Have you ever cleaned out a closet or a junk drawer and just purged all the stuff you had shoved in there to get it out of sight thinking you’ll go through it later? How did that feel once you threw out all the old junk? It’s oddly satisfying and freeing when you let it go. You feel space physically and mentally. Your soul feels lighter. Imagine that junk drawer is your mind filled with old feelings, situations, ideas, and thought patterns.
Have you ever sat down and examined all the stuff you shoved in your head along the way? Figured out whether you really need to keep that idea about yourself from 5th grade? (You know there’s an old one lurking in there.) Have you delved into why you’re holding onto old situations or memories that still bring up pain? Maybe it’s time to clear out your mental junk drawer or closet.
We tend to push things into a lockbox in the dark shadowy recesses of our mind when we don’t want to or feel we can’t look at those things too deeply. We might say “I’ll come back and check on that later”. Later never really comes even though the stuff we try to hide oozes out of the cracks in the box on occasion reminding us of its presence. Sometimes even dragging us through the mud as a reminder.
Imagine if you just took one piece of junk out of the box and figured out why it’s still there. And determined whether is should be chucked or kept – how freeing would that feel? How much lighter would you feel letting it go…
Letting go of what no longer serves you is a muscle – the more it’s used the stronger it becomes making it easier to let go of all that junk. One way to figure it out is to simply ask why. Why do I still feel this way? Why does this still make me feel this way? And keep asking why until you find the bottom. Then decide – is it worth hanging on to this thought/feeling? Is it serving me in any positive way?
I’d love to hear whether you’ve practiced letting go in the comments below. Tell me how it’s freed up space in your head and lightened your soul.
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