Why do we never let go?

All my life I have been told to 'let go,' and so I have tried to do. I have also told others that life is much easier when we do.

A lot of events take place in our lives, some good some bad. Why is that we are always told to forget the bad stuff that happened to us? Maybe because we assume that by forgetting the bad stuff we will trick our brains in thinking that  it never happened. The truth is, we can never really just forget. We mostly suppress our emotions making them go deep into the sub conscious which pour out when the right senses are triggered. Okay I am not here to discuss the psychology of it, rather defend it in a way.

Why should I let go? Letting go means I am giving up an incident or feeling that in some way shaped my character today. We are told to learn from our mistakes, if we let go how can we prevent the same mistake from happening over and over again. Going over every minute detail of a situation can drive me crazy, but I have to do it a few times to at least try and understand what was it that went wrong. Only after I figure what I could have possibly done I am free to let go.

Letting go isn’t just an option you need to consider when something bad happens. Sometimes good things can stop us as well. Like getting employee of the month is great, but you can’t just go on the rest of your career thinking 'I was employee of the month once.' You need to accept the fact that, the months will get over at some point and so will your title. You need to move on from that and try being employee of the month again and aim for higher things like employee of the year.

I think the times we face difficulty in letting go is when we lose something. A loved one is the worst thing, it could be a job, gold and diamond earrings or in my case not claiming an Apple Ipad I won in time. As much as we beat up ourselves about it, most of the things are not coming back.

So I guess the best thing we all could do is think of how the things we hold on to is affecting our lives. Hold on to what you think can be made use of, but steadily leave behind all the things which once used to be important. Make your life travel lighter, leave behind all that baggage. 

Komal R. Lakhani