Letting go doesn't mean giving up, it means moving forward.
Letting go is a process of experiencing and then detaching from negative emotions. It allows you to alleviate any form of suffering and move forward.
We have created a five-step process to practice the process of letting go. Interact with the content below to move through the process:
The process of letting go in a nutshell:
Letting go is related to and involves raising your level of awareness:
What do I need to let go of?
Throughout our lifetimes, we accumulate a lot of impressions.
From the moment we are born, we are shaped by our surroundings, culture, people around us, conditions in which we are raised, the food we eat, stuff we have, certain events we experience, and so on.
All these mental and physical accumulations program our bodies and minds to feel, think, and behave in specific ways:Â
Over time, we identify with the impressions that we have accumulated. It feels as if our thoughts, opinions, possessions, and past experiences shape us and define who we are.
This is a normal process that occurs naturally. There is nothing wrong with building these models of how the world works. You couldn’t live without them. These models run subconsciously and direct you through life.
However, problems arise when we get so attached to these models that when they crumble or are challenged, we experience suffering. We feel threatened and insecure. We experience a fear of loss, stress, and anxiety. We don’t know how to deal with this world that challenges our model. We would rather have everything stay the same. We feel stuck and unable to move forward.
At times like this, letting go can be a Magic Move.
You are bound by the things you own as long as you need them emotionally. The moment you sever this psychological link, you will experience a marvelous freedom, a sense of liberation that cannot be described.
Letting go is, in essence, a process of emptying yourself from what you accumulated in the past, have identified with, and is now causing you to suffer.
While letting go, you accept, experience, and release the negativity and inner blocks.
You raise your level of awareness of what is causing you to suffer. You let go of what you are clinging to:
Everyone is essentially creative energy that expresses itself as a human being. This is the most fundamental dimension.
We gather impressions on multiple levels:
- Material stuff: money, possessions.
- The physical level: our biology, how we look, our body composition, tattoos, and other physical decorations like earrings and make-up.
- The mental level: our thoughts, feelings, and convictions.
The contents of our minds and bodies have been gathered over time. What you have gathered can not be you.
Letting go of something old makes room for something new.
Letting go is nothing more than putting space between who you fundamentally are and what you have gathered in terms of mind, body, and possessions.
The process of letting go
The bigger the suffering, the higher the reward of letting go and the worse the fall if you don’t.
Here are the five steps of the process again in a nutshell:
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Relax
Minimize distractions and calm your mind. You can listen to calm music, focus on your breath, or anything else that can capture your conscious attention. Do this for a few minutes until you feel centered.
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Just experience the contents of your consciousness
Become aware of and accept any thoughts, emotions, and other physical sensations. Do not try to block or go deeper into any of them. Experience whatever happens in the moment. Ask yourself: what do I experience right now? Can I describe my thoughts or feeling as having a form, a color, or other qualities? How would I 'objectify' them? How could I turn them into something that I 'have'?
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Detach
Next, create space between who you are and the contents or objects of your experience. You are not the sensations, the possessions, the thoughts, or the feelings. Instead, you are the one who is noticing and observing them in your field of awareness. Your experience is something that you have, not who you are. You are the witness behind the objects in your experience. You are watching a movie on the screen of your consciousness.
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Release
Now let go. Release the negativity and the pain. Imagine a dark cloud floating away from your head, dark air getting released with every exhale, or negative energy flowing into the ground through the soles of your feet.
Whatever visualization makes you feel lighter is what works for you. Watch yourself let go of these accumulations that are not you. -
Repeat
That's it. Now keep doing the work. Letting go is not a one-time event but an ongoing process that requires practice and commitment.
This technique is more difficult than it seems, especially since we have been conditioned to suppress our feelings. This does not make them go away.
Practice letting go to move forward step by step. You will get better and gain more benefits over time.
How is your emotional awareness? Take our quiz.
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