LETTING GO
By Lucile Olsen
Letting go means to stop clinging, physically, mentally, and emotionally to anything we may be attached to. It can be a person, a thwarted goal, a thing, an idea, a situation, a particular time or place, or any number of mental entanglements. It requires that we give up the resistance, controlling, coercing, and mental struggling that come with our attachments.
Learning to let go was one of my life's most powerful lessons. It was mostly a mental process. I would tell myself I was letting go, but my mind resisted. My thoughts were like tentacles that kept reaching out and reattaching to my thwarted desires. I finally decided on a new thought to replace the one I was trying to let go of. When I would catch myself thinking about the thing I was trying to let go of, I would stop and interject this new thought. Giving my mind something new to think about seemed to help. Along with this, I would make a fist enveloping the issue at hand, then gradually relax it, opening the palm, symbolizing the mental release of what I was letting go of. This mind/hand connection strengthened my resolve to free myself of this mental addiction. Over time, I became more adept at letting go in this way.
Our mental clinging is the suffering of which the Buddha speaks. It is very freeing to be able to let go and function without the mind going over and over something endlessly. Letting go brings a measure of peace and allows more time and energy for creative endeavors.
