Letting Go

picture from http://joshuaziefle.net/

Happy Independence day fellow Nigerians. Are you celebrating? I'm not, well not ceremoniously at least. Today, I want to talk about letting go. Yes, letting go of habits, emotions, people, things, and everything worth letting go of. You see, life is very interesting. With all of its ups and downs, we go through experiences that many times leave us with souvenirs - good and bad. Sometimes, these souvenirs keep us from moving forward, from getting better things and all we really need to do is to let go. I say "all we really need to do" like it's something so simple, far from it. It is hard as hell and very often takes time. For some people it's a process; a journey but the good news is that IT IS DOABLE. YOU CAN LET GO.

Some of us have terrible habits, how we adopted them is not of importance at this point. It may be anything, from the littlest things (picking your nose) to the serious things (drug addiction) . Being able to identify and realize the habit as a problem is the first step to recovery - don't we all know this? Most people know this yet still live in denial daily. The attitude is the biggest problem if you ask me. How you address the little ones in a way, affect or determine how you deal with the bigger ones. So you have a hoarding habit, you find it hard to let go of an old TV, shoe with broken heels, walkman ( can you  remember the walkman and discman era? Believe it or not, some people still have this) . You know you don't need these things, and you don't even remember most of them exist in your store but when it is time to clear out the store, you fight hard to keep everything and it turns out that the store is as cramped as you started. You can bless people with some of these things, some can not be used anymore, you need to get rid of them. 

Some people have been deeply hurt in the past, betrayed by people they held dear and for this they vow never to love again, trust again or even be friendly again. When you sit to speak to people like this, you can feel the hurt, it runs deep, they feel like there is no point trying again and you hardly ever have anything new to say to them especially when you haven't felt their pain first hand. It is very hard to recover from such deep hurt, but again, it is possible. I know how the fear of being hurt again can be overwhelming but I tell you that living your life in such bitterness is much worse. How can you live such a life without smiles and laughter, without love and joy? I really don't know how. Letting go as hard as it may seem is the best thing to do and if you get hurt again, you take whatever good that came out of it and move on again by letting go.

The people we should have in our lives should be adding value to it. The people we should hold in high esteem should be deserving of that position. If you have someone you call a friend, who does nothing good for you or worse, who always does you wrong, you better rethink and place that person where he/she should be. Or say there's this boy/girl you like and you have been liking even though he/she has made it clear in  many ways that he/she is not interested sometimes even rudely too. Why are you doing this to yourself? Let go already. There's playing "hard to get" and there's "I"m just not interested" and somehow you just know the difference. Girls fall victims of this category a lot. They like to live in self deceit, telling themselves different lies to recharge them after each blow they receive from the guy. No, he likes me, he's just not ready for a relationship, no he just has commitment issues, no he's just stressed at work and on and on the excuses go. If they are worth it, they will show you. You don't have to make up stories in your head to make them worthy of that special place in your heart. 

My point is this; re-evaluate your life - every area possible and get a mental and physical (for the hoarders) trash can to throw everything and everyone and every emotion that shouldn't be in there and then empty the trash can - permanently delete them. Let go of pain, bitterness, old rusty gadgets, clothes, people and habits that aggregate to cause you damage of varying capacities. Just breathe and have a fresh start. Like I said, some may take a while, just take it a day at a time, you'll get there if you really mean to. Quit the excuses, you are strong enough.

Ok guys, over to you; share with us things you have struggled to let go of and let's learn from your experiences. Lots of love...