Powerful Attitude Training, Part 2

If you've ever been to the Royal Gorge and crossed the suspension bridge, you either got over any fear of heights that you have or you got off the bridge. Just outside of Canon City, Colorado, with a width of 50 feet at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of 1200 feet in some places, the Arkansas River has created a true wonder.

While crossing it, the greatest temptation is to at least take a small rock and drop it over the side. The depth is so great, you actually never see it hit the river below.

Part of our adopted attitude in life must be one of 'letting go'. I like to say that your personal attitude must be both adopted and adapted to your perpetual thinking. It must become an automatic response to the way that you filter life.

Our tour guide at the great crevasse there in the beautiful natural surroundings in Southern Colorado told us not to drop any object off of the bridge as walked across. If his instruction was not enough, there are over a dozen sign posted on the railing on both sides.

One family had 3 very high 'spirited' kids. The temptation appeared to be far too great for these children. I observed them dropping small pebbles through the cracks of the wooden planks of the bridge.

One of the greatest temptations that we all face in life is hang on to past hurts, residual pain and grudges of things that have no longer any direct effect on our lives.

We hold on to memories where we feel as if were have been wronged with an almost sacred adoration. Sadly we allow such hurts to not happen just once, but by the constant mental review and rehearsal of damaging emotions. We live those single occurrences over and over until they become deeply embedded in our subconscious.

One of the most dynamic exercises in releasing past hurts is to visualize your deliverance from the event. I want to share with you a technique that many have used to release their thoughts and emotions from the lingering unresolved anguish from such emotions.

Let's travel back for just a moment to the Royal Gorge. Imagine a rather large rock 12-14 inches in diameter, weighing 40-50 lbs. Visualize yourself standing at the very center of the suspension bridge. You look down and the Arkansas River looks no wider than a few centimeters 1200 feet below.

See and feel yourself struggle to carry this rock to the middle of the bridge. You struggle as you exert all of your energy lifting that rock to the top of the guard rail.

Now, as you stand there resting the rock on top of the guardrail, take a good long look at the rock. Picture a symbol that represents that event (a person's face, a specific location, even the emotion itself) on the side of that rock. In fact, allow yourself to imagine whatever you associate with the pain that you've carried from the hurt, to be thoroughly embedded in that rock.

Once you allow yourself to feel the emotion of the hurt, embedded in that rock, lift it as high over your head as possible. Now, with all the emotion that you can muster, throw that rock into the deep gorge.

Step to the rail and watch it as it grows ever smaller as it is cast down until it is no longer visible. Notice how you feel as it falls. Release. Freedom.

Now, take a very deep breath recognizing that the pain of that event is now gone from your life. Breathe very deeply. Allow a smile to come across your face. Allow the emotion of freedom to well up inside of your heart.

Friend, the residue of unresolved emotions can hinder your from success in business, in relationships, in your own clarity of mind, in intellectual pursuits and in your own spiritual quest. It can so cloud yourself to attitudes and actions that will cause you further pain.

Repeat this exercise as often you need to. Choose to cast hurts, disappointments and scars from the past to be cast out of your life.

Stop reliving an event that happened once. There is no law or written rule that says you have to live with it forever.

Lastly, there certainly is no reward in living with the past for the rest of your life. The false sense that somehow that you will eventually get satisfaction in harboring unabated past hurts is an impostor that will rob you of the happiness and success that you deserve.

Cast it out of your life and free yourself from it. It will brighten your perspective of life and give you the freedom that you truly long for.

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