Let Go And Let Yourself Be

2016 is gone and no matter how hard some days were, I am grateful for all that year brought to me, good and bad. As we are embracing a much needed fresh start, my invitation through today's article is for us to realize that it is vital to let go of the things that weighed on us, things that chained us to our past and prevented us to move forward if we want to move forward. Before we can build new bridges, it is  vital to burn the ones who are not worth crossing anymore, before we can welcome greater things and new people, we need to make some room and perhaps let go of the people who bring out the worst in ourselves and don't walk in the direction we aspire to walk in. And the reason for that is simple: People enter our lives for different reasons and at different seasons. like I mentioned in one my articles in "The 7 Rules of Life" mini-series some enter our lives to stay and some of them come to stir something in us. They slap us wide awake, crack us open not to make us bleed to death but to take us out of our darkness and force the light in.

And those people are generally not there to stay. They are a brief passing moment of our life that turns our whole world upside down (hopefully for the best) and help us realize that we are much more than what we thought we were. And when it is time for them to live, there is a need to accept that not everything is meant to last forever and that sometimes we have to let things go. We have to let things go because there are times where holding on hurts more than letting go and the storm they momentarily brought in your life to challenge us to grow, start over the story of our life and write it the way we wanted to, will turn into a perpetual chaos we might never recover from.

Separation is never easy. Even from the people who hurt us. It is never easy because we still foster the hope that things can change. That those people can change and make it up to us. It is hard because even though we are still broken there is still that part of us that love them and desires for things to be different. And sometimes they are. But most of the time things are just what they are and as sad as it is, that is how life goes sometimes.

Letting go will never be as easy as waking up the next day and being over it. Letting go is a process and processes take time. Processes don’t always yield the expected results on the first trial. Processes demand an understanding of the real problem, an evaluation of how to solve it and a commitment to put in work and dedication to make it to the end no matter how difficult it is. Letting go is not denying that we are missing the people we don’t share our life with anymore, whether they walked away or we cut them off or the things we give up on for a better tomorrow. It is embracing it and feeling entitled to miss those things because they took with them pieces of our existence when they left and/or use to define us. It is coming to term with the fact that even though we miss them, they are not what they were to us before and things are not and will never be the same anymore. It is understanding that no matter how great you are and how much you love those people, you will never be enough for them to stay and fight for you. And if they do not want to stay or change or make things work, there is nothing you can do about it.

Letting go is most importantly being aware of the fact that you cannot keep on giving pieces of yourself away to make people whole while you remain broken. It is accepting that even though you miss those people or those things, going back to what broke you is neither an option nor a good idea. So for this new year, I want you to forgive yourself for letting yourself down. I want you to be there for yourself and take care of yourself. get comfortable spending time with yourself and be gentle with yourself because you are doing the best you can. Prioritize your happiness and well being above all and understand that there is nothing wrong about it. Focus on yourself. Work on yourself, for yourself, by yourself and do you because you deserve it. 

I am ending this post with an Irish blessing that I love a lot and which translates better my wishes for you for this new year that will unfold itself before our eyes, hoping everything good you hope and pray for come your way in 2017.

"May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!"

Happy new year 2017

xo