Letting go sounds good in theory. However, when it comes time to actually deliver, we usually find ourselves trying to loosen a white-knuckle grip. How does a person prepare to let go of something so close? This can be a relationship. This can be relinquishing control over your life. This could be the death of someone dear and near.
There’s an art to it. It doesn’t look the same in any two people. That’s the virtue and the vice. We can either scoff at the idea or be present with it. Those who walk away calling it “hocus pocus” are doing so through muddled words and fogged vision while they drag the burdens of their past behind them.
We become stuck. Stuck in our tragic life stories. Stuck in cycles that hurt us. Stuck in opinions that no longer serve us. Stuck in our ego and not in the love of others. These things become anchors in our life. Instead of letting us hold steadfast to hope and joy, we’re bound by the toxic warp we’re too scared to let go of.
Every time we let go, we lose. We lose pieces of ourselves. We lose pieces of others. We lose pieces of our past that we had let hold a defining moment in our history. It hurts. There is a pain in shedding a cocoon to become who you are meant to be.
If we only live in the fear of our dreams, we will never live in the light of our reality.
The thing that is good for us is also the hardest for us to do. Releasing our grip and falling forward into our fears is not something we usually do willingly. However, it’s the only way we become free. It’s the only way to live a life out of joy and love instead of fear and weariness.
We can brace the fall with knowledge, by googling what other’s have done. We can brace it by preparing for ugly emotions. We can brace it by leaning on our friends and family. In the end, it must be us to take the biggest blow. Letting go is not a notion for the faint of heart.
Letting go is not quaint. It is not a heart-warming quote. It is not simple. It’s rough around the edges. It looks like a pile of thorns that will eventually feel like a bed of roses. When you let go, change your grip to something better.
Let go of bitterness and hate and grip onto faith. Let go of dark pieces of your past and grip onto the joyous moments of today. Let go of broken relationships and grip onto the love of people who give you what you need.
We can view this in two ways: what is lost or what is gained. There will be losses. Significant losses. But there will be gains. Bigger, better, more beautiful gains than you can fathom. If we only live in the fear of our dreams, we will never live in the light of our reality. This is your permission to live fully, to love fully, to fully be free, and to just let go.