Yoga & Non-attachment
“The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible.” - Ram Dass
Yogic and Ayurvedic philosophy teaches us that our attachments are one of the causes of suffering in this life. The practice of non-attachment helps us cultivate a greater sense of inner peace. Change and impermanence are a part of life and yet, it’s our human inclination to grasp, accumulate, and hold on. We may cling to and collect things and people in order to prevent change, resist growth, and anchor ourselves. Throughout our lives we become attached to an anticipated outcome of our actions, to material things, and to the roles that we take on. We also get attached to our stories, our identities, our elation, and even our pain. We hold onto life’s highs and life’s lows, to shame, blame, grief, fear, worry, greed, and the need for approval. Our tight grip creates added suffering and robs us of living in the present moment and with acceptance for what is.
We desire things outside of ourselves and hope that they will make us feel whole - attention, validation, acceptance, a new car, a new career, a new home, a new handbag, etc. Whatever it is, once we have it, we then live with the fear of losing it or failing at it. We can get very much caught up in the play of life. With that we become attached to all that is pleasing to the senses and that which reinforces our sense of separateness or ego. We think that the more we can accumulate, the better off, happier, and safer, we will be. Unique to our lives today, is the way social media creates an allure and access to excess luxuries, conveniences, and fame-seeking. In the moment, our attachments may seem like they are fulfilling a need, but in their very fleeting nature, we feel the void when their impermanence is realized.
The practice of non-attachment ultimately frees us from trying to hold on and control life. It enables us to learn how to relate to life in the present moment and adjust ourselves to live in rhythm with its changes.
It’s one of the paradoxes of life - to engage with and take joy in all that life offers without becoming overly attached. To participate, create, and act in the world without being attached to the outcome of our actions. It’s a balance of enjoying but not becoming addicted. Mindful living is a way to stay on course so that external influences aren’t disillusioning our sense of what matters to us.
There are seemingly endless contexts in which we can explore non-attachment. One of the ways attachment shows up in our lives is in a rather sneaky way. We may not even realize it’s the thing that has a hold on us and is holding us back. This is our attachment to the outcome of our actions. Being consumed by an expected outcome of our efforts may keep us from actually stepping fully into our joy and purpose. It may also keep us from truly being ourselves. When we fixate so much on an outcome that may or may not materialize, we restrict who and what we desire to be and ultimately, how we are able to contribute to the world. When we weigh our worth and make it dependent upon external approval or circumstance, we limit our creativity and our reach.
When we let go of the outcome of our actions, we open our selves up to being and becoming who we are without a defined and finite focus on trying to attain something. We engage in the process of living rather than fixating on trying to seize some future result that we have no control over. With this release of attachment, we actually become boundless in our potential and limitless in what we can attract to ourselves. Releasing whatever it is we want to have, we focus instead on being, becoming, and creating ourselves from the authenticity of our innermost self.
Life is a practice of letting go, over and over again. Oftentimes we are forced to do so through loss of some sort, other times, we have the power to choose. The ability to let go is a wonderful practice in that it reminds us that without all of our stuff, without our career, identities, and without other people’s opinions of us, we are already whole and complete. It reminds us that our happiness and bliss originate from within. Letting go is freeing. When we release our grip on things, ideals, status, and people, they release their grip on us. This frees us from excess and welcomes us to feel lighter in body and in mind. In this state of emptiness, we are able to fill ourselves up with an abundance of what truly matters most to us.
We can also liberate ourselves from carrying the weight of unhealthy ways of being. We actually create more suffering in the way we relate and react to difficult life circumstances. The degree of our angst can have more to do with our approach to the challenge at hand, than the actual problem itself. But, if we notice how we are adding a storyline to the situation, we can work towards letting that go too. And with that, we let go of the extra hurt and painful emotions.
Letting go is also a way for us to come to terms with all types of impermanence and change, eventually, the most final one when we leave our physical form. With every time and every way that we let go, we become lighter and freer, more connected to our spirit, and less consumed by our ego.
We set ourselves free from the desire to accumulate and to hold up an identity that in turn, has a hold on us. By giving up the need to become someone in terms of career, status or powerful position, we are able to settle into our true spiritual empowerment which is beyond the confines of this world. We simply become who we are, authentically. This autonomy is the very antithesis of an ego-driven power. It is a sense of strength and purpose that derives from our soul and universal wisdom. This is where our empowerment lies - non-attachment to the outcome of our efforts.
Our actions emerge from being who we are and not by trying to become someone for the sake of material or societal reward. From this place, we live authentically and are driven by passion, bliss, creativity, and truth in our work and our relationships. The result of living in such a way? We very simply attract abundance into our life, in all forms. Living and acting intentionally keeps us aligned with our truest Self and simply by default, we receive the wholeness of life and have it all. The outcome or reward that results is a natural by-product of not being fixated on an acquisition of power. In being your Self, an embodiment of your soul, you’ll naturally get it, whatever that it happens to be.
