The Action of Letting Go

"I feel as though a weight has lifted off my shoulders"

There’s something to be said about the act of letting go.

Allowing the tension in your shoulders to relax.

The first deep breath after feeling how tight your chest has been all day.

Turning off your phone, forgetting about the noise and looking out onto the horizon at the vast landscapes of trees. Or the rolling valleys of deep green grass, occasionally painted with white and yellow daisies. How the eyes immediately feel less strained.

The first kiss of the sun on your skin after a day sitting at your cold, dark desk.

How about the simple act of going for an afternoon walk, or making a warm cup of tea?

Every day, there’s a choice we can make during moments of stress – a deep breath, a brief walk around the block… even simply looking up. All are small, but significant choices we can make to let go of whatever tension we’re holding on to.

You see, letting go doesn’t mean ignoring – it means trusting.

Trusting that everything has a way of working out.

It means knowing that we can’t control everything, but we can control how we respond. 

How we respond to stress. How we respond to too much stimulus. How we respond to less than favourable situations.

When we respond to challenges with stress, we are only creating more problems for ourselves. However, if we choose to respond to challenges with a feeling of peace, we create balance, and with that balance comes more harmony and therefore more peace. 

It’s all a cycle, and the cycle starts with you and how you respond to the stimulus. 

Once you understand that you can’t control the situation, but you can control how you respond, it becomes much easier to let go. To allow yourself to flow and trust that everything will work out.

It’s like a boat in the ocean. As the water holds the boat, the boat simultaneously allows the water to hold it. Though the boat can steer, its fate is ultimately in the hands of the sea. Resisting the storm that inevitably comes (the change in tides or the treacherous waves) only causes more stress on the boat. And in time, too much resistance will cause the boat to break. 

We are the boat, and God (in all forms) is the ocean — and just as the boat does to the sea, we must surrender to God. Because we know God is more powerful than us, and resisting only creates more stress and therefore damage.

This is why I mentioned the physical changes that occur in the body when you allow yourself to relax – to flow.

Taking a deep breath. Looking out at the horizon. Going for a walk. Stretching. 

All of these actions allow the tension in your body to be released, and the most profound message here is that you can physically feel it. It’s a sign from your body that you’re making the right decision, and it’s thanking you with a feeling of release, of weightlessness. 

Almost as if a cloud that’s been following you clears away as you exhale. Or perhaps one of the most well-known metaphors —“like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders”.  

These sensations exist to remind us of what peace feels like. What it feels like to let go.

In my opinion, the most beautiful part is that they’re all actions and therefore choices we can make.

You have the choice to let go and trust. You have the choice to let go and allow everything to fall into place naturally – the way it intended to.

The way it always intended to.