Let It Be

Yesterday I had an hour session with the physical therapist I’ve been working with for almost a year. She has been magic-ing my body out of old old pain patterns and helping me to move with more ease. I’ve made more progress working with her than I imagined possible. Yesterday we worked on my letting go of muscle tension and relaxing into the breath.

She had me lie on my right side with a soft ball under my rib cage and then told me to do nothing, simply breathe in and focus on letting go on the out breath. “Don’t try too hard,” she said, “Just

Let It Be.

After a few breaths she asked me to slowly lift my left arm up and without effort simply let it drop over my head, again focusing on letting go on the out breath. At first my left shoulder was yelling at me as I raised my arm up and over my head, so I moved ever so slowly without pushing. After a couple of breaths, with seemingly no effort, I felt waves of relaxation move through my body. My shoulder relaxed, my rib cage relaxed. Everything opened up.

She laughed at my amazement. Later she asked me about how my right heel was doing as I had been having severe heel pain for over six months. I told her that it was doing great and that the pain was completely gone. So she asked me, “What do you think made the pain go away?”

I answered, “Time and listening to the pain and not pushing through it, a lesson I keep learning over and over again in my life.” She laughed and said that was a lesson that all of us seem to need to learn over and over again. (Note, I also did some regular foot and calf exercises and had some help from another physical therapist to begin the foot healing process. But it really was when I realized that when I walked more than a certain number of steps in a day that the pain kicked up, and if I walked less the pain decreased. I finally decided to stop pushing through the pain and that was how my foot finally healed.)

A Time For Everything

I write about this today in case you too have been pushing yourself too hard instead of listening to your body. Or you may be pushing yourself in other ways or berating yourself because you can’t seem to do the one creative thing that you believe that you want to do.

Listening and not pushing is a tricky thing. If you never do anything towards your goals that doesn’t feel very good either. So how do you know when to act and when to wait?

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, yeah, let it be
Oh, there will be an answer
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, yeah, let it be
Oh, there will be an answer
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

   — Paul McCartney

I’m not sure. Sometimes I follow a gut feeling that now is the time to act. Other times I start slowly, doing one small thing and allow the momentum created by doing that one small thing to carry me to the next small thing. The joy I get from making photographs and writing keeps me doing them simply because of the joy that they bring me.

I do go through fallow times where I lose my inspiration and don’t feel like creating anything. And I think that is a natural part of the creative cycle. I’ve found that the best thing to do in those times is to rest and recharge.

Other times when I’m feeling stuck with a creative project, I walk away from it for days, weeks, and sometimes even months. Then one day I get an itch to pick it up again and continue working on it. Usually, the pause has allowed me a kind of perspective that changes the direction of the project slightly.

What is Your Achilles Heel?

Is there a particular area in your life where you get caught up in pushing too hard and you could benefit from letting go?

Where I get caught up, is in pushing myself towards fixing my body. I dream of a pain-free fit body that feels good to move and allows me to do the long hikes and other activities I want to do. But whenever I push my body too hard, my body pushes back—harder. So each day I continue to learn more about acceptance and letting go and relaxing into life. Let it be my friends, let it be.

May you walk in beauty.