Don Miguel Ruiz said “letting go is not about losing– it’s about trusting. When we release what life has taken away, we create space for the new experiences, growth and blessings to enter.”
He is talking about anything we lose– people, things, pets, places…..
As we move forward into the last parts of this year, take a moment to think. What have you lost that you think about- whether it was yesterday or many years ago? How much time do you spend thinking about these things/people? What more are you losing by continuing to think about it? What is it costing you? What might happen if you let it go?
I have recognized as I have grown older that I have been very attached to things in my life. And in all of the categories. I know that I have lost time, for one, joy, creative space. I have likely missed out on good things while being preoccupied and have sent good things away unknowingly because of distraction.
What I finally started to realize is that my continuously thinking about these things I was not just losing them once, but over and over again. I have cost myself serenity, peace. I have not recognized what I DO have.
There is real grief- that takes time and is different for every one of us. This message is not meant to say move past this quickly, it is meant to say don’t let the regret, resentment, the wrongness, the lack of justice- and everything else that comes with losing something- last forever.
If I am willing, I can look at the reasons I am so attached to things and to losing them. Some things have a lot of meaning. Some things weren’t just lost, they were taken. Where did I learn to be attached? How can I learn to more gracefully let things go so that I can open up space for new and better things that are trying to come my way?
I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a lot of questions and the best way to find our own answers are to sit and think about these questions and, for me, it is helpful to write out my answers and thoughts.
What makes now an important time to do this work? As we get closer to creating a new year- and much of what you do starting in November will come to fruition in the new year, so it is really here now- letting things go, making space for right now and what is coming next is an intentional way to create what you want, not to live in what causes you suffering.