Do you easily accept new thoughts and ideas, or stick to your old thoughts and ideas, afraid to let them go?
Do you prefer to go on thinking the same thoughts and find it difficult to accept new ones? If you wish to grow, develop, and improve your life, you need to let go of your old and outdated thoughts and ideas and accept better ones.
Parents, schools, teachers and early environment shape one’s mind, thoughts and habits, and often, people carry these programming throughout their lives. If these programming were positive and constructive, your thoughts and ideas, and most probably your life, would be also positive.
However, if the programming was negative, and your thoughts and ideas are negative, full of fears and limitations, and you do not let go of them, your life would also be shaped according to these thoughts.
We hear a lot about affirmations, visualisation and self-improvement techniques. However, to make them work in your life you need to be willing to let go of your old thoughts and ideas and to let go of fear, limitation and feelings of scarcity.
I am not telling you that you have to let go of all old thoughts and ideas. Some of them are important and useful. You also need to know that letting go has nothing to do with being inconsiderate and disrespectful of other people’s thoughts, ideas, beliefs and traditions, even if you do not accept them. Let go of your old thoughts and ideas, but keep on respecting other people’s traditions and way of life.
Letting go of your old, outdated thoughts and ideas means being more open-minded, and willing to learn and try new things. It means rising above limited and fearful thinking and behaviour.
If you could examine your thoughts and beliefs without bias, you might be surprised to discover that many of them are outdated, limiting and unnecessary.
What is letting go?
Letting go means removing your attachment to a behaviour and a manner of thinking that is outdated and limiting. Letting go means losing your attachment to ideas, beliefs and behaviour that harm you and limit you, and which tie you down to old and unpleasant memories and mental programming.
You would understand better what letting go means, if you imagine it yourself carrying a heavy rock on your back, and then taking it off your back and putting it down.
It is like lifting the anchor of your ship and sailing away to new horizons. Most people carry painful memories, anger, negative feelings, thoughts and ideas, which are not helpful. Letting them go means detaching from them, and stop dwelling on them Letting go of unnecessary and limited thoughts might not be easy at first, because you have been attached to them all your life, and you are afraid to lose them. However, this is not a loss, it is becoming free and learning to think in a more positive and constructive manner.
How to let go of old thoughts and ideas
It is you, who have to decide what thoughts and ideas to let go and which ones to keep.
1. You need to find the time each day and think about yourself and your life, about your successes and failures, and to find out what thoughts are holding you back, limiting you, and not allowing you to progress.
2. The next step would be envision in your mind how would your life be, if you adopt different thoughts, if you change your attitude, and if you change the way you act and behave.
3. Don’t be afraid to be bold and think. A new way of thinking would lead you to a new way of life. Letting go of your old thoughts and ideas is like breaking the chains that hold you back in the past, in negativity, and in limitations. However, thinking is not enough. You need to implement your conclusions and insist on thinking differently.
Your mind would probably resist your new way of thinking, and you will need to persist and not give up. Eventually, your persistence would win. What would help the most to let go? Developing a certain degree of detachment toward your old and outdated thoughts and ideas, habits and behaviour, would take you a big step toward developing the ability and skill of letting go.
Detachment is the opposite of attachment, and helps you cut loose of anything that binds you. It can help you become free of old thoughts and unnecessary habits. It can help you see everything from a wider perspective, and it can bring peace and calmness in into your life.
The kind of detachment I am speaking about has nothing to do with indifference and alienation from people. It is an attitude of freedom and unlimited thinking, which sets you free of your old thoughts and ideas. It also helps you stop taking things personally.
Detachment and letting go, mean the same thing. They can lead to happier life and freedom from limiting thoughts, ideas, habits and behaviour.
Sasson is a life coach and motivational speaker