27 Sep Letting go
Easier said than done! Knowing ourselves we need to let it go or someone suggesting we need to let it go. It is not as easy as just pressing a button and that it! Sorted! In fact when something is troubling us, preoccupying our head space and adding stress and anxiety the “just let it go” statement can cause another layer of stress.
Let’s look at this a bit closer and understand why learning to let things go even for short amounts of time is beneficial for us; and how can we do it.
When there are thoughts about an experience/event/person that are resulting in negative unhelpful thinking patterns it can feel like it occupies all available space in our mind. Out clear, logical, rational thinking is unable to operate (actually unable – our fear centre (amygdala) is activated and our pre-frontal cortex is unable to function effectively).
If we can replace “just letting go” with “just let go for a minute”, “just let go for 10mins” etc. When we actively interrupt our own thoughts and pull ourselves back from repeated thoughts of what is worrying us, give our focus to a short meditation, to a task which requires our full attention. In those moments you have let go.
Our minds will quickly gravitate back to the worry/problem/issue. In those moments your fear centre (Amygdala) has calmed, your logical thinking (pre-frontal cortex) is becoming operational. Our minds will gravitate back in order to keep us safe – in evolutionary terms being aware of the danger kept us alive.
When we understand that we can give ourselves short moments of letting go, we can think clearly when we do, our minds will gravitate back, we are aware of this and can give ourselves another moment of letting go. This process can begin small steps in the direction of interrupting our own thinking.
The mantra “small moments of mindfulness many times throughout the day” can be applied here.
Thanks for reading
Carmel