Letting Go is the best book I’ve read this year. David Hawkins brilliantly addresses how to effectively manage unwanted thoughts, feelings, and emotions so that they don’t build up within us and cause problems. I got this book right when I needed it and it helped me through the most difficult season I’ve had in a long time. Here are some of the highlights.
Hawkins’ primary focus, letting go, is fairly simple to explain. It involves acknowledging whatever thoughts, feelings, or emotions arise, feeling them fully, and breathing through them without trying to resist them or bury them deep down inside us. Once we’ve given enough of this type of attention to a particular sensation, it will lose its power over us. Some sensations require more attention than others before they can be let go, but, in time, even the most difficult sensations can be fully released, leaving us feeling much lighter and freer afterward.
One of the points that resonated the most with me was the one that said thoughts aren’t painful; the emotions underneath the thoughts are what can hurt. Keeping this in mind makes it a little easier for me to work through difficult memories because it takes away the automatic expectation that thinking about them will cause me pain. It also helps me distance myself from the sensations in my head, which makes them much easier to let go. This may be especially helpful for people who don’t want to address their deep, dark memories for fear of being hurt by them. It could allow them to overcome their past and move forward in ways they never imagined possible.
Hawkins also discusses how we tend to project the qualities we dislike about ourselves onto other people. That’s something that I catch myself doing quite a bit when I’m being self-aware. Noticing this tendency is good in that it gives me an opportunity to work on surrendering to the negativity and accepting myself as I am. In addition to making me feel at peace with myself, this also improves my relationships with those around me.
Letting Go is a powerful book that’s packed with great stuff. However, as Hawkins says in there (and as I’ve learned the hard way), to truly see life-changing results requires constant practice. Working on this once in a while won’t do the trick, nor will practicing it only during difficult times. Surrendering has to become a way of life. Reading the results of surrendering constantly that Hawkins describes has reminded me of my own experiences of doing this before I got the book. That has gotten me intrigued and excited enough to make this a daily practice once again. I hope this has enticed you to read Letting Go so you can try it out for yourself. You’ll be so glad you did.