When to Let Go of Something
Love brings a deeper richness into our lives but becoming attached to desires causes us stress, feelings of longing, and being needy. There is a quote that says, “If you love something, let it go. If it returns, it’s yours; if it doesn’t, it wasn’t. If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.”
Once we get caught up in controlling, keeping, or changing something, then it causes frustration. The natural flow of life often works differently than the way our intentions and desires would like it to be. Not everything that we set out to obtain turns out to be what actually get or need. Exerting patience and understanding will go a long way in saving ourselves from unnecessary stress.
A sense of being needy comes when we feel like we are lacking something or we require something additional to feel complete or a have sense of happiness. While God is the only one who can fill this longing, we often go looking to find something in the material world to fill our spiritual needs.
It is when we allow something be in control our happiness, we allow whatever it is to control us. We are driven by a longing to obtain whatever it is we seek. If we get what we seek, then we do everything we can to keep it. In a temporary world that will eventually fade away with time, we simply hold onto what we have here forever. We have to put our security and happiness in something that lasts longer in order to have lasting peace.
It’s time to let things go when it proves not to be beneficial to hold on anymore. Love is meant to be fought for; but if someone doesn’t love you back, then you have to release it. A one-sided love isn’t a true love - it’s a painful state of desire.
The hardest part of letting go is caused by a belief that we can’t get what we need elsewhere. If we allow something in this world to be the only source of a certain happiness, then our world and boundaries will keep us restricted.
Allowing life to happen as it naturally does is easier said than done. However, the painful experiences and the happy experiences will all prove to have a value that often eludes us at the time of experiencing them. Just because an experience feels pleasurable in a way doesn’t mean that it’s the best experience for us. Trust that God has provided what you need, and live fully without creating unnecessary and additional attachments.
For related material on development, please read Simplicity
