Letting Go Is Not Giving Up
Letting go is not giving up. Letting go is surrendering any needless attachments to particular outcomes and situations. Surrender means showing up in your life with the intention to be your best, and to do the best you know how, without expecting yourself to be “perfect” and life to be ideal. Have goals, have dreams, take purposeful action, and build solid relationships, but detach from what you think life must look like every step of the way.
“Oftentimes we are holding on so tightly that we don’t even realize we’re blocking our own present blessings.”
author angel chernoff
The energy of someone aspiring to create something wonderful, teamed with a healthy balance of surrender, is far more effective than someone determined to create outcomes with a desperate must-have mentality. Surrender brings inner calmness, awareness, and understanding. And lest we forget that our outer lives are a reflection of our inner state of being.
Take a moment to remind yourself of some things many of us typically attach to long after it’s time to let go, so you can loosen your grip on them and experience more inner peace and contentment.
10 Things We Often Struggle to Let Go Of
1. Let go of the expectation of how things “should” be
Try to use frustration and inconvenience to motivate you rather than annoy you. You are in control of the way you look at life. Instead of getting angry, find the lesson. In place of envy, feel admiration. Rather than worrying, we take action. In place of doubt, have faith. Remember that your response is always more powerful than your present circumstance. A small part of your life is decided by completely uncontrollable circumstances, while the vast majority of your life is decided by your responses. Where you ultimately end up is heavily dependent on how you play the hands you’ve been dealt.
2. Let go of the ways things use to be
You’re not the same person you were a year ago, a month ago, or even a week ago. You’re always learning and growing, and life is always evolving. Even though you can’t control everything that happens, you can control your attitude about what happens. And in doing so, you will gradually master change rather than allowing it to master you. So be humble today. Be teachable. The world is bigger than your view of the world. There’s always room for a fresh idea or a next step. But first you must accept the fact that things may never go back to how they used to be, and that this ending is really a new beginning.
3. Let go of your past mistakes and errors in judgment
Forgive yourself for the bad decisions you’ve made in the past, for the times you lacked understanding, for the choices that accidentally hurt others and yourself. Forgive yourself, for being young and reckless. These are all vital lessons. And what matters most right now is your willingness to grow from them.
4. Let go of the need to control everything
Be selective with your energy today. If you can fix a problem, fix it. If you can’t, then accept it and change your thoughts about it. Whatever you do, don’t attempt to invest more energy than you have, tripping over something behind you or something that only exists inside your head. Truth be told, some of the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can’t be changed. Because when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself — to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything.
I’ll be continuing this article in my next couple blog postings, so stay tuned.
[Portions of this article are excerpts used by permission from an online article by Angel Chernoff]
Anxiety Is Often Tied To Unrealistic Or Irrational Expectations
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