Let Go and Be Free
Discover tips on self-healing, overcome a dysfunctional childhood and find happiness.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m an introvert or what, but I don’t think I’ve been bored in a long time. The journey of self-discovery is life-long, and there are plenty of paths to take.
I am still shocked to hear that so few Americans read a book a year. Some people have told me that they haven’t read a book since they graduated high school.
When you wake up in the morning and start thinking about your day, what’s the first thought that goes through your head? Is it a positive thought or one that’s negative?
Listening to any self-criticism or negativity from within is a process that can be difficult to do—especially if you’ve allowed negativity to creep in each day.
I started running a little over ten years ago. My friends gave my wife and me an old treadmill they had, so I figured that I should start to do some exercise in my life. Ten years later and I’ve run a good many races. I have two marathons under my belt (and one homemade marathon—I ran 26.2 miles in my neighborhood to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation), and I keep up with my running several times a week.
Yesterday I finished the first draft of a new novel, and I want to celebrate. I started my first book when I was 16 years old and then didn’t write my second until I was in my late 20s. I had tried to get my first book published and fail for many years. The second book that I wrote still sits on my computer today as a first draft. It’s a sequel to Dorothea’s Song, and I don’t know if it will ever see the light of day.
There’s going to be a day when you want to throw your hands up in the air and say, “I give up. None of this is working. It’s all too hard, and I’m tired.”
I encourage you to embrace those feelings and to ask yourself this question: Why are you reading this book? What are you trying to do with your life?
Take stock, and be sure to reflect. Do you feel overwhelmed, exhausted, or mentally drained?
Conventional wisdom recommends that you push on through and redouble your efforts.
That might sound like a great idea for the short term, but it’s not sustainable in the long run.
Each day you can’t keep pushing onward. You can try, but you will eventually get sick, break, or want to give up.
I want to share with you the struggles that I’m going through so that you can see that you are not alone on your journey. I am having a difficult time going through my days as I’m trying to figure out what to do in my life.
My family and I are currently in quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and we are scheduled to be like this for at least the next three weeks. I’m worried about my job, don’t know what will be happening with my kids’ school for the fall or when I can see my mom and hug her.
There is a lot of negativity, suffering, and sorrow in the world. I have known people in my life that focus only on the negative and that they thrive in it. Negativity begets more negativity. At some point, we need to cast off and let go of negativity, sorrow, and suffering.
Even in the darkest of times, there are still chances to embrace happiness.
Learning how to apologize seems simple enough, right?
You just go up to someone and say, “I’m sorry.”
Let’s play out a scene and see how this works:
My wife and I get into an argument. After things cool down, I go up to her and tell her that I’m sorry. Here’s how I do it: “I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you, but I had a really rough day at work and took it out on you.”
There has been a lot of challenging work on previous days. The work is sometimes extremely hard because it deals with self-reflection, vulnerability, and sometimes working through past feelings. None of this is easy.
For today, please, take some time to relax and to pamper yourself. We can’t always be on. We can’t always be at 100% efficiency. We are not machines.
Yesterday I wrote about believing in a higher power, but today I want to take that to a different level. Growing up in an alcoholic and dysfunctional family, I often felt that I was different from other people. I thought that I had something missing and that I needed to find a way to become whole. I felt that I was broken and needed a way to “fix” myself.
But here’s a different point-of-view.
