5 Things You Will Gain When You Practice Letting Go
Why Hanging on to Unhealthy Emotions Can Hurt You Over the Long Run
When we practice letting go consistently, we’ll have the ability to free ourselves from things causing us to suffer.
Even though the practice of letting go is simple, there are things to know to do it effectively.
What is Letting Go?
It’s a practice that allows us to free ourselves from something from the past and focus on the present moment.
The ability to let go helps us release unhealthy emotions so we can give more attention to what we want.
Whenever we’re triggered by an event, we’ll experience a range of emotions. Most people prefer positive emotions. Negative emotions can include frustration, anger, disappointment, sadness, guilt or jealously.
Hanging on to negative emotions can cause us extra stress and also cause us to not function well daily. Learning to let go of negative emotions will make a difference every day.
If we observe a young child, they can experience a range of emotions quickly. They can cry in one moment and be jovial or happy the next moment. They don’t hold on to negative emotions.
A Practical Example of Letting Go
If we imagine holding a pen in one hand, we can turn our hand and drop the pen. The pen isn’t attached to our hand.
Similarly, our emotions aren’t attached to us. We can let them go the same way we can drop a pen from our hand.
The more we practice letting go, the easier it will become and the more comfortable we’ll be with the process.
Situations Where Letting Go Will Make a Difference
Here are a few examples where practicing letting go will be helpful.
- Dealing with grief.
- Forgiving someone.
- Dealing with a loss.
- Making a decision.
- Forgiving ourselves.
What You Will Gain When You Practice Letting Go
As we learn to practice letting go, we’ll experience many things. Here are five things we’ll gain when we practice letting go regularly.
- You will feel calmer and be more relaxed. The practice of letting go is a quick way to calm our mind and stay grounded. This will cause us to feel more relaxed in the moment. This means our stress levels will be lower and we’ll have more inner peace.
- You will release emotional blocks. When something doesn’t go our way, it can cause us to feel stuck. Letting go can help us move past emotions that may hold us back from experiencing what we want.
- You will be less judgmental. Letting go allows us to be more accepting and forgiving. We’re more likely to acknowledge, accept and move on from things that may have caused us pain.
- You will not need to control or know everything. As we practice letting go, the need to be in control or be right will diminish. We’ll learn to accept many things are beyond our control and we can only focus on our attitude.
- You will be more open to new perspectives and ideas. When we’re closed off to ideas, it can generate unhealthy emotions. As we practice letting go, we’ll allow ourselves to see things from new perspectives and explore other possibilities.
Letting go helps us reconnect to our true essence so we can be the best version of ourselves.
The Steps to Practice Letting Go
Here are the steps you can take to practice letting go.
- Close your eyes and notice what’s coming up for you. What thoughts and emotions are you experiencing?
- Notice any tension or discomfort in your body.
- Take slow, long breaths, and continue breathing.
- Observe any unhealthy thoughts and emotions you have with no judgment.
- Imagine yourself releasing and not having those unhealthy thoughts and emotions anymore.
- Continue imagining yourself free from those unhealthy thoughts and emotions.
- Imagine what would be happening if you didn’t have those unhealthy thoughts and emotions.
- Form a mental image of the person you would be if you didn’t have those unhealthy thoughts and emotions.
- Take in a few more deep breaths and open your eyes.
- Repeat the process for other thoughts or emotions you want to let go.
Conclusion
Life is too short to hold on to things that do not serve us. As let go of unhealthy thoughts and emotions, we’ll create the space for better thoughts and emotions.
As we continue practice letting go, we’ll feel better about ourselves and create more of the experiences we want.
Action Step: If you’ve had an experience that caused negative emotions, take yourself through the steps to let them go. Aim to make the practice of letting go something you do regularly.
Question: What are other things we’ll gain when we practice letting go?
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