“Breathing in, I feel my strong emotions.
Breathing out, I smile.
I stay with my breathing so I won’t lose myself.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s often difficult to let go of what we know.

The energy of the emotion feels so inexplicably real – anger pits to the center of our chest, and sadness pulls our whole body inward.

In time, we begin to lose sight of its origin…its roots. Breathing in, we feel the strength of our emotions – that push, pull, tug, tumbling forward deeper into our own unsettledness.

It happens to the best of us. In spite of our intention, we fall further into duress – preferring the comfort of familiarity over our much bigger fear of the unknown.

You know, it’s always puzzled me to think – that if a bottle were marked clearly as ‘poison’, we would immediately turn it away.

Though, if the same were true of our own emotions – I wonder, how quickly we might react?

As Thích Nhất Hạnh would say, it’s the letting go which gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

Leaving room enough to wonder – what’s the worst that can happen if I simply let things go?

And, knowing that in our breathing out – we’ll always find our smile?

A little something to consider today…