Whether welcome or not, we are all going to experience less than optimal life experiences that are out of our control, like the sickness or death of a loved one, the ending of a deep romance, or the loss of a job.
When things happen in our lives that are out of our immediate control, it’s easy to quickly lose balance and fall down. It happens to the best of us.
We may find ourselves making less than optimal decisions that are 100% based on these challenging moments. We fall into a negative loop, and it becomes harder and takes longer to get out.
What if we trained ourselves to fall down and get back up in a healthy and empowering way? You may be thinking, well, this isn’t the same thing because we haven’t lost complete control. That’s true, but we know from watching and playing sports that one benefits immensely from practice and skills training.
In the context of health and happiness, holding space to let yourself go wild after you’ve been so committed to self-care sounds scary. We know the kind of personal investment it’s taken for us to build sustainable habits and heal our internal systems.
But many of us have also experienced the pain, frustration and helplessness associated with things happening out of our immediate control. When I lost my father, I fell into a deep hole and I didn’t have a plan in place to help myself get out. When I ended my engagement, I fell down hard again. It took a while for me to get back on my path to optimal living.
Prior to losing my father, I hadn’t experienced the feelings associated with having something I loved so deeply taken away from me, so quickly. I didn’t know how to cope with it.
What I was missing during these difficult times was a plan of action. I was missing my list of tools to help navigate me through the darkness.
Today, my commitment to self-care is my everything. It’s my health, my happiness, my purpose and my profession. I’ve worked so hard to achieve it and I’ve worked harder to stick with it.
In this video, I explain the benefits of flexing your ‘letting go’ muscle.
So maybe it will take a couple of days to get back on track after testing your ability to fully let go of your daily routine or an activity, object or practice you love. But the process of recovery and finding the healthiest steps to get there will lead to greater clarity and personal power.
You may not fully acknowledge the benefits today, but when faced with an intense challenge, you’ll have a toolbox of hacks and strategies to help you step forward, even if it’s one baby step at a time.
I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried letting yourself go, or plan to let go in a safe environment. What will you let go of? Share in the comments below!