by Cailin O'Hara, MAcOM, LAc, Dipl OM

"Love yourself!" "Heal the world!" "You can do it!"

Sounds like BS, maybe? All of that self-help, New Age mumbo jumbo, blah blah blah.

Actually, it's true. Let me tell you why.

The way you feel about yourself is rooted in your beliefs. Beliefs create your thoughts, which inform your decisions. Your decisions create your life path, one choice at a time. If you believe you are less than, unworthy, not good enough, not lovable, flawed, it will negatively affect the decisions you make. You will limit yourself, your potential and the positive impacts you can have on the "world"... aka all of us that need you, your gifts, your unique perspective. 

Beliefs are changeable. Starting right now, you can begin telling yourself a different story and exploring different perspectives. You are not fixed, stuck nor limited at all. You are limitless, fluid and ever-changing. If you begin challenging your current beliefs that seem to hold you back, you then give yourself the FREEDOM to experience NEW and more empowering perspectives. And hint: choose the perspectives that make you feel happiest because they likely mirror who you really are.

As you expand past old limitations and useless beliefs, you tap into what you can really do. You discover the inspiration to make significant changes not only in your own life but in the life of others. You can create a positive momentum forward for all of us by a) letting go of what whatever has been holding you back unnecessarily and b) doing whatever it is that you do best.

So, here's the key. This is why the way you feel about yourself can affect the health of the world... through the POWER of your focus. If you are fixated on the negatives, the problems, the lack, the injustice, it becomes your default operating mode. This can create BIG blind spots so you can't see all of the good you possess, all of the good around you, all of the good you can offer and create. You are literally standing in your own way.

​Focusing solely on the negative aspects of something will limit you from seeing the good, the potential, the myriad ways to make things better.

by Cailin O'Hara, MAcOM, LAc, Dipl OM

I have one thing to add to the sea of articles on this topic of "letting go." And it's not about cutting things out of your life or forgetting things you can't forget or pretending something doesn't affect you anymore. 

Actually, it's about embrace. 

Embrace every detail, all the minutia, that has brought you to this exact moment. Some of it will be miraculous, some disastrous, some heart-warming and some unbearably painful. And you know what? THAT'S OK.

All of it, everything that came before this very moment, is over now. It's only your attention to it, your memory, the reminders, the persistent trains of thought, that keep it "alive" in the here and now, and THAT'S ALSO OK. ​

...now that you're embracing this inconceivably intricate web of a life you've lived that has created you just as you are? Perhaps it's a web that's tattered in spots, difficult to look at, confusing in its weave... how do you "let go" of what "doesn't serve" you?

My suggestion: look at it. 

Let it come. See whatever details come into view. Allow yourself to really feel whatever reveals itself; look curiously and openly at all of these experiences and relationships and feelings you've lived. And ask yourself one question.

The real choice you have is what you take with you from here.

Choose whatever feels lighter, whatever feels like relief, whatever helps some of the weight fall away like the ease of opening your hands and letting it go. 

It doesn't mean it's gone.

It will likely come up again in your mind or your life in some new but familiar way. And again, take the time to really look at it. Consider what it has to offer this time around. Ask what you can learn from it to help you be a better you. And then, when you're ready, release it once more with genuine gratitude and let yourself move on.