The Art of Letting Go

 “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”
​~Eckhart Tolle

Fall is the time of year when the natural world demonstrates just how beautiful the act of letting go can be. As the trees release their leaves to the wind, we are reminded of the importance of releasing that which no longer serves us. But what exactly does it mean to let go? And what is the best way to do it?

Letting go of something means that you stop carrying the emotional weight of it within your heart. In the case of emotional trauma, letting go means that while you acknowledge the past, you no longer allow it to bring you down. Letting go is not just releasing past emotional wounds, it’s also a heartfelt belief that better things are coming your way. As the author Daphne Rose Kingma once said, “Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.”

While this is a helpful explanation of what it means to let go, it doesn’t explain how to do it. Perhaps it’s helpful to think of letting go as an ongoing process instead of a one-time occurrence. Afterall, deciduous trees don’t suddenly dump all their leaves overnight, it’s a process that happens gradually over time. As Eleanor Brown once said, “Letting go may sound so simple, but rarely is it a one-time thing. Just keep letting go, until one day it’s gone for good.”

So, release whatever it is that’s weighing you down. It may seem difficult at first, but it’s actually the easiest thing you can do. Holding on takes effort, whereas letting go requires no effort at all, other than a willingness to surrender. Ultimately, letting go involves appreciating life as it is, rather than getting hung up on how you think it should be.