{"id":4402,"date":"2015-09-30T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2015-09-27T21:31:54","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T01:31:54","slug":"an-advanced-lesson-in-letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/09\/an-advanced-lesson-in-letting-go.html","title":{"rendered":"An Advanced Lesson in Letting Go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What are we actually talking about when we speak of letting go? After all, no one wants to let go of something that has proven itself to be satisfying! Whatever it is that we wish to let go of must be something from which we wish to be free. This may be unpleasant or troubling relationships, a problem-filled past or fearful future, any form of addiction, recent painful events &#8212; or any of those disturbing thoughts and feelings about these same troubling things that we no longer want in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is that troubles like these come with being human. We all know how it feels to want to let go. The problem is that wanting to let go, and actually being able to, is still light years apart for most of us. But it need not remain this way. The gulf can be sealed permanently once we understand that all that separates us from our intention to let go are those mistaken ideas we carry around about the nature of what\u2019s actually weighing us down. This is why we need new and higher self-knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, no thing in itself &#8212; no event, no relationship, no regret-filled thought or feeling &#8212; has any real weight of its own with which to pull us down. The nature of what really weighs on us is something altogether different. This can help to explain a deep mystery: Why is it that regardless of everything we do in our exterior life to rid ourselves of this or that problem, person, or contrary condition, we have yet to genuinely shake ourselves free? The answer begins with this next insight.<\/p>\n<p>The real act of letting go is first an interior action, followed, if needful, by a wiser exterior action. After all, what is it that binds us if not where we are blind to some unconscious need to either maintain or keep forming these painful attachments? To see the truth of these findings is to realize why there can be no substitute for self-illumination. After all, no one frees themselves by laying down with one hand what they unknowingly cling to with the other! This explains why the aim of all true spiritual teachings has always had a dual purpose: 1) to reveal to us that no condition in our life exists apart from the consciousness responsible for its continuing creation, and 2) to bring the light of this higher self-knowledge into the unexamined darkness of our consciousness so that we no longer make the mistake of clinging to anything that compromises our integrity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are we actually talking about when we speak of letting go? After all, no one wants to let go of something that has proven itself to be satisfying! Whatever it is that we wish to let go of must be something from which we wish to be free. This may be unpleasant or troubling&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,73],"tags":[225,15,2385,152,2391,844,1920],"class_list":["post-4402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letting-go","category-love-relationships","tag-clinging","tag-freedom","tag-painful-attachments","tag-regret","tag-self-illumination","tag-self-knowledge","tag-unwanted-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An Advanced Lesson in Letting Go - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/09\/an-advanced-lesson-in-letting-go.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Advanced Lesson in Letting Go - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are we actually talking about when we speak of letting go? After all, no one wants to let go of something that has proven itself to be satisfying! Whatever it is that we wish to let go of must be something from which we wish to be free. This may be unpleasant or troubling&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/09\/an-advanced-lesson-in-letting-go.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-30T16:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-28T01:31:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"An Advanced Lesson in Letting Go - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/09\/an-advanced-lesson-in-letting-go.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"An Advanced Lesson in Letting Go - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"What are we actually talking about when we speak of letting go? 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4403,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions\/4403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}