Page 22 - Taming Your Gremlin A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way (Rick Carson)_Neat

for a while. Either way is fine. As for me, I’m here for the long haul and
what I have to offer is here for you to enjoy at your leisure. In other words,
where our relationship is concerned, your part is to show up, relax, and

gently pay attention. My part is to wait right here and save your place.

But simply noticing has benefits way beyond our relationship. Simply
noticing is the disarmingly potent first step in the Gremlin-Taming Method.
As you refine it, you will actually be able to observe not just what is going
on around you, but your own thoughts, emotions, memories, and fantasies
in the very moment they are occurring. Doing so kicks into play an age-old,
infallible, and powerful process sometimes known as the Zen Theory of
Change.

THE ZEN THEORY OF CHANGE

Here is my paraphrased version of the theory:

I free myself not by trying to be free, but by simply noticing how I am
imprisoning myself in the very moment I am imprisoning myself.

It’s been said lots of ways by lots of people. Over 2,500 years ago Lao Tzu
brushed with picture symbols the Tao Te Ching, which included this
wisdom:

Simply notice the natural order of things. Work with it rather than
against it.

For to try to change what is only sets up resistance.