Reclaiming Happiness by Learning to Let Go

The pursuit of happiness and the ability to connect and enjoy our life is at the core of why we seek support to liberate ourselves from trapped trauma, illness, and being shackled to a life that feels void of life force energies of laughter, wonder, freedom, love, and joy.

And yet, happiness often seems elusive. If we do seem to magically connect with a sense of happiness, joy, and being content in a good way it often seems hard to remain a hold of them. 

When you hit moments of struggle to feel happiness it is easy to begin and think you are somehow broken or too far adrift in a sea of past pains, traumas, and disappointments. However, it isn’t that there is no happiness present in your life, rather it is more likely you have protective mechanisms that are cutting you off from connecting with the happiness that is available to you even when things seem far from perfect.

I recently released an episode of Soulful Practices, Freedom to be Happy, where I shared a quote and teaching that explores how we can create trustworthy happiness in our daily life. 

The quote is by the late Thich Nhat Hanh, an amazing spiritual teacher that has helped so many souls reconnect to the happiness that is present in their lives just as they are, he said:

“Letting go gives us freedom, 
and freedom is the only condition for happiness. 
If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - 
we cannot be free.”

We often think of letting go as a part of our heart agreeing to “let it go”. Yet our conscious willingness to agree to the whispers of our heart encouraging us to be free and saying yes to opening up our metaphor hand and releasing our grip on a past pain, thought, belief, or moment in time is only step one. Don’t get me wrong, it is a super powerful and important start to letting go, but there is another step in the process of not clinging to anything. 

During the episode, I explore the often missed second step that comes forward if we make one shift to his quote.

Instead of orienting that it is our Heart Being that clings to things, can we witness that it is really our protective mechanisms that cling to everything, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and conditions for what we believe we need to survive. Our Heart and Soul Beings will always guide us toward inner balance, freedom and happiness. And even if we agree in our Heart, there are often unmet needs or wounded Parts of us and there Protectors desperately clinging to “us” that don’t feel resolved and tended full to. Therefore, even though we have opened our hand to release, we remain entrapped in the adaptations of the past and not understanding why we can’t seem able to help our system truly let go of the grip it has on things and restore inner balance, harmony, and connection. When this happens the result is we cannot be free. And if we are not free, happiness will continue to feel illusionary, untrustworthy, and fickle in needing the perfect conditions for us to connect to it through. 

This episode is backed with additional foundation teachings that took me years to figure out on how to truly support my whole system - body, mind, heart, and soul with the art of not clinging, letting go and granting myself the freedom to be happy. I hope it helps support you on your journey of becoming free to be happy too! 

Watch the full episode either on YouTube or Spotify.

Highlight of the Soulful Practice I shared in the episode that you can start working with right now to begin embodying the willingness to let go:

Soulful Practice from this week’s episode:

The journey to freedom and the art of letting go of how we cling to protective adaptations begins with a simple question - am I willing to believe that I can be free to be happy?

The practice this week is to grow your awareness of the different habits your system has by clinging to different protective stories, habits, and beliefs and getting curious about what that might be about...

I invite you to:

Set the Intention this week to notice when I have a part of me clinging to an emotion, thought, belief, or experience in a way that is causing me to lose freedom of choice.

Invite Reiki energy to guide my Awareness to moments of: 

• Avoidance,
• Self judgements,
• and justifications,

As clues to different behaviors that are messengers for Parts of me that are suffering in some form or fashion. 

I ask in those moments to help me engage in the flow of choices that can help me turn toward that part with love and compassion. Inviting it to let go of those old habits so that I can step into the freedom to tend to my needs and inspirations in healthy ways. 

I open to the Soul Medicines of:

• Freedom, 
• Love, 
• and Compassion 

to guide me this week and allow me to gain more comfort with choice and true happiness. 

And so it is. Peace peace peace.