Hi, my name is Andy and welcome to Radio Headspace.

So it's Friday morning and as we head into the end of the week, I don't know if there

are particular areas of your life where you're holding on, hanging on and perhaps trying

to keep control of everything.

I always feel like that's an interesting notion trying to control our lives.

There's actually a true very little that we are in control of.

There are aspects of course and it's important always to accept those responsibilities

and everything else, but I feel like there's something interesting in those areas where

we do let go of control, like we discover something different about ourselves, perhaps

a vulnerability.

There are different levels of that and it turns up and shows up differently in so

many areas of our life.

I was thinking back to a time when I was real-daining as a monk.

Although in the past, long time ago I think it was probably like monks and nuns in most

parts of the world, it was normally something you would go into for your whole life, but

they had a process of working which I think had become more common since sort of accepting

Western monks and nuns of you could choose whether it was three years, five years, or

life.

And that's a really kind of interesting process because then there's the opportunity

to engage in it and to leave at end of period of time without any sense of guilt.

It's not like you've given up or you've left, you've just come to the end of a commitment.

When you come to the end of that commitment, you can then recommit or you can leave.

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