For me, a frustrating aspect of being chronically ill for years was when friends and doctors told me to give up hope that I’d ever get better because I was priming myself for failure.
Well, for those who read my blog and have read “A Reluctant Spirit,” you know I had the last laugh on that one and proved them all wrong.
But what I learned eventually was there’s a distinct difference between “giving up” and “letting go.”
What it feels like to let go
- For me, letting go means “letting God” by ceding control of what you have no power over and taking charge where you can, such as in your emotional response to your particular situation. Letting God requires you steep yourself in faith in the Higher Power and assist the Most Divine by working toward what you yearn for. So say you’re seeking better health, you would honor your body by giving it the nutrients and rest it needs for healing.
- Letting go is a positive step where you accept where you’re at in your current circumstances. You don’t wait until your life improves to start really living.
To this day, I believe my instantaneous healing was the result of three events:
- I’d opened myself to a greater reality and dropped my fear-dominant view of God, immersing myself in the unconditional love of the Great I Am;
- I let go of the assumption that “I had to be healthy to live fully,” and I’d shifted my perspective. God was in control and with God in my life, I’d enough to be thankful for; and
- I’d come to accept the Most Divine would determine when I would be healed.
Giving up is the opposite of letting go
For me, giving up meant I would’ve lost the battle against this disease. That I wasn’t good enough. That hope had shriveled up, died and blown away in the wind. That all I could do was stop working toward healing and just stop living. And, at its very worst, it would’ve meant that I let the Bastard (Post-viral neurasthenia and chronic fatigue syndrome) win.
Refuse to live in the darkness
The freedom of letting go enables our spirits to turn toward God. It’s recognizing that the Great I Am has a plan. That who we are is forged through our deepest, darkest struggles. So let go. Tend to your basic needs. Focus on finding joy in your daily life, whether it’s the sun caressing your face, feeding a peanut to an enthusiastic jay or melting into a loving bear hug. Know that if this is where God wants you to be right now, you will be taken care of.