{"id":89536,"date":"2023-01-17T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T20:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=89536"},"modified":"2023-01-24T16:35:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T20:35:42","slug":"acceptance-and-letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/acceptance-and-letting-go\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Acceptance and Letting Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is it important to practice acceptance and letting go? How does the inability to accept things as they are<\/a> eat away at your chance of finding happiness<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life is unpredictable, and it will throw curve balls at you sooner or later. Being able to accept and let go of what happened is a necessary life skill everyone should cultivate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, here\u2019s how to practice<\/a> the art of acceptance and letting go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Letting Go of Resistance to the Present<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much of the pain you experience is self-inflicted because you\u2019re not accepting reality<\/a> as it is<\/em>. The circumstances of your life can be unpleasant, but begrudging them does nothing to change the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are resisting some aspect of your current reality, your focus is on how you wish the situation could be, or how it might improve later. Acceptance and letting go are the only way to get through a difficult (or any) situation in life.<\/strong> You can\u2019t go around it (avoidance) or go backward (time travel<\/a>), so you must go through it<\/em>, moment by moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engaging only with each moment\u2014and not with the past and future\u2014allows you to break down problems to a more manageable size. When you isolate problems to just the present moment, you start to see that most problems only exist in the context of time<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, you are stressed about your pile of bills. These bills are due in the future. Granted, you can\u2019t pretend like they don\u2019t exist and delay action until your electricity is being cut. However, you can make a plan to budget your expenses or take on some extra shifts at work to make ends meet. Then, accept that there is no more that you can do at this moment. Recognize that your worry and stress are doing nothing to pay down your balance, only making you unhappy and potentially pulling your energy away from productive action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\r\nTITLE: The Power of Now
\r\nAUTHOR: Eckhart Tolle
\r\nTIME: 28
\r\nREADS: 30.1
\r\nIMG_URL: https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/powerofnow_cover.jpg
\r\nBOOK_SUMMARYURL: the-power-of-now-summary-eckhart-tolle
\r\nAMZN_ID: B002361MLA
\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letting Go of Attachment to the Past<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, accepting your reality\u2014however unpleasant it might be\u2014is the first step to overcoming any misfortune life might throw at you. However, it\u2019s also important to accept and let go of all the mental junk from your past: painful memories, grudges, regrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Michael Alan Singer, the author of The Untethered Soul<\/em><\/a>, clinging to the past creates samskaras<\/em>\u2014mental imprints formed as a result of unresolved past experiences. For example, if driving past a mustang like your ex-girlfriend\u2019s disturbs you, that’s a manifestation of a samskara\u2014you’re affected in the present by something that happened in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you fall into samskaras, you fail into unawareness. You encounter a trigger\u2014some sight, sound, situation, or other experience that\u2019s linked to one of the Samskaras stored in your heart (such as the smell of the perfume your ex-wife used to wear before your marriage imploded)\u2014and this trigger pulls you down into the disturbed energy. From there, you see everything through the negative energy\u2019s distorted haze. Eventually, the negativity plays itself out and subsides, and you rise again. However, if your life hits another blockage while you\u2019re already fallen, and you make life decisions from that negative inner state, then a series of cascading crises can occur, resulting in a downward spiral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When life inevitably hits your stored negative stuff (your Samskaras), let go of the negativity by <\/p>\n\n\n\n