new challenge, a new opportunity to let go of something old to make way for something new. It may seem counterintuitive to suggest that the birth of something (whether it is a new life, a new project or a new way of thinking) is also the letting go of something, but as the Lion King made clear, life is circular. Birth always requires a certain amount of letting go, a releasing of what already exists to make room for what is arriving.
Consider the birth of a child. It involves several layers of letting go, if we examine it closely. First of all, there’s the need for the newborn baby to let go of its safe haven in the womb and make its way through a tight passage to the unknown that awaits. The baby finds itself in a strange new world, with sights, sounds, smells and tactile experiences it never imagined in its former home. It learns to navigate this new world by watching and learning from those around it, and each day brings further opportunities to explore and examine what it means to be ‘outside.’
Secondly, there is a letting go on the mother’s part that has to happen in order for the birth to take place. According to Fiona Mayhill, owner of Innerlife Health Services in British Columbia, Canada, the birth process offers us an excellent example of how letting go can change the experience dramatically. If there’s extreme fear on the part of the woman giving birth, it can be a traumatic process, as she tries to literally push life through the very constricting energy of fear. If there’s acceptance and ease, it can be an ecstatic, sometimes even orgasmic experience. The latter certainly makes a stronger argument.
