Photo by Michelle Cella

Many people go through their lives holding on to people, memories, things, etc. that used to give them feelings of happiness, joy, success, and even awakening. But everything has its season and holding on to anything too long will eventually become a heavy burden. We know that these things used to make us feel good, so we’ve attached ourselves emotionally to them. What we don’t realize is that when these attachments have run their course, they become obligations and problems. It’s time to release them so that we can make space for growth and newness.

Surrendering, whether it’s a relationship, a career, an argument, or a tragic situation from the past, is a quiet strength and freedom everyone should learn to master. The remainder of the article discusses the concepts by David Hawkins, written in his book, “Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender.”

Allow Yourself To Feel
The first step to letting go is to allow yourself to have the feeling without resisting it, venting it, fearing it condemning it or moralizing about it. See that it is just a feeling. Surrender all efforts to modify it in any way. Resisting the feeling perpetuates it. If you resist it, the feeling will grow because you are giving energy to it. If you don’t resist it, the feeling will eventually shift to the next lighter feeling.

Everything’s Okay
All negative feelings are associated with basic fears related to survival, and all feelings are survival programs that the mind runs on. Letting go allows you to unplug from the program. Let go means to surrender and surrendering means to have no strong emotion about a thing. “It’s okay if it happens, and it’s okay if it doesn’t.” This detachment technique is freedom. Dependence on things outside of you diminishes because it’s not what you need for your happiness.

If you surrender a feeling and it returns or continues, there is more that needs to be surrendered. Suppressed feelings contain a lot of energy and sometimes it takes time to let all of that energy go.

The Feeling of Surrender
Signs of surrender are feelings of lightness and happiness. Freedom doesn’t have to be fleeting if you continue the practice of letting go. You’ll realize you are not your feelings, but the observer of them. You are no longer a prisoner to them. Negative emotions are created by the ego who wants to stay plugged into the survival program, and when the ego feels threatened, it attaches to external circumstances and thoughts related to them.

How Do You Know You’ve Let It Go?
When you fully surrender something, it disappears from consciousness. You recognize you’ve released it through people or events reminding you of the change. You don’t even think about it anymore because you are concerned with the new/current issue at hand.

Make It A Practice To Consistently Let Go
Your use of emotions is how you determine when it’s time to let go of something in your life. When you become aware of these emotions that come up on a regular basis, it’s time to let go of that emotion and what it’s attached to:

● Pride
● Anger
● Desire
● Fear
● Grief
● Apathy
● Guilt
● Shame

Know when something “just isn’t working” anymore and remind yourself what you were like before you started the process.

FROM THE EDITOR
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