Positivity: Letting Go

Letting go of things that do not serve you is immensely positive.

I try very hard to let go of things that make me angry, or upset, or just generally unhappy. I find that if I dwell on things, if I hold onto negativity it becomes unbelievably hard to let go of.

We all have situations that make us unhappy. We all have bad days, we all deal with people we would rather not deal with. It is completely unavoidable. What is NOT unavoidable, though, is how long we hold onto those bad feelings.

There are certain situations we come across daily. Can you read nearly any form of news media and not find something that will upset you in some way? The important matter is that, ok, this thing will upset you, but how long will you hold onto the negativity? What will you do with that feeling?

Letting go of this can be really hard. It is worse when you are putting subconscious energy into it. I don’t like this situation, it is really upsetting me and the more I think about it the more it upsets me but there is nothing I can do about so I should let it go but I can’t let it go and it’s just getting to me and the more I think about it the more it embitters me and on and on and on. A familiar situation?

When I find this dialogue running through my head I need to take a moment, I need to take a deep breath and I need to consciously change my focus. I know positivity is preferable to negativity, so I need to find something that will make me feel more positive. I need an attitude shifter, I need to refocus, I need to find something to make me smile, I need to choose something which makes me feel grateful to pull me out of the negative spiral and to alter my mood.

Letting go gets talked about often. Psychology is huge on the idea of releasing things that do not serve us and moving on. It is true. Letting go of negative energies and bad feelings goes an immensely long ways to being more creative, more productive and most importantly more happy.

Acknowledge the negativity, accept the bad feelings. But don’t hold onto it, don’t give it energy and time and power, move past it. Find whatever means you can to put your attention on something that makes you feel good, makes you feel positive, makes you feel happy. Let go.

I don’t always know what will work for me in a given situation, so as such I cannot tell you what might do this for you. Just take the time to be conscious of how you are feeling, and whether you are holding onto negativity or positivity. Don’t avoid it, be aware of it and manage it.

Finding positivity is not hard, it just requires action. Knowing that holding onto negativity does not serve you and the things you want to do, you can focus on letting go.   By letting go of negativity rather than letting it manifest more negativity and grow and disempower us, we can take control to empower ourselves. When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings. We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings. When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for. Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

This is the seventieth entry of my Positivity series.  It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone.  Feel free to share, re-blog and spread the positivity.