How To Practice Letting Go
It’s inevitable: in life, sometimes our feelings get hurt. Whether it’s due to a miscommunication or a falling out, you can’t change what’s been said and done. But what you can control is how you respond to it.
Everyone handles their emotions differently. “Letting go” sounds like an abstract concept—it seems useful in practice, but it’s not clear how it should be done. When you’re dealing with a difficult situation, how do you let go of anger, regret, or unresolved feelings?
We’ve put together a few practices that can help you move on:
Distance Yourself
Sometimes, we lose sight of what we want in our efforts to take care of those around us. It’s a little too easy to forget about our needs when we want to make others happy. But your needs matter, too.
When you’re experiencing emotional hardships, self-care is more important than ever.
Being close to the situation often creates more stress than it’s worth. You may need to set your boundaries and distance yourself to heal. If a specific person is causing problems, be sure to give yourself the space that you need.
Practice Forgiveness
We won’t downplay it: forgiving yourself, or others, is rarely easy. Sometimes, you have to choose forgiveness even if the other person won’t give you an apology. You have to be the bigger person to move on.
If we hold on to our anger, we’ll never move past it. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that what they did was right—it means that you’re ready to let it go.
Don’t Hide From It
When we feel negative emotions, we might be tempted to push them back. After all, it’s not pleasant to feel hurt, upset, or betrayed. But acknowledging how we feel is the only way to deal with it. If we don’t let ourselves feel the difficult emotions, they tend to linger.
You can try these tips to let your emotions out and release your stress, like:
- Vent to a friend. After voicing your problems, you might find that you have a new perspective on them. And who knows? Once you’ve said your piece, you may be able to laugh about it.
- Channel your emotions into a creative project. There’s nothing like a challenging experience to get the creative juices flowing. Try to put your negative energy towards something positive, like playing a song, writing a story, and/or gardening.
- Notice how you feel. If our minds are racing, it’s hard to know what we’re feeling. Take a second to slow down. Relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, and hold it for a few moments. When you release your breath, let go of the tension in your body; in your neck, your stomach, and your jaw.
When negative emotions arise, try not to hide from them—instead, notice what you’re going through, and find ways to manage it from there.
Know That Good Things Are Coming
Whether you’re reminiscing about a lost love or a former friend, remember that you have the rest of your life to meet new people. It might seem like you’ll feel this way forever, but remember all the other obstacles you’ve overcome in your life. Know that you are strong.
You might be wrapped up in thinking that you’ve lost something special. But what’s happened in the past can happen again—except next time, it will be even better.
Releasing negative energy can lift the weight off your shoulders and keep you healthier. From the team at Bare Body Sugaring in Winnipeg, we hope these tips will help you let go of something that’s bringing you down.
