How To Let Go by Robert Kendall

“Letting Go is a simple method to reach great clarity and transcend your problems.
The way is not by finding the answers but by undoing the basis of the problem. The state reached by the great masters is available, the solutions are within us and easy to find.”
(Dr David Hawkins)

This article follows on from my two previous blogs on Letting Go – the path of surrender. Here I discuss how to let go our damaging, negative emotions and the stresses that accompany them.

You may use this practice  to reduce any distress or dysfunction, increase well-being and support a spiritual practice. It will take you on the path of Awakening. As you let go you may develop more joy, happiness, inner strength, clarity, inner peace, caring and insightful qualities within your own mind and nervous system. This will, in turn, begin to resolve or dissolve the difficulties that you might be experiencing  along your path, in your outer life with relationships, health and prosperity .

Research is now showing that long term chronic stress can shorten a person’s life by 9 to 14 years. It seems our genes have a direct link to our emotional brain.  Under stress genes that hold the patterns of disease will be switched on while the genes for immunity etc get suppressed. And when we are peaceful then the reverse occurs. Our genes hold the electrical DNA blueprint that life energy flows through.

Some stress is good for you, such as sports stress or getting out of the way of a Mac truck while crossing the road stress.
The problem is not with having stress, but how long we have had it. What do we do with all that emotional energy swirling around within our nervous system, brain and body parts?

So let us get straight into the Letting Go process. Here it is in Dr Hawkins words:

1. “First step: Become aware of a feeling.
   Let it come up, stay with it and let it run its course
2. Second step: Give up judging it,  feel it without wanting to change it, resist it, vent it, fear it, condemn it or try to make sense of it, or try make it different or do anything about it.

You focus on letting the feelings be there and letting out the energy behind it.
The technique is to be with the feeling and surrender all efforts to modify it in any way.
Let go the wanting to resist the feeling. “it is resistance that keeps the feeling going.”

The letting go technique is simple, you just let go of resisting letting go.
And if it seems you can’t let go of the feelings then just sit with them and let go your resistance to feeling them. Surrender to ‘what is.

The real issue is that we are afraid of our own feelings. We believe that our feelings are so real and are so powerful, that if we really let them out we would be overwhelmed.
This may be true for some people, so it is always important to have someone to support you while you are going through this process. This is where I suggest having Acupuncture or going to a counsellor or using the techniques of EFT, or do ‘the work’ of Byron Katie to clear the excess energy blocks.

It is true, that when I first began to allow my negative feelings to surface, it really hurt, it physically hurt, a deep ache within my chest.  But I remembered the ancient Buddhist texts that said to just sit and allow whatever needed to surface to arise. So I would just sit and feel the feelings arising. This is a meditation technique taught in many ancient schools both Buddhist and Hindu. It is helpful to breathe, deeply and slowly into the feeling for as long as it takes.

“When you give up resisting or trying to modify the feeling it will shift to the next feeling and be accompanied by a lighter sensation. A feeling that is not resisted will disappear as the energy behind it dissipates.” (Dr Hawkins)

When I am upset or fearful or angry what I do first is acknowledge the feelings. ‘I own my stuff’, I notice what I am feeling and where in my body I am feeling it. This feeling can be looked at as just ‘energy’, instead of naming it. Naming an emotion is the way our mind can relate to it.

What is important to recognise, is that it will be only as painful as the energy you have accumulated within the body/mind matrix. One feeling may cause thousands of thoughts, so when you practice letting go, remember to ignore the thoughts that accompany the feelings.

Stay focused on the feeling and recognize that all thoughts are merely the mind attempting to make sense of the accumulated pressure behind the feeling that has built up and now seeks to be released.

“The mechanism of surrender is simple and the truth is self evident. It works at all times of the day and night. There is no dogma or belief system. You verify everything for yourself so you cannot be mistaken.”  (Dr David Hawkins -Letting Go the path of Surrender.)

To finish I must say that my letting go is a work in progress. I am learning more each day. As my negative energies are resolved I begin to experience an  internal willingness to focus on the positive emotions.
A great practice to finish with is ‘the letting go of my resistance to thinking positive emotions’. Such as letting go my resistance to being happy.
As I feel in to it I start to smile.
Letting go has become my daily meditative practice. I recommend to everyone,

For more information on the effects that long term stress has on the body,
go to my blog called “Healing happens ten times faster”.