Simplify... Let it Go.

Letting go isn’t easy. It doesn’t matter if it’s an ex-boyfriend, or your favorite pair of shoes. It doesn’t matter if it’s something tangible, or just memories that won’t stop floating through your mind.

Letting go is finalizing something. It’s putting an end to the work, the energy, the thoughts, the memories, the stress – any emotional and physical attachments – it’s releasing all the attributes you associate with something, or someone, and moving on.

But how do we really let go? After we give something away, it’s hard to not reflect on the happiness, or perhaps frustration, that “it” brought us. Maybe there are unanswered questions, maybe it didn’t go the way you wanted it to, maybe you weren’t ready to let go, but forced to because there was no other option.

When we let go, how long do we get to hold on? After releasing the situation, releasing the item, the person, whatever it may be – how long do we get to hold on? Hold on to the memories, good or bad; hold on to the questions, good or bad; hold on to the “what if’s” and the “why me’s” - how long do we hold on?

I process things slowly. I think through a number of scenarios, I think about the cause and affect of getting rid of something, I think about the potential outcome and how it might affect me in the future. And then after I’ve made the move, gotten rid of whatever it was that needed to get rid of, I struggle with the aftermath – the part of fully letting go. Letting go of the questions, letting go of the memories, letting go of my emotions – I always want some type of closure – which doesn’t often is impossible to get. I visualize putting all my feelings, thoughts, memories, and ideas about “it” in a box, tying it up, and then putting it on a shelf. That means it’s still there – I haven’t gotten rid of it until I’ve tied up the box, stomped on it, and sent it through the recycling of to someplace far far away. Only then have I really let it go.

I know I’m not alone in the struggle to “let it go.” Whether it’s an argument with a family member, a picture from a relationship long since past, a ticket stub from your first concert, or the tupperware from your next door neighbor. What I know, but still have a hard time practicing, is that letting go will simply MY life. It will simply MY feelings. It will allow ME to move on to the next big thing that comes along. If I let it go, I’m the one that comes out ahead.