True freedom comes from letting go of resistance. When you stop trying to control everything and just let go, that’s when freedom is found.

In one sense, we have to give up everything – because “everything” really comes down to all the ways in which we’re trying to control things. Our desires, our beliefs, our opinions of how things should be, even our concepts and our sense of a personal self – these are all ways of trying to control our reality. But the truth is, we’re not in control, and we never have been. Everything is connected, and because of that, everything happens in exactly the way it needs to – the only way it can happen. All we can do is go along for the ride. Whether we enjoy the ride or get dragged along depends on how much we’re trying to control things.

Resistance creates tension, and not just in our muscles but also in our mind and emotions. It’s all connected. Relax all of the tension in the muscles in your forehead and you’ll notice the level of thinking activity will drop. Relax muscles throughout the face, neck and shoulders, and you’ll feel a release of emotional tension. And it goes the other way too. Rigid thinking and repressed emotions can create tensions and blockages in the body and can eventually lead to illness or disease. This isn’t a theory. You can easily observe this in yourself if you pay attention.

Stop focusing on the STORY of your life that’s constantly playing inside your head, pulling you back and forth between past and future – and start focusing on the LIVING of your life, which is always occurring right here, right now. The STORY part always has something to complain about. The LIVING part simply IS. Not seeing anything as separate from anything else, complaints lose all meaning and drop away.