“Letting Go” Doesn’t Always Work — Here’s What Does

How many times have others told you to “let go” of things?

If you’re anywhere near human, the thought of “letting go” can often seem scary, negative and downright difficult. Intrinsically as humans who were trained to survive, we were somehow taught to hold on, maintain or grow. So why do we insist that “letting go” is the best solution towards healing or moving forward when we encounter a problem? Why is letting go usually the first piece of advice whenever we encounter emotional burdens or hardships?

Here are the top three reasons why “letting go” won’t always work:

1. Letting Go focuses on the negative problem vs. positive solution. Letting go automatically puts you in a mindset where you are focused on healing only by getting rid of something.
2. Letting Go operates from a place of fear. Letting go assumes that you fear whatever challenge/obstacle/issue is in your way and puts you on a hamster wheel of anxiety about its presence, sometimes making it harder for you to move on quickly with a rational mind.
3. Letting Go can lead to lazy. Instead of DEALING with the challenge/obstacle/issue at hand, you’re taught to just mentally get rid of it instead of letting the particular situation teach you or grow you.

Here’s how you can transform your issues/challenges/burdens into something productive and positive.

1. Focus your efforts on “letting in” vs. “letting go.”

We’re always told to let go of things but therein lies the problem…when you solely focus on letting go, you are often left feeling empty instead of fulfilled.

I came to this realization after spending a week in Nicaragua on a Yoga & Surf retreat. After a week of practice in a jungle (with Yoga & Surf 3x a day), I came to the realization that Yoga encapsulates the perfect harmony of letting out bad energy so that one can also make room to breathe and let in good energy.

During any yoga practice, one is continually encouraged to breathe out the bad and immediately envision breathing in the good. This seesaw of eliminating bad for good throughout ones yoga practice usually produces a state of relief, contentment and fulfillment on the other end of saying namaste.

So why can’t this same practice be applied to everyday life?

Instead of embracing a “let go” state of emptiness, what if you took a positive view of your perspective and shifted your position to allow a state of acceptance?

Here’s the mindshift that “letting in” allows you to do. For example what if you said and did the following?

1. “I want to Let in HEALING vs Let go of PAIN”
2. “I want to Let in JOY vs. Let go of SORROW”
3. “I want to Let in PEACE vs. Let go of ANGER”
4. “I want to Let in KINDNESS vs. Let go of HURT”

The process of “letting in” allows you to purposely and positively set your intention on the GOOD you want to bring into your life. By saying “I want to let in healing” you actively take part, welcome and ask for the good energy to come to you instead of burning your energy towards tossing something away. It also allows you to look at your issue from a more positive POV where you can ask yourself “what can this challenge teach me?” or “what can I take from this to make me stronger?”

Letting in allows you to set your intention to a place where you’re ready to receive solutions, answers, perspective and ultimately, love and healing.

To simplify further, the idea of “Letting In” allows us to see the positive we ultimately want to ATTRACT.

This mindset shift puts you at the center of your story and helps you regain the confidence & peace to proceed as you actively welcome the future state you desire and fully occupy all the humanity of your life.

So the next time you’re faced with a challenge, ask yourself, “with the energy I have in my day today, would I rather spend that energy letting go bad or letting in good?”

The choice is yours.

Let us in to help you achieve your goals. Connect with myself or any of our life coaches @ Team JRNI and we’ll show you how we’re changing the way we change.