Inhaling & Exhaling: Taking In & Letting Go

I had an interesting insight at the toy store the other day. I was watching my daughter Ixchel “browse” the aisles, picking up things that caught her attention, when I realized that at her age (which is not even 1), price was irrelevant. The little numerical sticker on the toy only indicated a bunch of numbers, something else to pick at. They did not mean anything. They did not represent money. They did not even signify value.

How funny I thought. In her world there was nothing special you needed to do to have a piece of the action. You simply saw something that caught your attention, went over to it and began to play. The toy store could have been her playroom. There was nothing she needed to do to have access to this world. She naturally assumed she did.

We don’t. At some point along the way someone or some life experience told us that there was not enough. Or that it’s too expensive- and you can’t have. Somewhere we shifted from an embodied experience of enoughness to one of scarcity. We were told that there is not enough to go around, or if there was, you had to give something in return.

As a result economics became the “allocation of scarce resources”. It lost its original meaning of management of the household. Instead of approaching life with in-the-moment curiosity, awe and wonder, we came to it with apprehension, thirst and desire.

In a recent session with a client I asked her what her first memory with money was. She lit up and told me stories of her uncle and grandfather. They’d come to visit always with loose change or a dollar bill and go off on an amazing adventure. In her childhood mind, money represented journeys with loved ones; money meant warm fuzzy memories.

When I asked her what money meant to her now her mood instantly changed. Her dream was to have a retreat center on a far-away island. Bringing money there (even as a guest) made her anxious. “Why?” I asked her. “Money will undermine community”, she responded. What had changed?

Somewhere along the line we “grow up”. Instead of newness and freedom money gets tied to obligations, expectations and pain. Ixchel’s spontaneity in the toy store the other day reminded me that there is enough to go around and that store walls are not a prison (which you can take things out of only if you have the money to buy). No, the deeper lesson was not about curbing our desires (good luck on that one!) but rather on letting our desires express themselves and take their course, even if for a moment, without being attached to their outcome. Walk into a store and let yourself say “Yes that is beautiful!”, “Look at that thing over there!” Go to it, engage it, touch it…and then let it go. Something else will soon follow.

Ixchel taught me the beauty of taking in, and then letting go. For her it is all a game- a game of exploration and a journey of discovering. She doesn’t need to hold on because there is always more to explore.  In our culture we hoard because our containing myth is one of scarcity. There is not enough so you better hold on for dear life! The results are tight fists, anxious minds and closed hearts.

Today I invite you to do things a little different. Be a child again that innately trusts in the abundance of life. Live in the moment, fully, and then step into the next. There is not need to hold on. There is no need to even curb your desires. Let them be the utmost expression of your being. Tell the world what you see! And then… breathe…. enjoy… and let go…