Let it go
When we think of let it go, our first thought nowadays is ailsa from frozen singing her wee Disney heart out. I’m not going to lie, I hated that song. It was on everywhere I went, like shops, social media, television etc.. But, in what can be described as the definition of irony, was that the hate I had for that song ended up forcing me take the decision to just “let it go”. Legit, it’s almost as if the song was trying to tell me something…. No but seriously, letting it go can be one of the hardest things you can ever mentally do. It’s easy to have a lot of guilt, pain or hate in your heart and mind. It’s easy to sit for hours, days, weeks, years regretting a decision and dwelling on it. It’s easy to just let negative thoughts eat away at you and consume your thoughts.
“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” – Steve Maraboli
But after all the self pity, regret, heartache, grief, energy spent focusing on our past mistakes or things that annoy us it begs the question, what do we achieve by doing this? Well the answer is quite simple, nothing, nothing at all. Nothing positive will ever come from holding onto a memory or feeling that you can’t change. Sure it may be a valuable lesson learned in time and give you a chance to make a better decision in the future, but that’s all that it should do. It will eat away at you, and continue to eat away until you finally decide enough is enough and let it go.
Tell yourself, convince yourself that what is done is done and cannot be changed. Most importantly believe yourself when you tell yourself it! You can’t alter the past, it would be pretty awesome if you could but you can’t. What has happened has happened and there is nothing you can do that will change that.
I found myself in the past spending hours on social media, scrolling through comments and questioning/pondering people’s motives and views. I’d noticed I’d become more and more resentful towards certain groups of people, disagreeing with them was one thing but when I was staying up to the early hours of the morning and getting myself worked up I knew I had a problem. That’s where letting it go helped me on my way to peace. I’ve always preached equality and peace, and although I may strongly disagree with another person’s opinions it doesn’t make their opinion any more valid than mines. I had became a hypocrite. I realised that although I view a debate or a new way of thinking as healthy, when it becomes an obsession it becomes more dangerous than good. By understanding the effect it was having on me helped me to make the change, to let go of all that negativity and just get on with my life rather than dwelling on what I’d saw. This in turn has made me clear some headspace and chill out rather than getting uptight most nights.
Finding happiness is all about being at peace with yourself and being positive rather than being consumed by negativity. For all the negative thoughts, hate, resentment and anger you may have you have to just let it go. The more you begin to do so you will see things in a whole new positive perspective.
Which brings me to number 4 on the list, Forgiveness. If you’re interested in reading my thoughts on Forgiveness It will be up on next week’s addition to the 5 ways to be happy next Monday.
outsideofthewell 