Non-attachment

We attach to so many things. We are particularly attached to our bodies, literally and figuratively. We are concerned with way we look, especially as compared to the way other people look. As we age, are injured or sick we lament what we were once capable of. 

We attach to things. We have a consumer driven culture, and I am no exception. I love shiny things. I will expend resources on new tech and be sad when I don't have it with me or can't use it any more. 

We attach to people. We may be drawn to certain personalities or physical traits. I'm reading Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama, which is a detailed account of his life with his teacher as a student of yoga. He relates a lesson he learned, his teacher tells him "Many people confuse attachment with love. But, in attachment you become selfish, interested in your own pleasure, and you misuse love. You become possessive and try to gain the objects of your desires. Attachment creates bondage, while love bestows freedom. When yogis speak of non-attachment, they are not teaching indifference, but are teaching how to genuinely and selflessly love others. Non-attachment, properly understood, means love. Non-attachment, or love, can be practiced by those who live in the world as well as by those who are renunciates."

It can be scary to let go. Understanding my neuroses better and moving past them will never fundamentally change who I am. Letting go of prior conditioning and growing as human adults can only make us freer to be ourselves. Less fear. More love. 

I am the kind of person who welcomes change to such and extent that I'm more afraid of stagnation. Living in extremes is the least healthy modus operandi. But the extremes 

can be so much fun. 

We can get caught up and attached to negative narratives. Stop devaluing yourself. What are you afraid of? Achieving your dreams? Losing out? Change? 

Be grounded in yourself. Deny no part of your being. Settle into your internal environment and watch with non-attachment. Do not work for results. You are not your muscles or your senes.