The Benefits of Pattern Disruption

As I was getting ready to write this post about the benefits of pattern disruption, I lost my favorite necklace. Now, I know better than to be attached to an object. Life including leadership of our lives  requires us to get better and better at skillfulness at letting go. And yet my shock at discovering when I  lost my precious necklace showed me that

1. I had formed quite an emotional attachment;
2. I was willing to let go of some things easily, but not others particularly sentimental ones;
3. Despite my previous self talk that when crystals are ready to move on, you experience losing them and it is okay and natural, my self talk and self preparation didn’t pan out to ease the loss in that moment

All in all, I had fooled myself into believing that my ability with detachment from outcome, and my willingness to let go, were not what I had believed them to be. Yes indeed, I can still feel my grief some weeks later even though I had put writing this blog aside for weeks. I had worn that necklace to every country I have visited during the past fifteen years, it was with me in discussions, workshops, time with friends and family. And my granddaughter was in love with it and I had secretly in my heart promised it would be hers one day. As I tell this, I am sure you can understand how the attachment grew and grew.

Why is it important to be able to let go, to be able to detach from outcome? Change is a constant in life. With change comes loss. To thrive in life, it is important to grow personal capacity to let go. Some mystics teach us that we learn to let go sufficiently until we no longer fear death.

To develop personal capacity to detach from outcome, to let go, there are a few simple things you can do. They are ways of disrupting your habits and patterns, learning to leave something behind and embrace something new.:

1. Change the location of something in your bedroom. I did this with where I keep my socks and the results were funny. I kept going to the ‘old’ drawer every morning for a couple of weeks, laughing at myself each time for how long it was taking me to go with the flow of the new pattern. Once you have a new habit and pattern, change up something else and keep doing this, always coaxing yourself to easily let go of habits and patterns.
2. On the monthly anniversary of your birthday, do something you have never done before.