How to Let Go: A Pathway to Inner Freedom and Peace
We often spend years trying to “figure out” our problems — analyzing our thoughts, dissecting our past, and wrestling with why we feel the way we do. But what if healing wasn’t about analyzing at all? What if freedom from suffering is less about the why — and more about simply letting the emotion run its course without resistance?
This is the core teaching of Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by Dr. David R. Hawkins. It offers a radically simple yet powerful approach to emotional healing — one that bypasses endless introspection and instead invites us to release the emotional charge at the root of suffering.
In this post, we’ll explore the foundational ideas of Letting Go and share the exact steps for practicing it in your everyday life.
What Is the Letting Go Technique?
The Letting Go technique is not about repressing emotions or pretending they don’t exist. It’s also not about indulging them. Instead, it's about feeling them fully without resistance, judgment, or mental storytelling — and allowing them to dissolve on their own.
It’s a method of surrender, not analysis.
Unlike traditional psychotherapy, which often focuses on adjusting the ego or understanding the roots of an issue, Letting Go bypasses the intellect. It aims for something much deeper: total emotional freedom and the transcendence of the ego’s limitations.
When we stop resisting emotions and simply allow them to be felt, they begin to lose their grip — and the thousands of thoughts tied to those emotions disappear along with them.
The Goal: Freedom, Not Just Functionality
Most forms of therapy aim for a healthy, functioning ego — adapting you better to life’s challenges. Letting Go goes further. It aims for liberation from the ego’s illusions altogether.
It doesn’t require a therapist, a diagnosis, or an intellectual framework. It simply requires a willingness to feel and surrender. The technique leads you toward progressively higher states of consciousness: from guilt and fear, through courage and acceptance, and ultimately to peace, love, and joy.
How Our Emotions Impact Us (and Others)
We are emotional transmitters. Whether we express them outwardly or not, our emotions influence the people around us. Relationships, environments, and even health can shift based on the energy we carry.
For example:
Anger provokes defensiveness or retaliation in others.
Fear invites avoidance or domination.
Guilt seeks punishment and often attracts it.
Pride seeks validation but often alienates others.
Apathy and grief drain both ourselves and those around us.
Conversely:
Love, acceptance, and peace uplift and energize everyone we come into contact with — even silently.
Understanding this gives us a deeper incentive to clean up our inner world, not just for ourselves but for the collective energy we contribute to.
Why We Resist Letting Go
Letting go sounds simple, but it’s not always easy.
We often unconsciously cling to emotions because they serve a hidden purpose:
Anger gives us a sense of control or righteousness.
Victimhood brings us sympathy or an identity.
Fear feels like protection.
Pride feels like superiority or armor.
The first step toward freedom is recognizing that emotions are learned programs, not your identity. They come and go — but your real self remains constant beneath them.
The Letting Go Technique: Step-by-Step
You can use this technique any time you're feeling overwhelmed, reactive, anxious, stuck, or emotionally triggered. Here’s how:
Step 1: Become Aware of the Feeling
Ask yourself:
🧭 “What am I feeling right now?”
You don’t need to label it precisely — just acknowledge there’s a feeling present. You’re simply observing it like an energy or sensation in your body.
Step 2: Let Yourself Feel It
Ask:
🧘 “Can I let myself fully feel this feeling?”
Don’t push it away, resist it, or analyze it. Instead, breathe and allow it to exist. Surrender to it completely, without judgment. You may feel tightness, heat, tears, pressure, or agitation. That’s okay. Just sit with it.
Step 3: Drop the Story
Avoid thoughts like:
“Why do I feel this way?”
“Who caused this?”
“This always happens to me…”
Don’t identify with the emotion. Don't explain it. Just let it be felt. The mind will want to pull you into analysis. Let that urge pass and return to the pure sensation.
Step 4: Let It Go
Once the feeling begins to shift (and it will), allow it to leave. You might exhale deeply, feel a sense of calm wash over you, or simply notice it’s no longer there.
This step happens naturally when you’ve surrendered fully in the earlier steps. If it returns later — that’s normal. There may be deeper layers to release.
Bonus Tips & Insights
Feelings are safe to feel. The fear of feeling them is often worse than the feeling itself.
Don’t vocalize negativity. Speaking complaints solidifies and energizes them.
Let go of beliefs about your emotions or conditions. You are not your diagnosis, your patterns, or your past.
Surrender resistance first. Sometimes, you’ll need to let go of guilt for having a certain feeling before you can surrender the feeling itself.
Final Thoughts: You Are Not Your Feelings
Feelings come and go. They are based on learned programs, inherited beliefs, absorbed stories — but they are not you. The true you is the awareness beneath all of it — calm, compassionate, and free.
Letting Go is not a one-time fix. It’s a daily practice. But each time you surrender, you lighten the load, elevate your energy, and come closer to your natural state: peace.
🧘 Practice for Today:
Notice any uncomfortable emotion.
Instead of pushing it away or analyzing it, sit quietly and ask:
“Can I allow myself to feel this?”Let it run through you.
Breathe.
Let it go.
Repeat as needed.