Sometimes, we seem to be surrounded by the same issues for years, decades or lifetimes. Often the issues which cause us aggravation will leave us, perhaps through our own determined action to keep the issues away from us. However, until and unless we release the issues whatever they may be, the issues will continue to return to us for time to time.

If we consider the issues which continue to surround us, we will see that we seem to be holding a hand full of snakes. We are holding the snakes, which will represent experiences such as, a broken relationship, unrequited love, the passing of a loved one, financial difficulties, employment frustrations and so on at arms length, and we are attempting not to be bitten by one or more of the snakes.

However, there are so many snakes that it seems that one always manages to bite us and when we deal with that one, another snake sneaks through and bites us. When the snakes 'bite' us, we feel strong emotions from passed experiences, such as heartache, loneliness, a bruised ego, worry, frustration and so on.

Usually, we draw a snake to us and the snake bites us, which is hardly surprising. Often, a second snake will take advantage of the situation and bite us as well, which is why we often experience difficulties within more than one area of our lives simultaneously.

We may be bitten by a snake which was created by a broken relationship and we may feel hurt and lonely, and then whilst we are vulnerable we may feel the hurt and bruised ego of unrequited love as a second snake bites us, which leaves us feeling depressed and alone. Whilst we are feeling depressed and alone, a third snake created by the loss of a loved one may bite us, and we may feel alone, unloved and unwanted.

We will subsequently enjoy a period were we are able to hold the snakes at arms length for a while, and the issues created by our past experiences are pushed into the background, as we steady ourselves and return to a more balanced life. However, the snakes will find a way to bite us again in time.

The next time we are bitten by a snake, it could be a set back in our work that allows a snake from our past experience to bite us, and we become frustrated at our lack of progress, which may well mean that we have been unable to increase our income. Our frustration leaves us vulnerable to the snake created by our financial difficulties and we are bitten by a second snake and we begin to worry about our financial difficulties, perhaps putting us in to a hole which we cannot see our wait out of.

In time, we will hold these snakes at arms length again too, and we will find a way to climb out of the hole that we had found ourselves in. However, there will come a time when a new experience will be felt, and as we react to the new experience, we will lower our guard, and allow the snake created by a similar past experience to strike us making our current experience more difficult to endure and making us vulnerable to additional snakes which have been awaiting their opportunity to bite us. Alternatively, we can let the snakes created by our past experiences go.

If we do not want to be bitten by the many snakes that we are holding, we need only release the snakes from our grasp. We hold on to our past experiences, even when we believe that we have pushed our past experiences aside, or buried our past experiences, or learned to live with our past experiences, or overcome our past experiences. We need to release our past experiences, by simply letting our past experiences go.

The snakes may rear up and bite us as we release them, but it will be the final time that we are bitten. We need to reflect on the past experiences that we are holding, we need to understand that the experiences are not who we are. We need to look deep within our hearts and forgive those who we believe have wronged us, and most importantly we need to forgive ourselves for our mistakes.

If we continue to be hurt by that which we hold, we must quite simply stop holding onto that which hurts us.

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