Letting Go – Day 0
30 Days of Letting Go
By Jenny Griffin
To move forward, physically or spiritually, we must let go of where we are now. Physically, we take a step that moves us from one location to another. It seems easy to let go of where we were in this case because we are most often heading towards somewhere we intend to go. Spiritually, letting go of where we are can seem much more difficult. It can mean walking away from something in which you’ve invested time, energy and love. It can mean heading towards somewhere you’ve never envisioned for yourself, a place without someone or something you’ve attached yourself to. It means heading into the great unknown, a place filled with possibility, yet a place we so often dread.
Walking away, letting go, is totality. There is no room to hold onto the ‘what-if’s or ‘what-could-have-beens. There is no room to look back and ask yourself how things might have been had they turned out differently. In making that choice to let go, we take a leap into potential futures not yet imagined, and we feel shaky because the familiarity of what was, is no longer. Even if things haven’t felt exactly good, the familiarity of them has made it feel safe to be where we are. But something in you wants to make changes, and the more you resist, the harder it gets.
Are letting go and quitting one and the same? They are two sides of the same coin, two parts of the same story, but not entirely alike. Quitting retains a sense of guilt, shame and/or failure while letting go is surrender – complete and uncomplicated (ideally). Letting go can be easier than quitting, because without the feelings of guilt or shame associated, the process is empowering and life-enhancing. Letting go, surrendering, opens up space for the unknown possibilities to flood in and fill you up with creative potential. Quitting will linger, because while you may have left the situation, you are still carrying the guilt and shame of the experience.
