January 23, 2011
Attachment
It is my annual tradition to adopt a theme that reflects my hopes for the coming year. For the first time I added a vision board to the mix. It was a good process to go through and although I don’t consider myself an artist – especially in the area of collage – I had fun creating this board. It is 12X12 and I plan to frame it and hang it in my office.
My theme this year is ‘letting go‘. The past 12 months were marked by transition and in the midst of the upheaval I felt at times that I was holding on to things and wanting them to remain the same. This year I want to ‘let go’ of the past, of fear, of worry, of doubt, and of anxiety. I want to ‘let go’ of things as well. It surprises me how attached I can become to material possessions. One of the ways I am practicing ‘letting go’ is by getting rid of one thing a day. Most days is not a challenge at all. I think as the year goes on and I get beyond the superficial stuff it might get harder.
This past week I got rid of a nice Diesel bag I had purchased a couple of years ago. I could count on my fingers the number of times I used it and I have not used it once in the past 18 months. I really struggled giving it away. I have no idea why! I don’t use it. It was just a bag. I paid under $100 so it was a big ticket item. Why are some things easy to let go and others a struggle to clear out?
I’m sure I will discover just how attached I am on a deeper level to things as the year goes on. I was reading Presence by Peter Senge, et al, over Christmas. This quote on letting go inspired me:
If we are able to integrate changes and the sense of loss that may accompany them, we take the steps towards letting go and ‘moving on’ in our lives. We will become aware of our ability to make transitions in our life without feeling overwhelmed and destabilised.
These same authors defined the idea of detachment as “getting to the different place”. So that is what this year is about for me – getting to the different place.
