The Shadow Side of Attachment

When we get to caught up in earthly desires – the material world and the ego, we can open the door to increased suffering. We become attached to certain things that almost surely end with our suffering. The first step is awareness in which you are currently mentally entangled with. There are seven kinds of unhelpful attachments to look out for in your own life:

1.      Attachment to stuff – the material goods, and thus one will suffer when the “stuff” is not in their life in a sufficient quantity.

2.      Attachment to others – well beyond a loving relationship, this is needing to own another, a deep hurt when someone is not a part of one’s life as desired.

3.      Attachment to the past – honoring significant traditions is one thing, and it is impossible to grow if you are doing things the way they have always been done for the sake of that is how they have always been done.

4.      Attachment to your form – when you are caught up in outer appearance, it will send you on a preoccupied journey of endlessly chasing youth that cannot be kept. Try having a love and respect for without putting full identity on the outer presence.

5.      Attachment to ideas and being right – this tends to go hand and hand with an inability to listen and thus negatively impacts any relationships with self becoming rigid and anyone with opposing views becoming just wrong. Remember right and wrong tend to be man’s created dichotomous thinking.

6.      Attachment to money – not to say money is the root of all evil, (it is the choices people make regarding money maybe), the challenge is to pick choices of love and purpose and allow the money to follow as it will – rather than chase it.

7.      Attachment to winning – not only is winning a judgement, (judgements tend not to be helpful), and an all-encompassing focus on winning will also surely make one feel like a loser a large part of the time. Athletes can attest that focusing on the flow, the inner place of harmony will far more often deliver a positive outcome.

Thanks to the writings of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, those are the attachments that lead most to suffering. Are there any that you notice for yourself? Plenty of ways of letting go and if you need assistance with it, simply reach out – once again, that is literally my job.