Letting Go Experience

 

Dr. Ruwan M. Jayatunge 

The English physician, writer, progressive intellectual, and social reformer Havelock Ellis stated, All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. The German poet and novelist Hermann Hesse states that some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.

The concept of "letting go" or relinquishing control has a long intellectual history (Merluzzi & Philip, 2017).  As described by Ainsworth et al. (1982), letting go can simply be being gently drawn into a new sort of existence or being released or dragged into a void where nothing is safe or nothing is consistent. Letting go is a way of letting things be, of accepting things as they are.  (Kabat-Zinn, 1990).

A Letting Go Experience is the conscious, often challenging, process of releasing attachments to past hurts, negative emotions, people, or outcomes that no longer serve you, creating space for healing, growth, and peace by accepting impermanence and focusing on the present.

Letting go is not throwing away or annihilation; it is becoming willing to forgo and moving forward. It is a compassionate act.  It is a pathway to surrender the ego.  Letting go provides an opportunity for growth and clarity of self.  It offers forgiveness. Letting go eliminates the painful past experiences and shame.  It is the emptying of mental clutter. Letting go is replacing resentment with mindful awareness and empathy (Menahem & Love, 2013).  It is a perfect path for healing. This process allows psychological growth. Letting go eliminates the origins of suffering. 

To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own."Letting go is choosing peace over pain." "Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself," as Deborah Reber elucidates. 

Meditation is really letting go of all the thought processes or mind traffic.  Mindfulness can help to achieve a letting-go experience. Ven Ajahn Brahmavamso—a British Theravada Buddhist monk—states that meditation is the way to achieve letting go. According to psychologist Scott Bishop, a major focus of meditation is letting go. In meditation, one lets go of the complex world outside to reach the serene world within. Therefore, letting go is a freeing experience.