Why Letting Go of Control Brings More Peace

(gentle music) ♪ Headspace Studio ♪ (gentle music) Hey, friends, it's Rosie here. Welcome to "Radio Headspace" and to Thursday. I've always been someone who likes to have a plan. I like knowing what's next, what's secure, what's certain, and for a long time, I truly believed that if I worked hard enough, if I showed up, if I did everything right, things would go my way. That belief, it gave me comfort. It gave me security, until one day, life pulled the rug from under me. Today, we're talking about something that can feel really uncomfortable: letting go of control. And I know, I know, easier said than done, but if there's one thing life has shown me over and over again, it's that control is just that: an illusion. And the tighter we grip onto things, the harder it feels when they slip through our fingers. You all know I've been teaching and guiding meditation and mindfulness for a long time, two decades to be exact. I built my career on it, and I was fortunate to have jobs that felt solid, that had structure, that were dependable, that felt safe, and then seemingly overnight, it was gone. I was laid off just like that. Something I'd been counting on was no longer mine, and that shook me. I'd built my life, my schedule, my plans around this thing that I thought was a guarantee, and when it disappeared, I felt completely unmoored. My first reaction, panic, scrambling, trying to grasp at anything I could to give me back that sense of control. But here's the thing: no amount of overthinking, stressing, or grasping could change what had happened. So eventually, I had to make a choice. I could keep fighting reality or I could surrender to it. And as soon as I let go, as soon as I accepted what was, I saw something I hadn't noticed before: possibility. Maybe this wasn't the end, maybe this was an opening, and that shift in perspective changed everything. Now, I don't wanna say that it's not important for us to feel all the feels. It's hard to get laid off, to lose a part of yourself, and depending on how long you had your job, there's even a sense of losing your identity. So I wanna acknowledge that. There's a Daoist parable that I think about a lot. It's about a farmer whose horse runs away. His neighbors come to console him, saying, "What bad luck." The farmer just says, "Maybe." The next day, the horse returns with a group of wild horses. The neighbors celebrate, "What good luck." And again, the farmer just says, "Maybe." Then the farmer's son tries to tame one of the wild horses and breaks his leg. the neighbor's rush in again, "What terrible luck." And the farmer, you guessed it, "Maybe." A few days later, the army comes to recruit young men for war, but because the son is injured, he's spared. The...