The raw truth of “letting go.”
Let’s strip the fluff.
“Letting go” is one of those spiritual buzzwords that most people don’t understand. It’s not pretending to be “over it.” it’s not distraction, denial, or forced positivity. And it is not weakness.
Letting go is a decision to stop clutching at the emotional shrapnel we confuse for truth. It’s not soft. It’s not passive. It’s a radical act of power.
Letting go isn’t a passive act. It’s not “just think positive,” Pollyanna type garbage. It’s a conscious death of your attachment to control, outcome, identity, pain, or even justice.
So, how does one do it?
The Mechanism of Letting Go:
Step 1: Awareness Without Resistance:
You feel the emotion. You don’t resist it, you don’t suppress it, nor do you produce any sort of dramatization of the emotion. You just “let it be.” You don’t sit around and ask “why am I like this?” or “why is this happening to me?” You just feel it. The raw, unfiltered, honest emotion. You just feel it. You let it run through your body, you don’t think about it, you don’t do something about it, you just let it run. You witness it. This is presence and this is also where most people don’t get to. This is where most people start avoiding (be it distraction with others, video games, porn, work, etc.,) because sitting with your real pain takes guts.
Step 2: No Narrative, No Justification
The mind wants to attach meaning:
“He betrayed me.”
“I deserve better period.”
“If I forgive, they win.”
These are what are called “hooks,” they keep you hooked into that narrative that runs around in your head and keeps the wound alive. Letting go means; You stop feeding the story. You stop the need to be right, you stop the desire to be validated or avenged. You let the emotion exist without needing a villain in your narrative.
Letting go cuts the story. It says: “I feel rage. I feel hurt. And I allow it to move through me.”
No blame. No fixing.
No story = No Grip, No Hook
Step 3: Truth Bomb: Every emotion we cling to has a secret reward. I know…your ego doesn’t want to admit that, but it’s true. GIVE UP THE PAYOFF
If you really sit with it and notice that when you get angry, anger gives you a sense of power. Sadness shields us from risk because it causes us to shrink down and be less than we really are. Guilt lets us punish ourselves instead of growing.
Ask yourself:
What do I get from holding onto this?
And then…
Am I ready to lose that crutch?
Because…letting go means losing the identity that pain has built for you.
Step 4: Let It Burn Out
When you stop resisting and stop feeding into the narrative, feeding into the emotion, you will notice that emotion is just energy. It rises, peaks, and then it fades away.
That’s it
No need to fix it. No need to understand at all. Letting go isn’t an action –
it’s an absence of interference.
You feel. You breathe. You surrender.
And the emotion passes.
Letting Go Is Freedom
It’s not about forgetting. It’s about releasing your grip on what’s weighing you down.
No more emotional chains.
No more mental loops.
Just space. Breath. Choice.
If you’re ready to let go, ask yourself:
- What pain am I secretly protecting?
- What identity am I afraid to lose?
- And who would I be without this story? Then….
breathe deep — and burn it down.
