The following excerpt is from my book, Your Guide to… A Better Way of THINKING.” There are two characters John and Noah and they are discussing how “letting go,” enables you to save yourself…from yourself.

“Hmmm, freeing the brain,” John slowly repeated. “This might be a stretch, Noah, is there a relationship between freeing the brain and the notion of being saved?”

“When we let go of our chatter, we save ourselves.”

“But what makes letting go so difficult?”

Noah grinned.

“Why are you smiling?”

 “It’s not you, John. When you asked, ‘What makes letting go so difficult?’ it reminded me of a technique used to catch wild monkeys.”

“What does catching wild monkeys have to do with letting go of our ego?” John asked, wondering where Noah was taking him.

“Frank Buck was a product of the 1920s. He went to various countries and made movies documenting how he caught wild animals for the zoos of the world. His motto was ‘Bring ’em Back Alive.’ One episode displayed his technique of capturing wild monkeys.

“He’d drill a hole into a coconut just big enough for the monkey to slide its open hand through. The coconut was filled with an irresistible rice mixture. One end of a rope was tied to the coconut while the other was anchored to a stake. Monkeys, who are naturally curious, would descend from the trees, inspect the inside of the coconut, and slide their hands through the hole, grabbing a handful of rice. But now, the monkey finds that his clenched fist will not back out of the hole.”

“So how did he catch the monkeys once they let go of the rice?”

“That’s the point, John. They don’t let go. You haven’t seen anything so crazy as a bunch of screaming monkeys running around with a coconut at the end of their arm trying to escape. Their fate was sealed when a net was thrown over them.” 

“Wait a minute. Are you saying that none of the monkeys would let go of the rice?”

“Not even one.”

“Monkeys are pretty smart. It’s hard to believe they’d sacrifice their freedom for a handful of rice.”

“Are we any different?”

“I would like to think that I’m not that stupid.”

“Stupidity has nothing to do with it. We’re the most intelligent animal on the planet, and yet we sacrifice our spiritual and psychological freedom by refusing to let go of our ego.”

To learn about the mental factors that will enable you to “let go” so you can create the life you want…check-out my podcast and video by clicking-on…LET GO AND LET GOD.