“ Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes, it is letting go.” ― Herman Hesse
While Audrey Hepburn might have quoted that ,”The best thing to hold onto in life is each other”, and she is right about it in a lot of situations; however, most of the time, the best and the right thing to do in life is letting go. Bollywood movies, cliché dialogues, and the common notions of the society teach us to hold onto everything in life because it is accepted, and easier to say that holding on takes courage whereas letting go is cowardly, and it may be convenient to have this notion in movies and fantasize about it, we live in the real world. As against the popular opinion of the real world being far more cruel, there is a lot of beauty in realistic things and in the real world, letting go is just beautiful and takes far more courage and strength.
Reasons why people are afraid to let go:
People are always afraid of change
We would rather stay in a toxic situation, friendship or a relationship, rather than get out and face the change. We tend to always stay in unhealthy situations just because we become too comfortable with handling the toxicity and change is always scary. The fear of facing the unknown is so large that we tend to find comfort in similar situations or similar faces.
People are afraid of the thought of failure
Or something worse happening with their lives if they let go. In case of an unsatisfying job, it may feel like encountering the absence of a better job opportunity, or again ending up in a similar or worse situation. In case of a toxic relationship, it may feel like the fear of never finding a good partner or never feeling the same for someone else. The idea of finding “The One” is so rooted in us that it can make any toxic relationship look flawless and perfect. The fear of failing once again is what forces people to hold on to the already failing or an undeserving situation.
Why is letting go so powerful?
Whether it is the job you’re unsatisfied with, a friendship or a relationship, maturity is knowing when to let go. The power that letting go holds is undeniable and unstoppable. It can be the best thing that could ever happen to you.
The emergence of a new perspective
When you stay in an unhealthy situation for a long time, the world seems two-dimensional, and very boxed. Letting go broadens your mind, and gives you the ability to see the beautiful world in three dimensions. You would be surprised as to how many things look and feel different when you allow yourself to get what you deserve, and the only regret you would ever have is not letting go sooner.
Room for growth
A wise man once said that change is uncomfortable, but extremely powerful and necessary. If you really want to grow in life, you have to step out of the toxic comfortable situation, and step into a new world that may be extremely uncomfortable at first, but has tremendous room for growth.
Gives you the ability to take risks
Your ordinary life changes to be extraordinary when you learn to take risks. Taking risks allows you to be fearless and brave because they always come with a price. Letting go of familiarity, and stepping into the unknown is nothing short of a risk, but it is a risk worth taking. When you truly allow yourself to let go, you put yourself at risk, and yes it is scary, but only the most courageous people learn to take that challenge, even without being successful a lot of times.
You develop the ability to always stand up for yourself
To live a dignified life, it is extremely important to have a sense of respect for yourself. When you allow yourself to let go of anything that holds you back, you truly learn the art of respecting and standing up for yourself no matter how hard the situation may be.
You learn the value of living in the moment
Life is too short to be always thinking about how the future will end up to be or how you would make your future better. Your next second is your future and when people find themselves in unhealthy situations, they often expect miracles to happen that would take them out and transport them to happy places. You are in total control of your life, and people only realise the true essence of it when they let go, and take charge of their lives.
You create your own happiness
Happiness is not found, it is created. When you truly let go of something that doesn’t make you happy, you are one step ahead of creating happiness for yourself. Staying in places of unhappiness would never help you to know how happy life can get. You have to let life show it to you.
Things to LET GO of!
Fear
Fear is the most destroying element of life. Take a step back, and think of all the things that you always wanted to do but also scare you. Now go ahead and try those things out. You can never achieve your full potential unless you don’t let go of the fear. Take that risk, run behind what you want, and embrace the failures because they are always going to make you stronger. You will also end up realising that it isn't actually as scary, and difficult as you thought it was. It was mostly in your head.
Toxic People
One can never stress on how important it is to surround yourself with people who uplift you, and encourage you to do the right thing. Let go of the people who suck the energy, and life out of you. Let go of the people who make you feel like you aren’t enough. Let go of anyone who makes you unhappy, holds you back or doesn’t give you what you deserve because you deserve nothing less than the world.
Unsatisfying job
You are capable of what you think you can achieve. If a job doesn’t make you happy, let go. If you think you aren’t given the respect or the perks you deserve, let go. If you want to leave the job to start something of your own, let go. If you wish to stop that business because you want to get back to your job, let go. Let go of something which has no room or space for growth.
Bad Behaviour
Bad behaviour or unhealthy behavior often stems from a place of insecurity. When people don’t treat you the right way, it is usually because they haven’t been treated the same, and the projection of that behavior is done onto you. Let go of thinking that people not behaving in an appropriate way with you has something to do with you. When your intentions are clear, you always win in life.
The idea of being perfect
Perfect as a concept does not exist in this world, and there lies the beauty of it. We are all flawed individuals who make mistakes, and learn from them. The beauty lies in accepting, embracing and learning from the mistakes to grow, and strive into better individuals. Let go of the flawless beauty you see on social media, or the idea of being a perfect human being.
Takeaway Message
Holding on is necessary in life when it comes to your beautiful family, amazing friends, healthy relationship and satisfying job. Hold on when you are happy. Hold on when it is truly worth it, but also have the strength to let go when something no longer serves its purpose. We’ve always looked at letting go being synonymous with easily giving up. Understand that your life is a book divided into numerous chapters, and letting go is just the end of a chapter. The book, however, continues to go on. That is the essence of letting go, without closing one chapter, we would never discover what happens in another because letting go is synonymous with new beginnings. When you think about it, it all narrows down to being genuinely happy and satisfied so learn to let go of anything that doesn’t make you happy, or doesn’t take you anywhere. Grow, bloom, and blossom into your full potential, and let nothing stop you from achieving the extraordinary.
References
https://youtu.be/nirKw3mWB3I
https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-unstoppable-power-of-letting-go
https://everydaypower.com/letting-go-and-moving-forward/
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