The great tests of life reveal our character.....

Letting Go and Moving On

As we travel the paths of our life journey, we find out how strong we are, not through our successes, but in the moments of uncertainty that life inevitably puts in our way. Negative events - death, divorce, illness, job loss, relationship fractures - can come crashing into our world at any moment and sometimes without any warning. We then come face to face with having to make some necessary life changes. Should I move or not? Should I stay or should I go? Should I forgive or forget? The 'shoulds' then  become a deep internal craving as we try to process what we think would be the best outcome for our life.

The problem in doing this is that we often hold onto what no longer works - we often place our footprints on the same rocky path. But when we continue to hold on to something that will hurt our potential to be happy, and will thereby hurt our health, we have to look closely at why we are choosing to not move on.

Life is a balance of holding on and letting go. We might want to make the right choices but how do we know when it is truly time to let go and move on? Careers, relationships, even places we live have an expiration date. Sometimes we  hold on to things that aren't working out of fear that we won't find something better. Perhaps our greatest fear, then, is of the unknown, which is possibly why we hold on and try to manipulate our situations to try to control our surroundings. But the outcome is always the same - more pain, immense frustration, and a huge amount of guilt and blame. 

Staying in situations that are toxic to our well-being - situations that no longer serve us, will not bring happiness and meaning to our life. We need to initiate change, take a step forward and let go. There are numerous questions we can ask ourselves that will help us to make the right choice for us alone, and then be able to move on and create a solid life plan: Do my thoughts go to memories more than to the present? Do I feel alone, unheard or disrespected? Do I cry more than I laugh or love? Does the situation I'm in cause me more pain than joy? Have I stopped hoping and expecting things to get better? Am I exhausted emotionally, spiritually and physically? Do I force a smile to mask my pain? Have I lost who I am? Have I sacrificed my core beliefs and values?  Have I expected, hoped and pleaded for the person, place or situation to change? 

If we thoroughly, seriously, and honestly reflect on our answers to these questions we can choose to change the course of our path, place our footprints on an alternate route, and then move forward, trust our future and let our journey guide us to new happiness.