Daily Practice ·
The practice of the open river: let go today of what is already changing
A brief practice to verify in your own experience that nothing remains: enjoy without gripping and move through difficulty knowing that it too will pass.
By Pedro J. Pérez
There are days when everything seems fixed: worry, anger, that situation you've been trying to resolve for weeks. And there are days when joy seems so fragile that it's scary to touch it, lest it break. In both cases we act as if what we feel is going to stay forever.
But it's enough to look calmly to verify that nothing that happens to us stays still. Neither the good nor the bad. Understanding this doesn't make you cold or indifferent: it takes a weight off your shoulders. You can savor the good without gripping it tightly, and you can hold what's difficult without believing it will be that way forever.
Today you're going to spend fifteen minutes verifying it in your own life, not as a nice idea, but as something you can check. You don't need any materials: just a quiet place and a little honesty with yourself.
The practice Duration: 15 minutes
Choose three things that today seem permanent
Sit comfortably and think of three elements of your current life: something that worries you, something you enjoy, and something you take for granted (your routine, a relationship, your health, your job). Write them down or name them mentally. Spend about three minutes on this part, without analyzing them yet, just identifying them clearly.
Look back and verify the change
Take each of those three elements and ask yourself: what was this like five years ago? What has changed since then, even if I didn't notice? Spend about five minutes. Don't look for grand conclusions: just facts. You'll see that what seemed definitive is no longer the same, and that what weighs on you today also has an expiration date, even if you don't know which one.
Open your hands instead of gripping
For three minutes, think about the good thing on your list. Instead of clinging to it with fear of losing it, imagine you're holding it with open palms, like someone letting water pass between their fingers without ceasing to feel it. It's not about giving up enjoying it, but about enjoying it without the tension of holding on to it. If anxiety appears, breathe and open your hands again.
Move through difficulty knowing it moves
Spend the last four minutes on what worries you. Don't deny it or minimize it. Just add one phrase to what you feel: "this too is changing." Repeat it slowly a couple of times, without forcing yourself to fully believe it. It's not a trick to feel better immediately: it's a reminder that no stretch lasts forever, not even this one.
To reflect on today
If nothing I live stays still, what am I gripping today that I could hold with an open hand?
To finish
This practice doesn't ask you to stop feeling or to resign yourself: it invites you to relate to your life as it is, in motion. When you let go of the demand that things last, a space appears where enjoyment without fear and difficulty without despair fit. And that space, today, is already yours.