Non attachment or detachment is often considered to be a negative thing, a state in which somebody keeps them self separate from the world and the people around them.

But non attachment is actually something quite different.

When we acknowledge that everything in life is temporary, possessions, situations, our job, our house, thoughts, feelings, our bodies, the weather…. we see that nothing that comes and goes can make us truly happy.   And this realisation is very freeing.

But this doesn’t have to mean that you don’t enjoy each experience, that you can’t fully feel and partake in life.  In fact, it helps you to enjoy the experience/object even more because you know that like everything in life, it is impermanent.  It doesn’t have to mean that you distance yourself from it because you know it is going to end eventually, but rather free’s yourself up fully to be with what is in your experience right now.  It allows you to trust in the temporary nature of everything.

The state of non attachment allows everything to be exactly as it is, without needing to own it.  Without making it ‘mine’ or ‘me’ or ‘I’, without creating a story about it in the mind. Just allowing.

Practicing non attachment to the past is to allow what has happened.  Again, not creating a story about it, what it means, who it makes you. Just allowing it to rest.

And practicing non attachment to the future.  This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t work towards goals, just that you shouldn’t be attached to the outcomes. Enjoy the process.

In the end, all we ever have is this moment. It’s been said before, and it will be said many times again!  Allowing each moment to be as it is, not being attached to its outcome, not rejecting the present moment because you feel that a moment in the future will be much better. Just taking a moment to breathe and feel the aliveness of now. This is all we need. This is all there is.

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Beth Hartig, Hartig Yoga