Invest in loss to gain everything

To be able to truly let go and love being alive, enjoying each moment fully, regardless of whether it’s an apparently good one or bad, simply for the glee of being, it’s crucial you allow yourself to face and dispel your greatest fears, for it is these that hold you back.

One profoundly effective way of doing so is to do what the Taoists call investing in loss, by which I mean divesting yourself of all layers of assumed identity until you’ve stripped yourself back to the bare essence informing you at your core: the Tao.

Start off by working from the outside in.

Look at your life. Start with your social life and tell yourself, ‘I am not my social life’.

Move inwards to your professional life and tell yourself, ‘I am not my professional life’.

Look at your finances and tell yourself, ‘I am not my finances’.

Look at your home and tell yourself, ‘I am not my home’.

Look at your possessions and tell yourself, I am not my possessions’.

Look at your relationships and tell yourself, ‘I am not my relationships’.

Look at your clothes and tell yourself, ‘I am not my clothes’.

Look at your skin, muscles and sinews and tell yourself, ‘I am not my skin, muscles or sinews’.

Look at your nerves and tell yourself, ‘I am not my nerves’.

Look at your organs and vessels and tell yourself, ‘I am not my organs or vessels.’

Look at your skeleton and tell yourself, ‘I am not my bones’.

Look at your mind and tell yourself, ‘I am not my mind’.

Look at your fears, including your fear of death and say, ‘I am not my fears.’

Finally, look at what’s left (the Presence informing you) and say, ‘I am this’.

Then repeat, ‘I am this’ frequently throughout the day and night and not only will your fearlessness levels increase dramatically over the next few days, dear reader, but you’ll surprise yourself with how free you feel and how fully you express yourself.

And that’s my wish for you today.

Love, B