{"id":5264,"date":"2017-03-22T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=5264"},"modified":"2017-03-19T22:39:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T02:39:01","slug":"first-step-releasing-negativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/03\/first-step-releasing-negativity.html","title":{"rendered":"The First Step in Releasing Negativity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When things don\u2019t go the way we want them to, our tendency is to turn negative on the spot. It\u2019s as if something in us throws a switch and, the next moment &#8212; like being caught in the surge of a tidal wave &#8212; resistance carries us away. But this unconscious resistance to reality never shows itself for what it is; it can\u2019t, or the show would be over! After all, who sides with something that is perpetually against life?<\/p>\n<p>Resistance is the unseen father of all lingering negative states. It derives its power to trick us into embracing its painful presence by a kind of misdirection. It hides behind a host of associated images that always appear with it &#8212; certain thoughts and feelings that promise either to protect us or to provide us with plans to escape our situation. But we must learn to see that the true nature of anything &#8212; whether a newly opened leaf or a fearful thought or feeling &#8212; is inseparable from what it serves. So, regardless of how it may appear, any disquieting state in us that \u201csays\u201d it wants to lead us away from a fear is leading us toward one instead.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the main idea: Resistance is negative attraction! We bind ourselves to what we don\u2019t want! You can demonstrate this unwanted result for yourself by trying to push one hand away with the other. This action only forces them closer together, increasing the pressure between them. This means that the \ufb01rst step in releasing ourselves from the strain of this self-wrecking relationship is to see that we have unknowingly attached ourselves to it! The key is to have the courage not to resist, and to remember that what you want is release.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?attachment_id=5257\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5257\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5257\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/92\/2017\/03\/qp-the-only-thing-one-escapes-KR-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"sun above clouds, man arms outstretched\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When things don\u2019t go the way we want them to, our tendency is to turn negative on the spot. It\u2019s as if something in us throws a switch and, the next moment &#8212; like being caught in the surge of a tidal wave &#8212; resistance carries us away. But this unconscious resistance to reality never&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[2712,13,2711,21,1234],"class_list":["post-5264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letting-go","category-negative-states","tag-negative-attraction","tag-negativity","tag-painful-states","tag-resistance","tag-unwanted"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The First Step in Releasing Negativity - 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\/2017\/03\/first-step-releasing-negativity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The First Step in Releasing Negativity - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When things don\u2019t go the way we want them to, our tendency is to turn negative on the spot. It\u2019s as if something in us throws a switch and, the next moment &#8212; like being caught in the surge of a tidal wave &#8212; resistance carries us away. But this unconscious resistance to reality never&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/03\/first-step-releasing-negativity.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=\"2017-03-22T16:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-20T02:39:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/files\/2017\/03\/qp-the-only-thing-one-escapes-KR-300x300.jpg\" \/>\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":"The First Step in Releasing Negativity - 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\/2017\/03\/first-step-releasing-negativity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The First Step in Releasing Negativity - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"When things don\u2019t go the way we want them to, our tendency is to turn negative on the spot. It\u2019s as if something in us throws a switch and, the next moment &#8212; like being caught in the surge of a tidal wave &#8212; resistance carries us away. 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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\/5264","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=5264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5275,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264\/revisions\/5275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}