A Guided Meditation on Non-attachment

On Monday September 14th, the active chapter of Delta Beta Tau invited one of our beautiful alumni leaders Olivia Miller to lead our meditation and discussion. Her presence always brings us joy, hope, and warm fuzzy feelings, even in the virtual setting. Oliva led a discussion on the topic of non-attachment and how we can apply it to our lives. She began by sharing some buddhist readings on non-attachment and a beautiful poem called She Let Go by Safire Rose that invoked a lot of deep thoughts and feelings. Our conversation brought out a lot of emotions and we were able to openly and safely talk about the struggles we were all dealing with. She taught us a metaphor for non-attachment that really stuck with me. I will guide you in a little written mediation to explain the metaphor for you. You could play soft background music if you would like. Take about 10 minutes to read through this meditation and pause where you feel you need to. 

Begin by finding a comfortable seated position. 

Start by taking 3 deep breaths.

Inhale follow breath in, exhale follow breath out.

I’d like to invite you to visualize non-attachment. 

Clasp your hands together squeezing your knuckles tightly. While keeping your fingers pressed down tightly, pull your palms apart. Squeeze your fingers even tighter as you try to pull your hands apart. 

Notice how this feels. Notice the resistance.

It may feel uncomfortable and painful even. Now let your grip go. 

This represents our feelings of attachment. We are so deeply connected to something or someone that when we try to pull away it hurts. We can be attached to people, places, things, memoires, and moments. 

Now extend your fingers towards the sky while touching your palms together. You can touch your palms as gently or deeply as you would like. 

Pull your hands apart from each other. 

Notice how this felt.

This might have felt painless, easy, and smooth. This represents the idea of non-attachment. 

With non-attachment, we can still be very deeply connected with something, but when it is time to move on, or time to let go we can do so freely without the fear of pain. 

With this in mind, you can leave and return just as easily to that feeling, that person, or that object. You can easily reconnect your palms. 

Now, I invite you to hold your palms together, and imagine something that you are having trouble letting go of. Visualize it. Feel it. Embrace it. 

Inhale follow breath in.

Exhale and let it go.

Give yourself permission to let go of something that is holding you back. Allow yourself space to grow. Be patient with the process. But in this moment, you can let go. 

Take 3 more deep breaths.

I hope this meditation helped you understand the concept of non-attachment a little better. Also just know that if you are struggling to let go of something, Olivia reminded us that it is okay to not be ready. You can take your time. Some things come and go easier than others. 

By: Leah Starr