Safety nets. We love them. They feel safe, and we believe they will catch us when we fall. A safety net could be a person -- a spouse, a parent, or a friend. It could be a job, or a boss, or the company we work for. We are advised to create safety nets that equate to piles of cash like bank accounts, RRSPs and insurance. We ask our governments to make and take care of our safety nets so that we don't have to. Safety nets can even be the belongings (house, vehicle, wardrobe) that we have worked hard to accumulate because they make the image, that we are trying to present to others, seem real. And, safety nets can be our routines that suffocate verses nurture, the beliefs that are not in alignment with our desires, or the habits that have outgrown their usefulness. I guess really, anything we are not comfortable letting go of when we know it is not working for us, could be a part of our safety nets.
We love safety nets because they help us feel secure. We have become comfortable with them exactly as they are, and they help us relax and have faith in life. We have built our future around them and we are relying on them being there so life can play out as we picture it. They give us a sense of having a buffer if things go wrong. We believe our mediocre okayness is propped up by their existence.
Now, I am not saying that LOP means you must eliminate all people and worldly goods, as some spiritual practices recommend (although, if that is what you are inspired to do, then that is LOP). What I am saying is LOP is being aware of what our safety nets are, and understanding how we may be making them into more of a trap than a net.
One trap is that if our safety net should disappear we can lose our balance, fall down, or become confused about which direction to go. A death, the loss of a job, a dip in the economy can understandably create immense changes in our lives, however, if we have the majority of our weight leaning on anything that disappears, we fall flat on our faces.
Another trap is that safety nets can become huge energy suckers. Logically, if my okayness rests in the existence of this thing, I had better take care of it. The energy we sometimes put into controlling and micro-managing something that we perceive as our safety net can end up being more life draining than if the net actually disappeared.
So, if not having safety nets means not putting our trust and faith, or all our eggs in the basket of something else, what does it mean? Well, figuring that out is what LOP is about. For me it is about remembering, trusting in, and expressing who I really am, but the answer for each of us will be tailor made for us. All I know is finding that answer is where the freedom, unconditional love, and the innate success resides for us all.