The Beautiful Art of Letting Go

Unique Perspectives: The Beautiful Art of Letting Go

By Kim Stevens

If you’ve been following Unique Perspectives this summer, you know that over the last seven weeks, I covered the six pillars of self-esteem, which require a lot of practice, contemplation and reflection as you complete each sentence stem and do the work required to bring about change. So, after all that “efforting,” I’ve had a distinct urge toward letting go, and maybe you’re feeling this way, too. 

Life is a delicate balancing act between effort and ease. The effort can be tough or exciting, work or play, but make no mistake, the art of letting go, once cultivated, is a truly beautiful thing.

For me, once I do my work – like the sentence stems, in this case – one of the best practices I’ve come across is that I hold myself responsible for the effort but not the outcome. I complete my practices, my habits, and then, I let go, trusting that the outcomes will be good because in my world, the Universe always has my back. Things will always work out for me.

Gino Blefari, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, talks about “lead measures,” which are those activities or tasks that can “influence and predict” how effectively you’ll reach your goal. I really love that. I’m doing the practices (sentence stems) that will lead to good results, but once I complete the practice or whatever task it is I’ve done, I let the results be whatever they are, unattached to the outcome.

There are seasons to this ebb and flow. Even within a single day, I’m not efforting all the time. I sleep. I go to the office. I meditate and read. I also move through the literal seasons of the year. In the fall, it’s my go-time, when I feel energized to put in the work. In the winter, there’s some hibernation and time to slow down. I love that in nature and in all the various seasons of life that I move through, there's a time for effort and a time for ease.

How am I able to approach the future with such seeming nonchalance? It’s simple. I trust the process. In Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch, it’s said that “Life is The Process by which everything is being created. God is the energy-the pure, raw energy-which you call life. By this awareness we come to a new truth. God is a process.” I trust God, I trust life and my mantra has become Trust the Process and Expect the Best. Letting Go is a natural part of the process of life that I can trust.

About a decade ago, I was in Bozeman, Montana with my son, Max, and we were taking a yoga class together. While we were in Shavasana, the instructor began reciting a poem, “She Let Go,” by Safire Rose. I could’ve wept right there on that yoga mat. I was already deeply relaxed, yet somehow, as those rhythmic, mesmerizing words washed over me, I found myself letting go even more—surrendering in the sweetest, most effortless way. See if the poem has the same effect on you ...

She let go.

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear.

She let go of the judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.

Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice.

She didn’t read a book on how to let go.

She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back.

She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.

She didn’t journal about it.

She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.

She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn’t call the prayer line.

She didn’t utter one word.

She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort.

There was no struggle.

It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.

It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A small smile came over her face.

A light breeze blew through her.

And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…