Stop wanting things and start letting them

Do you ever find yourself in a messed-up situation and notice after the fact that the warning signs were there all along, then wonder how you could have possibly missed them? Well, that’s happened to me twice in one week and, as always, wanting to get to the root of the problem, I realized they had a common cause: namely "wanting." We make a big fuss about desire in America. We build ourselves up to believe that if we want something bad enough, it is attainable. “Follow your dreams. Be all you can be.” But it’s "wanting" in the first place that draws us away from who we really are.

Lao Tzu was the first philosopher to say so in China hundreds of years before Christ and the Greeks.  His Tao Teh Ching is one of the most important books you could ever own. It has a very holistic approach towards being human in tune with the universe. He doesn’t pound us with a God, he tells us about the Way. And he teaches that to be in harmony with yourself and the world around you, you simply have to NOT want. Everything should flow and be natural. In other words, stop trying so hard to make things happen and instead let them. Of course, that doesn’t mean sit in your room and do nothing. It’s simply a different attitude towards the things that you do. You stop letting the ego dominate by saying, “I did this. I want that. I will achieve this.” Stop using the word mine. Instead say, “I am compelled to do this. I see this coming to fruition.” Instead of it being mine, it’s now part of the Way.

The ego blinds you to what’s right in front of you. I’ve had my wake-up call and I hope to continue to break away from the ego that’s being constantly fed through the media by tuning out. You have to stop wanting things to happen the way you’d like them to. You simply have to make a sincere effort and let it happen the Way it’s meant to happen. There lies true happiness and wisdom. And yes, it’s hard to do at first. But like with everything, where there's a will there's a Way.

“When one’s task is accomplished,

One lets go of it and seeks no reward or recognition.

Because one does not claim credit for oneself,

One does not do any damage to oneself.”

Excerpt from Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching