Most of us have had the experience of hearing a friend, teacher, or family member say “It’s easy, you just have to let go!”. As if it were so easy! If you’ve had that experience, than you are probably familiar with the consequent anger and frustration, and maybe with a defiant answer like “It’s not that easy!” or “But I do want to let go!”. The truth of the story is, we really do not know how to let go. We also don’t know what part of us is holding on.
Why should we let go?
There are many life situations in which holding on and resisting are the source of suffering. When we are learning something new, we may get stuck when practicing and practicing in order to get something “just right”, or it may happen during a discussion with our partner, when our body tenses up and blocks us from being able to understand and make ourselves understood, or we may carry an old grudge or fear or the inability to forgive our family into our current relationship – and all just because we cannot let go! The past is the past, there’s nothing to be done about it now - if it just were that easy!