let-go-of-your-grievances

Today we ask that you release your fixation on what other people are doing.

Let go of being so preoccupied with what other people are doing, or not doing.

Let go of fixating on politicians.

Let go of fixating on bosses and coworkers.

Let go of fixating on clients.

Let go of fixating on your mother.

Let go of fixating on your father.

Let go of fixating on your sister.

Let go of fixating on your brother.

Let go of fixating on your wife.

Let go of fixating on your husband.

Let go of fixating on your son.

Let go of fixating on your daughter.

Let go of fixating on your girlfriend or boyfriend.

Let go of fixating on your ex.

Let go of fixating on your neighbors.

Let go of fixating on your friends.

Let go of fixating on your enemies.

Let go, let go, let go.

Consider how much time in a day you spend thinking about other people, and what they are doing, and not doing.

Consider how much energy you spend feeling frustrated about other people.

If you are like most people, you are using up a lot of time and energy fixating on what other people are doing, and not doing.

And most of that time and energy is wasted, and thrown down the drain. You cannot control or change other people.

Very often the people you obsess over aren’t thinking about you all that much anyway. Celebrities and politicians aren’t thinking about you at all.

Really, if you sit with it, it is easy to see that all this time and energy spent ruminating over what other people are doing and not doing is a great waste.

If you are someone who always wishes for more time and energy, here is a place to look. You might do a lot with all the time and energy you spend ruminating over other people.

Consider how, as a child or teenager, you ruminated over this girl or that boy — someone who means very little to you now, but was a big deal back then.

People who are a big deal now will diminish for you later in life. If you are a healthy person, you will look back and see that all the fuss and drama was over nothing all that important.

Of course there are significant relationships: parents and children, siblings, spouses.

But here, too, so much of the daily drama and suffering is over nothing all that important. You are upset over this, you are upset over that.

If you go to a cemetery, you will see many graves. The names you read are the names of people who all argued and had big dramas with their fellow men. They all suffered over what people were doing, and not doing.

And then they passed out of their bodies, and the drama ended. Very often, if you heard about those old dramas, they would mostly seem rather small and foolish to you.

If people are behaving destructively, the best thing to do is to minimize engagement with them as best you can, take steps not to add fuel to the drama — and observe their behavior so that you can work on the destructive parts within yourself.

Observe people. Learn from them. Work on yourself, so that you can practice non-reactivity and compassion. Love your loved ones. Cherish your friends. Cultivate equanimity for the difficult and disturbed ones.

Let the rest go.

If you are fixating on what someone else is doing or not doing, use that valuable energy to work on yourself.