‘LET Go’ — It is the most extreme of situations one can face in life. By far the toughest. By far the strongest of emotions. By far the worst of nightmares or bad dreams. By far the weirdest feeling in the pit of your stomach. By far the most challenging of moments to deal with. By far the amazing roller coaster ride from station Unbelievable to station Oblivion.
Uncertainty soars to sky-high levels, and shadows dominate existence in those moments of unbelievable chaos. Days seem long, and nights seem seamless with dawn. Dawn comes, morn shines, afternoon bakes, evenings chill, nights cast shadows of doubts and obscure the vision of tomorrow. Faith is but a word that loses meaning in the gory darkness of instability and incongruence.
Pain Associated With Letting Go
Some of the pain associated with letting go:
- Pain of separation
- Pain associated with heartbreak
- Pain emanating from agony
- Pain from insecurity
- Pain from lack of self-confidence and self-belief
- Pain of isolation
- Pain from fear of the unknown and uncertain
They call this pain “brokenness complete.” Can you imagine what it would be like to be complete in misery, pain, incongruence, instability, and uncertainty — agony all put together? Can you imagine what it means not wanting to see another tomorrow? Can you imagine what it feels like to see a memory-reminder and not be in control of your tears? Can you imagine the humiliation of self-image and the battering that self-confidence receives in this tug of mind and heart? Can you imagine how life changes in a heartbeat?
The Search for an Answer
What is the fitting answer to this fierce and nasty gloom and darkness? Let us brainstorm logically and emotionally to find an answer on the physical and metaphysical level.
Logically, clarity of vision is key to maintaining peace. What then is peace in this scenario of total madness?
Peace — An anonymous writer once wrote, “It is not moving away from total madness, chaos, and noise but actually living through pain and agony in utter calm!”
Calm, yeah right! How can you maintain the balance of thought and deed, let alone the spoken word, in this chaos?
Calm can be achieved by clarity of vision. Vision is about starting from ground zero and putting together a roadmap for a stronger, better tomorrow — one level higher than the one first anticipated or envisioned.
We can break it down by building a sketchy ‘dream’ and then adding ‘color’ to that sketch. When a timeline is attached to that sketch, we get a ‘goal’. Once the goal is defined and quantified, it becomes easy to get passionate about it with each passing moment.
The quest for achieving the higher plane fires the soul with an unbelievable adrenaline rush that can rival any oxygenated cylinder ready to provide life. But building sketches and adding color are not the only ingredients necessary to rebuild lives and moments.
The Power of Action
It is Action — that ever-pulsating act of getting the job done.
There is an Indian (Asian Indian) folk tale in the heart of the Sundarbans that tells of an animal chain and its actions. They say that, deep in the jungles on a beautiful morning, the deer tries to run faster than the Bengal Tiger to save its life. They also say that the Bengal Tiger tries running faster than the deer to save its life from starvation.
The moral: No matter who the animal is, when the morning comes, they’d better run!
Action is the conversion of mental energy into physical energy. Action can be seen as giving vision a physical form. It encompasses the nurture and nourishment of the body. It starts with the mind, but it is equally vital for the body to join in the fight against pain.
Body exercise, gym work, or a form of body relaxation like yoga or massage therapy puts the body at ease, relieving stress at the physical level and ensuring the metaphysical level is open to the larger picture. Action helps inch toward the goal in a determined fashion. With each forward movement, the body’s emotional balance begins to take control, allowing gallons of oxygenated blood to rush into the system.
Cause and Effect: A Path Back
Not long ago, in business school, I came across the Ishikawa diagram, which explained cause and effect.
Let us utilize this great insight to help the ‘LET Go’ genre get back on its feet. If there is a Cause, there is bound to be an Effect. Let us further break down the concept.
Perfect clarity of vision induces one to begin functioning at a higher level of self. When that happens, the word others comes before self, and when others matter more than self, the term unconditional starts growing on you.
Happiness, they say, is gained by putting smiles on the faces of others. A worthy cause or deed fuels the body & soul to align more quickly and easily. The effect is a rich vein of calm & peace. Causes may vary from individual to individual, but the effect is always peaceful.
The Strength of Support Systems
Finally, it’s all about recognizing the need to build support systems. A strong support system creates a virtual security zone for the recovery and recuperation of body and soul.
Support builds confidence, showers love, mixes nurture with nourishment, mentors and guides, relieves anxiety, alleviates pain, and brings back belief. Once the belief is back, it’s pure poetry.
The Transformation of Letting Go
‘LET Go’ can be challenging and excruciating, but it is a period of change. Change is the only thing constant in these rapidly shifting dunes of time. With change comes uncertainty, and sometimes isolation and loneliness.
The key is to convert that loneliness into solitude. Solitude is a period of reflection, and reflection is always good as it gives one a chance to know oneself — in its true entirety and magnitude of character.
‘LET Go’ thus opens boundaries, and going beyond boundaries brings about growth. Can anything that is growing ever die?