Letting Go
"Let it go." Just let it go. Well, if we knew how to do it, no one would ever have to tell us to "just let it go." Easier said than done, yes. Impossible? No. Sometimes a small shift in perspective can help.
Think about it this way.
It's a beautiful lazy day in the wilderness, the sun is shining, a gentle breeze is passing through and a zebra is quietly munching on a flower. All of the sudden, it looks up with this weird "something isn't right" feeling that we all get when our intuition kicks in, and realizes there is a lion hiding behind a bush, coyly planning an attack. The zebra runs, and runs, and runs hard for its life. After is has gotten away, it slows down, takes a few breaths, realizes the threat is gone, relaxes and resumes munching on flowers. No analyzing, no worrying, no stressing, no calling all of its zebra friends over to explain every last detail of what happened. The zebra feels the fear, acts accordingly, lets it go, and simply moves on.
Fear is natural. Every animal feels fear and instinctively acts to protect itself from its threats. We are the only animal that has compound fears/insecurities/stress however. All animals act on their fears and then let them go, but we hold on. Something happens to us that hurts and we tend to carry it with us, calling upon that same feeling any time something remotely similar starts to happen..most of the time causing us to react too soon, too emotionally, or too much, when perhaps a reaction may not even have been called for at all. We carry things with us and we don't know how to let them go.
We don't realize that not everything has to mean something, and the things that do mean something are there to teach us, remind us, guide us, move us, empower us, and most importantly, GROW US. Letting go is not always easy, but holding on is even harder. Holding on to things that no longer serve us or things that we can no longer control drains our energy and prevents new things from coming into our lives- either because we have no room or because our fears cloud our judgements. It makes us heavy, it puts unnecessary strain on our bodies and organs, causes imbalances, interferes with our pursuits of happiness, and defeats the purpose of the lesson. Things come into our lives because they are supposed to show us something about ourselves. This world is a big mirror for who you are, and taking experiences to mean anything differently than an opportunity to express who you are and who you want to be is missing the point.. things don't happen to hurt you, they happen to grow you. We all know this, but truly understanding it is difficult, and that's why letting go is so difficult too.
So what if we felt the fear, and then let it move through us. We didn't hold on, we didn't analyze it, we didn't over think it or stress over it...we let it move through us instead, and let it move out of us without holding on.
One of my favorite things to remember is: "If it comes, let it come. If it stays, let it stay. If it goes... let it go." The path of least resistance is often the path to health, and to piece of mind.
A simple Meditation:
Imagine a star gently falling from the sky, landing directly onto the top of your head and slowly moving through you, filling you with light. As it moves down through your body, it takes with it any old, heavy, stagnant thoughts and feelings and sweeps them down, replacing them with it's brilliant white light. The light continues to move down through your body and through your feet, out your soles and into the ground, re-energizing and becoming one with the earth.
Continue this meditation for a few minutes until you feel calm. Each time the light enters you, imagine it is bringing back to you all of the energy you have left behind wherever you have been and filling you back up again with your own light. We always leave little pieces of ourselves where we go and it is important to gather our energy once again. Each beam of light fills every corner of your body continuously until you are nothing but weightless, beautiful light.
Bringing your light back to you is a gentle way to let go. The visualization is helpful because letting go tends to leave us feeling empty, but we are instead filling ourselves up with our own energy. It is ok to put something down for the moment and loosen our grip on it, we can always pick it back up again at another time. Practice letting go if only for a few moments at a time until you get to the place of not needing to pick it back up again. Eventually letting it move through you will become easier until you release it once and for all.
Letting go of what no longer serves us makes space for the good things that are waiting to come into our life, and frees us up to fully experience the moment we are living. This moment is all that exists and all that matters.
Best to you, Helen.