Gathering Information

Sometimes in life we think we know what we want and need. We search and take action in the direction of a want. Some people think when we don’t receive what we think we need, th universe (or something) is conspiring against us. I know I’ve thought that way. Have you? What if we viewed the space between the want and the outcome as “gathering information” rather than consistently grasping for the need?

In the last year this has proven true to me in several ways, the most obvious in the search of a larger home. I love my current home, a contemporary purchased four years ago, that I thought was only temporary. I thoughtfully renovated it with my heart and soul. It has a beautiful open floor plan, but only two bedrooms and one bath. In the last year I literally couldn’t stop the reel in my head that I needed: “just one more room, just one more bathroom.” The past obsessive one-year search resulted in four declined offers, all of which were over ask, and still no home.

I sat in meditation many times with the discomfort of not getting what I thought I wanted, almost to the level of what I deserved. All the information I gathered in the process of the home search brought me back full circle to why I loved my house.

I realized all I really needed, right now, was exactly what I had, even with it’s flaws.

One day, while reminding myself of Aparagraha, one of the eight guiding principles of yoga, that I was grasping, attached to an outcome that wasn’t meant to be. Immediately I noted I needed to follow the exact opposite, non-grasping, to consciously let go of something or some expectation without lingering in disappointment. I believe the universe (spirit, God, whatever you choose to call it) has different plan and I need to be patient. My entire perspective changed in one fully present moment.

What do you need to release control of to be free?