Have you ever been told "just let it go!" only to scratch your head and wonder "OK.... But how?" - I know I fell into this category. In fact, whenever someone told me to "just let it go!" as though it was the easiest thing in the world, it sent my mind into turmoil. It was not until the entire construct of my false self, inside my mind, disappeared that I understood the true meaning of "let it go!" Allow me to go into this in a bit more detail.
What is letting go and why does it feel so good?
The foundation of letting go is to let go of the past. There's many books that have been written on it - Letting Go, The Pathway to Surrender by David R. Hawkins, The Power of Letting Go by John Purkiss, Let That Sh*t Go by Nina Purewal and Kate Petriw. The core message in all of them is that the past holds us back, and even in any given moment, we are totally trapped inside the past, self made mind world. This creates all sorts of chaos in our mind and in our life.
The reason why it feels so good, is because you're releasing from your mind something which actually doesn't exist. When you're trapped in stress, anxiety, anger or depression - isn't it horrible, not knowing how to escape from that? It's your self made mind world overlapping your entire being, so when you let go parts of it, it's a liberating feeling. As crass as this may sound, doesn't it feel great right after you've gone to the toilet? And doesn't it feel terrible when you've eaten too much? The exact same principle applies to the mind - the mind and body are one and not separate.
Why is it difficult for me to just let go?
The reason why we can't just let go, is we are confined within that self, and depending on your life lived and your habits is to the degree with which you can let go. Some people are just naturally "easy going" - but never the less, they are still confined within that self and not living as their True Self that exists within them.
The human mind is made of the life lived (karma), habits and body. The life lived is stored in the mind and in all the cells of the body, and is built on top of the foundation of the mind, which is the habits. Habits are inherited from our ancestors and are the roots of the human mind - the mind traits, characteristics, temperament, etc - of our parents, parents parents, and so on. Then, there is the body itself, which is like a 5 senses camera. To live in this manner, totally trapped and confined within that false human mind, for me, was literally hell. I was a person, like my father, and my father's father, who had a fiery temper, and held on to that anger for days and days, and it would permeate my entire being polluting me from the inside out. It's not that I wanted to be angry - in fact, I wanted nothing more than to just let it go - but I couldn't. Something deep inside me just didn't want to let go, consumed by anger, rage, frustration, bitterness, and then followed by guilt, regret, shame and sorrow. I was truly a slave to my mind. It made me a very unattractive and pathetic person.
Why should you listen to me as an authority on letting go?
Now to the disappearance of the self. To be honest, it happened so spontaneously and so suddenly. The concept of my past, old "self" disappeared completely from my mind - this shadow in my mind just DISAPPEARED! Behind it, I could God / Buddha / Allah - the Mother and Father of the Universe - and came to know that everything was simply that existence which was the Savior. All of my worries, stress, anxiety, depression, anger - EVERYTHING - disappeared along with that self and I could see eternity and knew all the ways of the world. I understood life and death were one, and that to live as the false self meant there was only nothingness after death, but to live as the Universe, which was great love itself, was to live forever and this was the reason humans were born and the meaning of life! But I wasn't religious, so it totally baffled me. I had recently finished reading one of Eckhart Tolle's book, but all of this happened by pure chance. After about 2 weeks of pure ecstasy and bliss, eventually, that shadow false self crept back into my mind, and it consumed me, along with all the lies, doubts and negativity and I once again became a slave to my mind.
I spent years in depression searching for that state, wondering how to just "let go". But no matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find the answer anywhere. I had tried many different things, but the "weight" of my false self was too strong, so I was just totally enslaved into that mind. It was only after finding this meditation, that the method to "letting go" became clear and it hit my heart with blinding light. "This was the way!". And from there I began meditating as best I could to learn how to let go. Along the way to that journey, I've become enlightened to many things and a deeper understanding of the false self, the True Self, and what it means to truly let go.
OK, so what can I do to let go? Some tips for letting go
So with the totality of understanding given by escaping from that mind completely, the concept of "letting go" has become as clear as day against night - once you are not in it, it's very easy to see it and understand it objectively. Letting go is a necessity for living a healthy, true life, and there's some excellent tips already given by Healthline in this article. However, we have some additional insight and some practical tips to help you let go.
Remove yourself from the environment
This is the easiest method. Because you live in your own self made mind world, which overlaps the true world, the environment you're in directly impacts your state of being. Physically removing yourself from the environment is the easiest way to try and change your state of mind. However, depending on the depth of the mind you're trapped in, this may or may not work immediately.
Talk about it
When you bottle things up, you have a tendency to dwell on them. This allows that mind to fester and creates blockages in your body. When you have stress, anxiety, anger or any other deep emotion, the blood flow in that area is blocked creating all sorts of sicknesses and illnesses in the body. People don't realise this, because their bodies and minds are not clear - they don't understand the degree of damage being caused by containing these minds within.
Exercise it off
This is what a lot of people do. They'll go to the gym, or a walk, or exercise, and in that process of releasing endorphins, "positive chemicals" overlap the mind and you can alter your state of being in this way. Keep in mind 2 things here. First, altering your state of being in this way should make it clear to your that your mind is a non existent illusion, and it can disappear of your own volition. Second, overlapping with "positive chemicals", whilst good in the moment, doesn't deal with the root which continues to settle and fester in your mind.
Accept that mind
Whatever you resist, persists. If you fight it, it consumes you even more, and that mind becomes deeper. Do your best to accept, but know that your capacity to accept is also governed by your life lived, habits and body, so this may or may not work.
Positive affirmations and mantras
Once you've learnt to accept that mind, it's much easier to overlap with positive affirmations and mantras. The same principles apply here as working it off! Know that the mind can disappear / change, and know that you still have not dealt with the roots of the mind, so it can be an uphill battle at the best of times, and for some who's negativity runs extremely deep, this won't even work.
Allow the negative emotions to pass through
People often say this, and this would be great if it was easy as that! I'm not sure about you, but when I was consumed with rage, just allowing those negative minds didn't really do anything for me. Allowing them to pass through is a practice of detachment and letting go. But again, just have a think about it. Have you dealt with the root cause? Wouldn't you be better off just getting rid of that stress, anxiety, depression and anger from your mind completely so it doesn't even come up?
Discard it from your mind completely
This is the ULTIMATE solution. In fact, every form of letting go is part of this, and the reason why letting go feels so good, is because it's the Universe showing you that to let go of your self completely is the absolute and ultimate solution. When there is no false self within the mind, you live with great liberation and freedom, unconfined, and unrestricted entirely by your past self. You simply live as an eternal, never dying immortal in the present moment - in the now.
But people are sceptical and that's OK, I don't blame them. They have their doubts about whether or not this is even possible of true. I can tell you 1,000 times, 1,000,000 times; I can shout it from the rooftops, from within the clouds; none of it matters! The only way to find out is if you yourself see. Then you'll know. Then you'll believe. If you say you've tried everything, but not this, then you really haven't tried everything, have you? So really, what have you got to lose?
Now for a beautiful light hearted story of the Truth of this :)
Enjoy and hope to see you soon