Learning to Let Go

In the past few months, I've had multiple times where I've had to deal with horrible events.  Events that strangle me emotionally with so much pain, I can barely make it.  None of it is easy.  It seems like no matter where I turn lately, I'm just confronted with loss and pain in one way or another.  Learning to let go is not easy for me.

I'm not trying to say I don't care about someone or some event if I learn to let go.  Its quite the opposite.  I care deeply and I feel it deeply.  I'm a very sensitive person and there is very little that escapes my attention.  What I do feel, I feel with such an intensity that it often overwhelms me.  So learning to let go is not something I say casually or lightly or with callous.

Learning to let go means that I feel all of this, but I don't attach my existence to those feelings and emotions.  It means that I honor and respect those feelings and emotions, but I don't allow myself to become them.  They are there for me to acknowledge, but my life is much more than this.  Again, I'm not saying that we become unattached to their existence, but that we don't attach our purpose in life to them.  It may not be an easy concept to understand in what I am saying.


I'm not saying either that I go through life just thinking happy thoughts or reciting mantras.  I think that is avoidance and numbing, because in order to live a balanced life, you have to feel all of life, not just parts of it.  I don't try to escape what is going on because that is like attaching a small band-aid to a gushing wound.  It makes you think you did something positive, but it is just an illusion.

It doesn't mean that we let go of feelings and emotions and pains in a split second or a day or a month or a year.  It takes each one of us time to move through these things and process them.  What may seem like an eternity to some, is just the beginning phase to another.

The more we hold on and attach our existence to the emotions, feelings, and pain, the more it affects us physically.  We all do this and it is part of being human to do this.  The trick is to learn how to acknowledge it, feel it, process it, and then let it go when we are ready.  Again, I can't state this enough that this is not easy to do.  Its a part of being human that requires us to confront our life with this lesson many times over.

There are times even with the best of intentions and what you have learned from the past that you become overwhelmed and captive to the pain, feelings, and emotions.  It is perfectly normal because we are humans with a heart and we care and are connected to one another.  There is no perfect scenario in how all of this plays out.  It is what it is and we are what we are.

Learning to let go is one of those lessons that is often repeated and the more we can begin to understand it, the more peace we will find in our life.  It isn't necessarily an arrival point, but a continual process of growth, awareness, and understanding.

Don't worry if you struggle with learning to let go, because you are most likely where you need to be on your path in life.  It isn't a marathon to a end point.  It is a continual process of consciousness and awareness that we build upon through each experience we encounter in life.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 1/18/15 by Don Shetterly

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