Emotional Spring Cleaning

By Mary Baker, LCPC

Sol Purpose Life & Empowerment Counseling & Coaching

More Mental Health Articles

Emotional Spring Cleaning

So are you still spring cleaning? It feels great to clean, organize and start fresh. How about the emotional spring cleaning we all need to do from time to time so we can get rid of what we dont want in our lives and allow ourselves to be open to the wonderful things to come?
A Sufi teaching story tells of the man who visited a great mystic to find out how to let go of his chains of attachment and his prejudices. Instead of answering him directly, the mystic jumped to his feet and bolted to a nearby pillar, flung his arms around it, grasping the marble surface as he screamed, “Save me from this pillar! Save me from this pillar!”
The man who had asked the question could not believe what he saw. He thought the mystic was mad. The shouting soon brought a crowd of people. “Why are you doing that?” the man asked, “I came to you to ask a spiritual question because I thought you were wise, but obviously you are crazy. You are holding the pillar; the pillar is not holding you. You can simply let go.”
The mystic let go of the pillar and said to the man, “If you can understand that, you have your answers. Your chains of attachment are not holding you, you are holding them. You can simply let go.”
So perhaps the lesson here is that we tend to feel as if something has us when we are the ones holding on. So why do we cling and why is it so hard to let go? Our society is often so focused on the end goal the finish, the accomplishment, the prize. Often in our relationships the “prize” might be finally feeling loved, being needed, changing something from bad to good so we can finally be happy. So we continue to hold on, waiting for something to happen.
It is easy to forget that we have absolutely no control over how things may turn out. We may have to face the reality that a situation or a person might not change to be what we need them to be. We hold on to hurts, resentments, disappointments and lost dreams without realizing it. We hold others and circumstances responsible for where we are today. Yet we dont have to hold on anymore if we dont want to. We have a choice.
So just as the mystic let go of the pillar, so can you. Its that easy.