Let It Be – Mindful Living Mantra

We all have heard the phrase “Let it go”. We are advised to Let go of anger, Let go of jealousy, Let go of resentment and Let go of all the negative emotions that we have been holding on to. Have you ever thought about the opposite of Letting go? No, it is not “holding on tight”. It is LET IT BE.

Two years ago I found the book “A Walk in the Wood: Meditations on Mindfulness with a Bear Named Pooh” at our local library. It was listed as one of the staff picks of the month. I was intrigued by the topic and took the book home. It was a wonderful read and I was totally fascinated by the concept of mindfulness. Since then I’ve been binge-listening to the mindfulness e-books and podcasts.

The mindfulness authors insist that we try not to control the emotion and let the emotion wash over us. Instead of succumbing to the urge of the emotion, let’s be mindfully aware of it and watch it settle down by itself.

When you are stressed out, be aware of your stress.
When you are irritated, be aware of your irritation.
When you are angry, be aware of your anger
As soon as you are aware of these feelings, you are no longer lost in them.

Haemin Sunim 

It was a cold Friday afternoon. I was a bit under the weather and was working from home. It was a busy day and I was tired of answering emails and tackling issues one after the other. It was nothing unusual, just a regular crazy day before the weekend. I was exhausted, grouchy and was waiting for the work week to end.

Meanwhile, kids got back from school. My youngest son didn’t look cheerful and I understood that he has had a long day at school. I fixed them a quick snack and went upstairs to wrap up my pending office work. Within a couple of minutes, I heard a loud cry. There you go, the weekend madness had already begun.

My little guy had a meltdown over something extremely silly. I knew that it was not a tantrum and the meltdown was due to sensory overload. While I was consoling him, his twin brother spilled the milk right after I asked him to stop fiddling around. To top it off my older one declared that he had forgotten to bring back his homework and his snack box. It was the umpteenth time that had come home without his homework packet.

Great! Now I will have to text his friend’s parents to get a homework copy. I gave up. I couldn’t control my irritation and yelled at older one for being so irresponsible and at the middle child for not listening to what I said.

I love my kids more than anything in this world and am forever grateful for being their mom. I am also grateful to have the privilege to work one day a week from home which saves the trouble of commuting 3 hrs in the busy freeway traffic. To be honest I very well knew that it was not the end of the world and my kids are only acting their age. It was me who got in the chaos and lost my temper for something so trivial.

After all that drama, I bundled up the kids and got ready for their drawing class. I blamed myself for getting too ambitious and saying “yes” to one more extra activity that we had signed up for this season.

Thanks to the icy rain and slippery roads, I was slowly trying to back up the car and boys shouted for music. I let a huge sigh and turned on the radio. The song on the air made me pause and smile.

It was exactly what I needed to hear right at that moment. Call it coincidence or the universe delivering me the message, I heard the song – “Let it Be“

Yes, I practice gratitude every day and yes, I’m trying hard to be a mindful parent and yet on some days things get out of my control. I give myself grace and start my journey of peaceful parenting again. This week “Let it be” is going to be the mantra. I’m going to watch my emotions without me stirring and aggravating it.

Do you want to try the “Let it be” challenge with me? Please feel free to comment below and let us know how do you tackle your negative emotions.