Letting Go...

In theory letting go should be easy, in practice it is rarely the case. Letting go means change and change is scary, it means leaving what is familiar and leaving ones self open to something new. Letting go means different things in different circumstances but its underpinning is the act of giving up control, expectations, old messages - its dropping baggage so that you can travel light into the future. 

Life is kinda like Ryan Air - its costs alot to carry extra baggage. Letting go isn't about losing or failing, it isnt weakness and it doesn't equate to giving up. To let go means you choose to free yourself in order to become stronger, happier, more confident and to continue to grow into the person you are, the essence of yourself, of who you were created to be and in letting go of the negative, the painful, the pressure, the control, the extra baggage - you set yourself free to live out your purpose in this world and to love it.

Below are some quotes and exercises in letting go...

Marsha Linehan - Steps for Letting Go of Painful Emotions

Observe your emotion. Acknowledge that the emotion exists. Stand back from it and get yourself unstuck from it.

Try to experience your emotion as a wave, coming and going. You may find it helpful to concentrate on some part of the emotion, like how your body is feeling, or some image about it.
Don't try to push the emotion away or reject it and dont judge your emotion. There are no bad emotions, just emotions, each one as valid as the other.

You are not your emotion. Your emotion is a part of you, but it is not all of you. You don't necessarily have to act on emotions, you may just need to sit with them.

Practice LOVING your emotions. We can learn to love out emotions just the way we can learn to love (accept) anything else about ourselves or our experiences that we cannot change. Remember that acceptance (love) and approval are two different things.

The River: An Exercise In Letting Go

We all know, or at least should know, that there are many benefits to letting go of our negative feelings, particularly in relation to our past. We know that, for our own health, we must forgive those who have harmed us. We know that anything we cling to desperately — whether it's to avoid something else, to use as a guide for the future, or because we were wronged — is corrosive to our very being. It leaves us stuck at what can sometimes be a terrible place to be stuck. And we do it to ourselves. Hence, the River.

The River. A place to let go. A place to release. A place to cleanse ourselves. A place to wash, rinse and repeat. Let's go there now, in fact.

Close your eyes (but read the following instructions first!) and relax every muscle in your body, starting at the toes. If you hear an occasional noise, do as Eckhart Tolle says and ignore it, as though it were a child wanting your attention. Now, take a walk through the forest (use your mind). Walk until you see a clearing and a running river.

You are all alone and you are at peace. Hear the running water. Step into the water. Is it warm? Is it cold? Look up through the leaves. Is the sun too bright?
We're ready to begin our work. Continue walking in the water until you reach the middle of the river. Now hold out your arms and put each negative item into them. Don't forget those people you have not been able to forgive. Include every instance where someone you cared about said that you have fallen short or failed to measure up. Don't think about whether these are true. They are negative and we are releasing those items right now.

When you feel ready, take a deep breath, both physically and in your vision. Turn around to face the direction of the flow. Bend down, release everything into the flow. Like water, which purifies itself after having run for a certain length of time, these items will purify as well. You are free from them.

Now, do as you please as you leave the forest and return to the mundane. Enjoy the water, look at the forest, feel the sun on your skin. Walk out of the forest.

Image © Elena Kalis