Hold Your Life Softly

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In a recent journaling session I challenged myself on how some personal experiences were affecting me. As I wrote, I began to notice how I was holding on so tightly not only to the experiences themselves, but also to how they made me feel and how desperately I wanted my experience to be different.

I noticed how in an effort to grasp at not losing my power in certain circumstances, I was actually giving it away. The things I was holding onto hurt more, because of how tightly I was holding onto them.

We hold too tightly in our lives in so many ways. When we are stuck in scarcity mindset. When we fear the future. When there is no certainty to offer our minds stability. When we expect someone or something to be a certain way. We hold on too tightly out of anger. Out of grief. Out of resentment. Out of love. We hold on too tightly for control. For what we think will make us happy.

It’s a sneaky survival mechanism that creates so much suffering in our spirits. This is where the saying, “It takes strength to stay soft” comes from. To remain soft, to choose grace, requires real resilience.