I took a yoga class the other day and heard the teacher say, “Just let it go.”

For some reason, on that particular day, it pissed me off.

Then I laughed as I—a yoga teacher—have likely said something to that effect and pissed someone else off.

One of my teachers once said, “If letting go were that easy, we would’ve done it already!” 

This particular teacher inspired me to pick up a beautiful text called, “A Course in Miracles” (ACIM), which he calls a modern spiritual masterpiece. ACIM is an over 600-page text that offers tools for removing all those annoying blocks that tend to get in the way of presence.

That day when I got home, I opened to a random page in the text and came upon a line that completely shifted the way I felt about this idea of letting go:

“All that is asked of you is to make room for truth.” ~ ACIM

Instead of thinking all the time, “Let go, let go, let go”—how about focusing on let in. 

Be still for a moment, and just let in everything this moment has to offer. Let in the blue of the sky—or the gray of the sky. Let in the sun—or the rain. Let in the smile of a stranger—or the wrinkles of a beloved.

If you’ve ever tried to “let the bad sh*t go,” it’s rather tasking. It can take a whole lot of energy that exacerbates your entire being. The process of letting go requires digging into past dirt (ugh), getting so deep into the mud that dirt creeps into every crevice of your body (again, ugh), and finally—if you’re lucky—crawling back out into the light.

To let go, there’s a whole lot of mental “doing” that needs to take place in our heads. This is exhausting mentally, physically, and spiritually!

“All you are asked to do is let it in.” ~ ACIM

What if we practice the opposite of what we’re conditioned to do, when it comes to those things we hold onto that clearly don’t serve us? This practice I offer is—let in to let go.

When we let in, the let go will begin to unravel itself. The let go will not be as painful or draining. Think of a child clinging to his mother. The mother yells, “Let go!” The more the mother yells, the tighter the child clings. The moment the mother takes a moment to be still, look down at her child and speak from a more loving place—then the child begins to loosen his grip.

Let in, to let go.

The moment you let in anything of this moment—a smidgen of this moment—you consciously enter a state of human being vastly different than that of human doing. When you are 100% consumed by this moment, 0% is left for past or future. Let in, and be all in.

I remember when I went through my divorce—I took long walks every day for weeks. In between tears, I would catch a glimpse of the light in between trees or hear the sweet chirp of birds. I would often stop and just let those sensations flood my soul, and I came to this realization that beauty doesn’t falter just because I’m going through some bad sh*t.

I decided in that very moment to not waste my energy letting go of the bad sh*t—and instead, to let in as much good sh*t possible. To let in the miracle that each moment has to offer is wonderfully healing and nourishing for the mind, body and soul.

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Author: Ayami Yamamichi

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Unsplash/David Marcu