Letting Go

Here’s a regular practice that is very misunderstood. It has become commonplace for people to decide to “let things go” or “let go and let God”. This is a wonderful idea however it needs to be understood and done properly.

When something happens in our lives that we intellectually label as negative, it triggers negative emotion within us. This process is important to understand because it has two separate aspects:

1. The intellectual label

2. The emotion within

Both of these need to be dealt with before a situation can be “let go”. It doesn’t necessarily matter which order you do these two things, and can depend on the situation itself.

To handle the intellectual aspect, it’s important to find a way of viewing the situation in a manner that doesn’t leave you as the victim or at least not a possible victim in the future. I had a situation where someone on the other end of the phone was doing everything possible to avoid doing their job. It was frustrating. When I hung up, I felt like it wasn’t fair and they should help me since it’s their job, etc. As
long as this was my outlook on the matter, I would be carrying around anger. Every time someone mentioned this organization, or perhaps the name of the person I spoke to, it would upset me, it would trigger the negative emotions attached to the incident. I looked for a healthier way to view the situation. Once I was relaxed and stopped feeling like a victim, I realized that the organization this man worked for
is notoriously over-booked, there’s not enough help and it’s a flawed system that’s in place. I also brought in compassion and realized that this person had no joy in their voice, they sounded like their energy was drained and the probably didn’t enjoy their job very much. I’ve been in that life situation, it’s not easy. Compassion arose and victimization diminished. I looked at the situation with understanding
and it didn’t trigger negative emotions in me anymore.