There’s a common saying:
“Let go; let God.”
And regardless of which religion (if any) any of us practice, this concept can be applied to our lives. At a minimum, by letting go of the controlling grip we try to maintain on every aspect of our lives, we experience a vast reduction in stress, which is always beneficial.
So we should learn to let go, and allow the Universe [or God, Spirit, Source, Consciousness, etc.] to work its magic. We’d all likely be surprised at what wonderful things manage to manifest in our lives, if we’d just allow them to, and stop trying to control everything ourselves.
Dr. Wayne Dyer instructs us on the process of allowing—just being, and embracing what life has to offer—in an interview with Successful Living Magazine (Winter 2008). He explains:
“You have to just be. You have to let go. You have to allow. You have to be free and make this your consciousness.”
A while back, a friend of mine was grappling with a difficult financial decision. He said he had argued both sides of the issue with himself, and there just didn’t seem to be one side that outweighed the other—so he was struggling, because he “didn’t want to make the wrong decision.”
Here’s essentially what I told him:
“First, remove the word “wrong” from the equation, and use “different” instead; rather than considering the results of the decision to be either “right” or “wrong”, instead view them as two “different” outcomes. And, if the potential for either outcome seems equal by the numbers, as you say, then either go with the one that makes you the happiest—or simply let go altogether, and see which one seems to naturally occur, without forcing the issue, and go with that one. In other words, let the Universe work its plan.”
Again, letting go and allowing things to work out as they naturally would, as the Universe has planned, can often be the most effective means of managing our lives.
And letting go can take a variety of forms: physically leaving a toxic person, relationship, job, or other bad situation; adopting a new, healthier lifestyle and/or breaking some old bad habits; or even a simple adjustment in our perception or viewpoint toward acceptance rather than friction, or simply surrendering to what is—as in “…grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change…”
And, I should clarify: letting go does not mean shunning our responsibilities or becoming apathetic; it simply means releasing any thoughts, actions, or emotions which are preventing us from being fully present in the moment, opening our hearts and minds to Universe’s plan for us and our lives, and simply stop trying to control every aspect of our lives, or beat our head against a wall trying to make something happen. As in the aforementioned words of Dr. Dyer: just allow.
Further: it’s also possible that as time goes by, some of the things we felt were important in the past don’t seem so important to us today—but we’re still caught up chasing them, simply out of habit. We’ve gotten stuck on autopilot. Perhaps we’re coming to realize that those old goals, ambitions, or desires aren’t likely to make us happy today, and have begun questioning our own rationale in pursuing them. If we find this to be the case, perhaps we should stop chasing things altogether for awhile; give ourselves a break, let go, and see what wonderful things begin to naturally transpire, things that we’d otherwise miss out on completely while we were so intent on forcing the others to manifest.
Sometimes I use this method: when I feel I need to make some changes, but I don’t know what to do, then I stop doing some of the things I was doing (especially any questionable things, or things I know I shouldn’t be doing anyway). This creates a void(s) in my life, which my mind—or better yet, the Universe—will naturally begin to fill with something new (and, it is my hope, better). And it can be wonderfully surprising to discover new things that bring joy, happiness, and fulfillment into our lives, which we had never even considered before, because our “tunnel vision,” our focus on past goals or what we thought we wanted, was blinding us to all the other possibilities and opportunities.
But once we let go, release our iron-clad grip, stop beating our heads against the wall, stop chasing what may well be the wrong things, then the right things—the things that would naturally occur, if we would simply allow them to—have a chance to catch up with us.
“What is a normal goal to a young
person becomes a neurotic
hindrance in old age.”
~ Carl Jung
“When you stop chasing the wrong
things, you give the right things
a chance to catch you.”
~ Lolly Daskal
“When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be.”
~ Lao Tzu
NOTE: Readers may notice that I’ve recently been writing about cause & effect, and how I’ve come to believe in that reality rather than mystical or metaphysical explanations, which could seem to contradict this article. But it doesn’t, because the point of this article is to stop trying to control everything in our lives and just let things happen naturally…so the “cause” is actually the over-controlling tendency, the failure to let go of things that perhaps we need to let go of in order to pursue other more meaningful values and activities, with the “effect” being the circumstances of our life not being what we want, or hope for, as a result. So yes, it’s still cause & effect, I’ve just come to believe that we are the sole cause of what ultimately manifests in our lives, and even so still believe that our circumstances will improve if we stop trying to control every little detail and just go with the flow of life.
So again: let go…and allow.
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