For most of my healing journey I was efforting. I was working hard at healing myself. Reading, meditating, changing my diet, taking supplements, focusing on the positive, shifting my identity, and trying to touch down to my soul’s purpose. I believed through all this I could unlock the key to my physical healing. I did and still continue to believe that all of those changes and efforts were necessary. However, I came to realize that I alone was not in charge of the timeline nor the means in which I healed. While we as people hold a lot more power in our lives than we appreciate, there are also powers greater than ourselves at play. I soon realized that I needed to make more space for those powers. This is when I decided to “drop the rope.”
I learned the saying “drop the rope” from a psychotherapy intervention called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. When we are faced with uncertainty, the threat of losing something, or unpleasant circumstances/happenings, we tend to respond by grasping tighter to the metaphorical “rope”. The rope is anything we do to try to control or avoid a certain situation or outcome. The harder we grasp the rope the more energy we expend in the direction of the unwanted outcome, often increasing the likelihood that this outcome will happen. So what happens if we drop the rope? Using my situation as an example, when I decided to drop the rope it didn’t resolve my physical health issues. It didn’t make my challenges go away. But, what it did do was create an energy of surrender and allowing, freeing up space to receive rather than control. It also let me off the hook. I alone did not have to figure this out. I allowed others to take the reins and for God and my angels to step in. With this shift in energy and effort many blessings poured in.
It is worth noting that dropping the rope is not a one and done thing. It is something I practice and remind myself every day. Sometimes many, many times a day. It is very easy to fall back into a default mode of wanting to control and force an outcome. However, what I have found is, when I remind myself to drop the rope a feeling of warmth and peace washes over me. I am energetically freeing myself up to receive.
It is also worth noting that dropping the rope doesn’t mean you completely stop all efforts in the direction of your goal or desired outcome. For me, I continue to do the things that strengthen my mind and body. However, I no longer do them with the expectation that they will heal me but, rather, support optimal circumstances for any healing that is available to me. This allows me to stay the course with the things I find most beneficial to my overall well-being and leave the rest up to flow and timing of life.
Are there areas in your life that are full of tension, grasping, or anxiety? Are there areas where you are holding on so tightly to a certain outcome that there is no space for possibility or happy surprises to come through? These might be good places to practice the energetic shift of moving from grasping and control to surrender and allowing.