Letting Go Changed My Life

(shaker sifting) (mouse clicking) (bright music) Headspace Studios. (waves crashing) (serene music) Greetings, greetings, everyone, and welcome to Radio Headspace. My name is Kessonga, and today is a wonderful Wednesday. What I would love to do today is dive deep into the ocean of attachments. These are the things and the people that we cling to for security, comfort and identity. And I'm going to also explore how the practice of mindfulness can help us to effectively and skillfully navigate the turbulent waters of attachment. As you can hear from my ocean metaphors, I'm longing for a beach trip. (laughing) Soon come, soon come. Summer is right around the corner. (laughing) But anyways, I digress. So attachments come in many forms, material possessions, relationships, beliefs, and even certain experiences, positive or negative. And what's wild is that we often believe our happiness and fulfillment is dependent on their presence in our lives. We have invested our time, our energy and our emotions into these attachments, that we cling to them so tightly as if they were life rafts in a stormy sea. (laughing) Okay, I promise, that was the last ocean metaphor. (laughing) (inquisitive music) But here's the paradox. As we're clinging to these things that we believe we can't live without, they're the very things that are weighing us down, oftentimes, trapping us in cycles of fear, anxiety and suffering. Whether it's the latest technology, the approval of others, or the illusion of control, attachments cause us to have a limited vision of reality and can prevent us from experiencing true happiness. I realized how attachment was present in my own life last month when we had a phone outage. For some reason, the phone service I use, which shall remain nameless, (laughing) was completely out nationwide. When I tell you, I kind of (laughing) freaked out. And I know for a fact that 99.99% of y'all can relate to this freak out. (laughing) Like most people in the world today, my phone is everything. I've accepted that this is just the world that we live in today. And I have to admit that it was so eye-opening, and frankly, hella scary to realize how emotionally attached I am to my phone. So the question is, how do we navigate these waters? Oh, I take that back. (laughing) I said no more ocean metaphors. I mean, how do we manage this attachment that's present? (upbeat music) Well, let's start by talking about the flip side of attachment, which is letting go. Contrary to popular belief, letting go isn't about renouncing the world and retreating into isolation. Rather, it's about cultivating a deep sense of inner peace and equanimity, regardless of the external circumstances. It's about releasing our emotional grip on the things that we hold dear, recognizing that true happiness lies within. And this also means sometimes letting go of the people that we hold dear. If you're holding on so tight to these things and others, then we're not...