Let Go

Letting go can be a big risk in our life. Often we hold on to emotions (like anger, hurt), toxic environments (abusive jobs for one) and other harmful things. I am an advocating of letting go. Releasing the harmful in life to let in new, positive energy into our lives.

I know that in my own life I have let go of a toxic job, even though it paid the bills well enough, but I was so anger and miserable all the time that it wasn’t worth it. I currently am happy in the work that I do. Just yesterday I had some powerful angry emotions swarming through me, and I was so upset with myself. I do not hold on to anger for more than a few minutes at the most, and this lasted a few hours (writing did calm me down) until I released them during my meditation before bed. Anger is a traveling contagion, at least within my family, so I have to be aware to let it go.

When letting go of safety, I know that it can be difficult, because we are taught from a young age to be safe, to do the “safe” thing. But I must ask if your job is “safe” for you when it make you miserable. I would say no. Caveat: this is not advice to led you to quit your job today; make sure you have enough funds set aside to help you through transitions that will be bumpy (more than likely) and if you have dependents or a spouse, housemate, etc, speak to them (in a positive, non-angry manner) about your desire to let go of that job.

In that light, let us turn to emotions. Anger for one can be a safety emotion for some, as it means not confronting other, more powerful (and therefore more painful) emotions. Letting go of the emotions will release the toxicity in your mind and body and allow healing to begin. Eventually the goal is peace and happiness. Often, peace comes first, and with that a realization that happiness is a choice to be made not a state to be made by such an such object/person/status.

Now, I’ll go out on a limb and say to let go of the positive emotions that you have as well. Do not hold on tight to the good in life. Let it go as well. Like it is said in cliché, the positive will come back, maybe not the same as before, but it will. Enjoy the happiness, the peace, the good things, and then let go. Like saved food, it can rot and turn to something else; instead savor the moment and remember but do not cling as to a life raft.

Last, I’ll discuss possessions. Letting go of objects, items, things can be as powerful as any other thing I mentioned. Have a yard sale, find something to donate to charity. There is one give away challenge that I will eventually try myself (as now I have accumulated too much again, as poor as I am) of giving away 100 things. Check it out here. Moving a lot several years ago I know the value of giving away, selling, and throwing things away. I think this lyric from Katie Melua’s “The Flood” is apt: “What we own becomes our prison.”

For writers: take a look at your favorite passages in your work. Sometimes we as writers need to let go of our favorite phrases, our favorite scenes, and even our favorite stories in order to improve our craft. This is important. Serve the story with your skills, do not make the story serve you.

Let go.

I hope this helps in anyones quest to lessen their own burdens. Let me know things you have let go and if it improved your life or not.

Reiki

It seems as though I just barely posted a blog for last week, and here it is again time for me to post another blog! (For all those not in to New Age things, that’s okay)

Reiki is channeled through the hands

This last weekend was full of activities and people. I think I met about 50 people this weekend! Or at least it seems that way. One of these activities was taking a first degree reiki class—about an hour drive away from where I live. One of the reasons I partook of this class was that it was by donation only (a very nice feature for the very poor me).

Sunday was a very nice, relaxing day: for a day out. We spent most of the time outside, and it was gorgeous. All of the heat and oppressive humidity from the few days before was gone, and the temperature was perfect.

For me, this was about re-orienting myself on a path of spiritual rediscovery. Upon first moving back to California, I really began self-improvement through positive thoughts, etc. as I have mentioned in previous posts. I felt that taking this class was an inevitable step forward in the right direction. So far, it has been. I have noticed a few minor changes (I think that is because I have been prepared for the change for so long) over the past few days. I used to be a very angry, bitter person. Today, like any day in sunny Southern California, people seem to pay little attention while driving. Often, I would become upset. Today was no different, but the anger seemed to melt away and I wondered why. Of course, over the last two years, I’ve been training myself to let the anger go, I believe that the reiki attunement has allowed me to let go faster—for which I am grateful.

During that class, I didn’t doubt the energy (as I have felt it before), but it seemed more like a sigh, like a coming-home than anything else, and at first I didn’t feel it much. But yesterday, I began to feel it, and this is a good thing. I hope that with it, I can continue to heal myself, and hopefully be able to heal others—in time.

Have you ever had a spiritual experience with energy before?

Editing the Novel

It started when I was the young age of (around) 15. I had a wonderful idea to mix time, gender, and magic. I wrote the first few chapters until the story fizzled out and I thought I couldn’t write a novel. This had been my second attempt to write something longer than just a few pages—I had failed miserably. Fast forward to February 2011, when my main character, Celeste, decided to wake me up from sleeping (why do they always go for the jugular instead of being a little nicer about it?), and told me to outline her book as she wanted it written—and she wanted me to read the drivel that had been written so long ago. Apparently having it sit in my brain for years was no longer going to happen.

Yeah, kinda like this…

It took me about 3-4 days to outline the book, if memory serves me (which it rarely does) and I was off and writing the book. I never thought that I would write this particular book. I had started a trilogy in 2006 that I had been struggling with: making notes, creating gods, magic systems, etc. and I was determined to finish writing them (only book one has been written—and it needs a lot of help!) and will one day.

It took me the better part of 2011 to write the novel. During National Novel Writing Month, I ran into a snag with my WIP of short stories—which will spawn a novella—and abandoned them for finishing up the last 20k or so of this book. I have sent it through critique groups from December to June. That was a lot of work and revision and thinking about the characters and story. I went through and made many many many suggested changes. Then, about two weeks ago, I read through the manuscript front to back in three days (making minor changes and notes here and there). My god, does reading through one’s own work hurt! After those terrible three days, I started line editing from the last page backward. 8 days later (Sunday to Sunday) I had the book line edited. 40 pages a day of notes and changes and frustration.

Then, this Monday, I sat down (I know, no respite from the deluge of words) and started working on the books from the front to the back. I have change the prologue to reflect the rest of the book, and I might say, it’s going very well. Chapter 1 was the next to fall victim. It’s surprising how many changes I’ve made to the work, and that those very changes are the words I like best on the page—it means I’m writing better, and have better instincts.

Through this whole process, I’ve come to two stunning insights. One, that a minor character will become a spy and two, that a major character and a minor character will merge to make a nice plot/love twist—false identities can be useful!

Now, I just need to sift through the rest of the book, adding in plot elements and of course more imagery!

I hope your writing fares well!