Time To Let Go
Geoffrey Rose, Ph.D.

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The "Let Go" Place
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There's a quote that I've seen attributed both to Joseph Campbell and Pema Chodron that goes roughly, "the person having a psychological breakdown is drowning in the same waters in which the mystic swims." If you've ever had a breakdown/breakthrough experience of your own you may appreciate the poetic truth offered here.

When we are in the throes of a breakdown we are no longer able to rely on our habitual thoughts and feelings to give us comfort or a sense of identity. When one falls through the crack that a breakdown provides they slip into that "not knowing" place where nothing is familiar anymore, not even
one’s sense of oneself. The psyche has slipped from its historical moorings and is adrift on the ocean of uncertainty. To the skeptic (anyone living an analytical rather than an experiential lifestyle) this would seem like a nightmare from which one cannot awake - drowning is an accurate analogy.

But to the mystic, someone who has accepted the beginner's mind and luxuriates in experiencing and in "not knowing," this same ocean of uncertainty becomes a floating, heavenly realm of infinite possibility.

"Not knowing,” surrendering the need to label, compare, judge, and understand is a critical step on the evolutionary path, for here are the beginnings of infinite possibility, unfettered by prejudice and doubt. Here one can relax into and accept the magic of life without needing to believe that they are somehow creating their own safety by "knowing" a lot of stuff, and can begin to trust in what has created them and what continues to sustain them, despite themselves, on a moment-to-moment basis. With this trust, one may leave the struggle, the flailing about of the drowning man, and swim into the open waters of opportunity.





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