“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining
is let it rain.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If only it were that easy to let go and accept what’s happening around you, but you know and I know; it’s not.

I believe that we have to know why we can’t do something before we can figure out how to do it. Knowing why we have a hard time letting go is the first step to changing it.

I think I’ve always had a hard time letting go because I wanted to control the outcome of a situation or because I had not been able to control an outcome in the past. Why did I want to control these things? I just wanted to be happy. In both cases, I’ve discovered, letting go can be deceptively simple and could give me what I wanted in the first place.

Let’s start with the outcomes which have not yet occurred.  Say there is an event in the future about which you are anxious or a decision you have to make which you’re not sure about. Let go like this:

Decide in advance that whatever you decide and whatever happens will be the very best thing. Just decide and relax. Tell yourself that only the best outcome is possible and whether or not this is clear right now you will regard it that way.

Conversely, we do have control over outcomes. Nothing is either black or white. Recently we talked about aligning ourselves with a reality in which what we want has already been orchestrated. Have you played with this idea? I have and all I can say is – wow!

What about those things that happened in the past that you’ve been carrying around in a too-heavy back-pack? Adopt the same attitude towards them. Tell yourself that even though you may not be able to see it right now, what happened was for the best and one day you’ll see that. There is no good, no bad in life. We are the ones who give meaning to everything and we see far too little of the whole picture to make a judgment about it.

Remember these things:

• You are cherished by Life
• It is all working out for the best
• All is well and all will be well – always

And just let go.

Do you have trouble letting go? Have you ever had something happen which was impossible to let go of and then you learned how to let go of it? How do you let go?

Photo credit: Julie LeBlanc