Letting go to move forward

I find that letting go is one of the hardest things for most human beings to do. Our “operating system” is programmed to control and therefore we create countless levels of attachment to people, things and situations. Everything we learn becomes a basis on which we anchor our perceptions and interpretations, which, consequently, becomes an anchor, a fixed point. We get used to our way of thinking and practice it so much that it becomes a habitual way of behaving to the point of confusing it with a way of being. But attachment stiffens and weighs us down, holding us still in a flow (life) that is pure movement and change.

How many times has it happened that you had to let go of something you cared about so much and suffered incredibly in doing so, only to realise with hindsight how many other opportunities and experiences opened up thanks to that fracture with your past?

It is only in letting go, in emptying, in making space, that something new can enter our lives. But our attachments continually slow down this possibility. Every time we defend something strenuously, we are resisting and rejecting that possibility. Nature continually teaches us that it is from the breaking of something that something else can emerge: the seed breaks to let roots and shoots emerge, the egg breaks to let a new living being out, the shell of a mollusc is abandoned and recreated so that it can grow in size. We too can continue to grow only when we learn to let go of things, people, situations and above all beliefs.

Everything we become attached to is nourished by our attention and energy and this is how we create bonds: a continuous and reciprocal flow of energy that binds us and holds us back. A bit like a spider's web. Obviously it gives us comfort to have this network of relationships, objects, possessions around us, but above all it gives us an illusory sense of security and power. That is until something breaks and plunges us into a deep crisis precisely because we have projected our personal power outside ourselves and created the possibility of feeling weakened, hurt, robbed...

Things only change when we begin to understand this mechanism: it is we who attribute power (value) to people, things, situations outside of ourselves, not the other way round, and letting go is an act of great freedom and courage because it allows us to "recover" the energy we have infused in that relationship with that aspect of our life. Bringing this energy back into us allows us to regain momentum, enthusiasm and vitality for other experiences and discoveries. Only in this way can we actually "move forward".

Letting go is a necessary act to move forward.

Try asking yourself what is really necessary for you to let go of now so your life becomes lighter, so you start enjoying life again, so your life gives you something different from what you are experiencing now. Identify your anchors, your physical but also emotional attachments, and give yourself the courage to question them. I know from personal experience that it's not easy. But when you do so you will begin to receive what you have always dreamed of and couldn't fit into your life because there was no room for it.

(pic courtesy Unsplash - Ankush Minda)