Have you ever had the experience of struggling to let something go? Maybe it was something you really wanted to do, or some place you really wanted to go, or someone you really wanted to be with, but for some reason, it just didn’t work out for you to get what you want? That has happened to me several times over the last couple of weeks. Each time, as I pushed through with the difficult act of releasing, I’m sure that I’m making the wrong decision. It’s agony, really. Letting go isn’t easy. 

There are a lot of variables that factor into deciding to let go. Time, money, the energy behind the thing. All of that matters. I’ve had terrible luck with trying to force something to work when it was clearly broken so, as much as possible, I try to be mindful of not doing that. It doesn’t mean that I want to let go now any more than I did before. It just means that I know that I need to. And I do.

How does one even know when letting go is the right move to make?  Well, I pray for discernment. A lot. I ask people that I respect for advice, and I listen to my gut. My answer typically always comes to me in the form of a huge knot in my stomach. It’s super hard to ignore a feeling when it feels like monkeys are playing around in your belly. I’m grateful for those monkeys, though. They’ve kept me out of a lot of trouble! And besides, they leave after I let go. The biggest lesson I’ve learned about letting go is that even if it doesn’t feel good in the moment, I always feel a sense of relief afterwards.

You know that saying, “If you love something, let it go”? I don’t like that. I think we should change it to drive home the benefit of letting go. What if we changed it to “If you love_____, let _____ go”, and encourage people to fill in the blank?

If you love your health, let junk food go.

If you love your home, let debt go.

If you love your family, let anger go.

I’m telling you, this letting go stuff works. I’m grateful for this lesson today. I’m grateful for this lesson every time I clear up space and let go of something in my life that wasn’t adding to it.

What can you let go of?