The pain of the past should never be a part of the future. Hanging onto the past not only hurts us and is a heavy weight to carry around, but we also end up creating the past over and over again because of it. Do you know what it’s like to be free of your past? Learning how to let go of it, is actually quite easy.
Here is a tale of two farmers to get you started on the journey to letting go of the past:
There were two chicken farmers. One was a smart chicken farmer and one was a dumb chicken farmer. The dumb chicken farmer woke up in the morning and grabbed his basket to go and collect from the chicken coops. He walked out to the chicken coops, walked in and began collecting the chicken poop. He picked up every little piece of stinky poop and put it in his basket. He kept filling his basket until it was full with chicken poop and then brought it into the house. The basket filled of poop just sat in house making it stink, rotting away. And his house smelled very bad.
Right next door the smart chicken farmer woke up and grabbed his basket. He walked out to his chicken coops and began to collect the eggs. He collected and collected until his basket was full with eggs. Leaving the chicken droppings to smell and rot in the coop and turn into valuable fertilizer. He brought the eggs in the house and made a wonderful omelet for his family.
How Does This Story Relate to Letting Go?
When you dive into your past are you collecting the feces and bringing it home to let it smell up your life? Or, are you leaving the past in the past, allowing it to become a lesson, or a fertilizer, for your life? When you are going through Recovery, you will be faced with the task of diving into your past. Make sure you collect the good things and leave the “crap.” Don’t be the dumb chicken farmer. Be the smart chicken farmer.
Now you are probably saying, “That is so much easier said than done.” Well here are a few easy steps to begin. And it is simple. It is because it is so simple that it is actually kind of complicated. You see, it is so simple we can’t wrap are heads around it. So I hope this helps a little.
Allow Your Past To Help You Heal
First, you have to realize that you should let it go. And then you need to ask yourself if you really want to let it go. See the thing is most people don’t want to let it go. They want to hang on to it. Figure out why. What good is it doing you? Realize the pain of the past is not who you are, that it is keeping you prisoner. Realize you are not your past and you are not what has happened to you. Realize that you should let it go.
Are you adding negativity to your past? Are you looking back on it with a negative mind? With negative talk? That can make it harder to let it go. It makes it harder to forgive, let go and move on. Try adding a positive spin to it. You can start by lowering your expectations. Turn your downfalls of the past into eggs. Turn your past around into something beautiful and good and it will make it much easier to let go of.
Drop your baggage. It is heavy. You don’t need it. Just put it down. Tell yourself you are not what has happened to you and you are not what you have done. That life doesn’t need you to be at 100% perfect. Lower your expectation to 70%. 70% is doable. Don’t make it too high and don’t make it too low of an expectation. Make your expectations realistic for your past and life up to this point and realize that you have met that. And then let it go.