letitgo.ca

Every breath we take is a letting go: breathe in,,,,, let go,,,,,breathe in,,,,let go…. Every wave builds up energy and releases it on to the shore. The heart contracts and relaxes every second or so. Likewise, in our mental world, releasing happens naturally too, unless we hold on. Sensations, thoughts and feelings arise and flow through awareness leaving space for what is actually here now.

We can connect  to something deeper, richer and higher than we usually experience if we just get rid of some obstructions. Constriction and resistance can be let go of with some very simple techniques, releasing ourselves to a place of calm clarity, unfiltered by preconceptions, ego, habit and cultural bias. This open and free awareness is our natural state. When we let go of artificial limitations what remains is open, spacious, easeful and intelligent.

Letting go is a necessary ability for little things that come up during the day, like frustration with traffic, and for the big things; work, relationships, financial stresses. How many traffic, household and work related accidents have occurred because someone was wrestling with the past or fantasizing about the future instead of just being present?

Releasing is a natural ability that we use all the time. Every intake of breath must be released to allow room for the next intake. Similarly we can release unhelpful feelings, beliefs, habits and thoughts so we can respond fully and appropriately to present circumstances rather than just react unconsciously out of habit or fear. Learning to actively release allows us to actually show up for our lives, and live openly and fully rather than carrying around a suit of armor and a heavy headful of preconceptions and habitual responses. We are able to see that the suit of armor we wear to protect us from pain actually just keeps the pain locked inside.

We all know how to naturally release but we have come to believe that we need to hold on to things that we want, and to push away things that we don’t want, which is also a kind of holding on. We believe that this is normal. But if we look at how this really works it becomes clear that holding on and pushing away doesn’t actually work; holding on actually prevents us from having the things we want: how much can you hold in a grasping fist? Letting go makes room for  more of what we really want to create in our lives. We see that when we resist and push back against things we don’t want, we only strengthen them and give them more energy and life, stealing from our own precious life energy. We gain a clarity on how to deal with the practical issues of life, and we are able to see the peace of mind, joy and love that is in the background, always here, now.

Letting go is not an intellectual exercise. It is a lived experience. It is not about believing anything or believing “in” anything. It is a simple process of directing our attention and awareness to unconscious, unhelpful and untrue beliefs. It is a direct, unfiltered seeing from our own experience. We learn to notice when we are holding on to memories as if they are still here. Releasing is a direct method of dealing with unhelpful beliefs, unhealthy habits and unhappy feelings. Our bodies won’t let us hold on to a breath for very long (notice how we do hold our breath sometimes when we feel stressed.) However, our minds are able to hold on, sometimes usefully, to deal with a complex practical situation, but often the mind holds on out of fear and insecurity, locking us into a cycle of holding on to a painful situation and a feeling of being helpless and trapped. Letting go is all about dropping things that interfere with clear seeing and taking effective action.

We can easily learn and practice simple processes that help us let go of unhelpful feelings and thoughts and beliefs that are interfering with our natural abilities to respond fully to life. We can let go of unconscious programs that are running us such as, unexamined beliefs, old habits, unnamed fears and endless desires. These unconscious programs surface in various ways as we go through our daily lives. When they do, we can use simple methods to let them go on the spot. As we let them go they lose their power over us and their ability to derail and hijack our lives and energy. We are able to live full on, wide open. Letting go  opens us up to true creativity and the ability to see clearly so that we can more effectively realize our highest potential.