By Alice Grist

Let it go, let it be, release, relax, stop worrying, chill. How often have you been told this, or how often do you tell this to yourself, but in actuality fail miserably to achieve any of these seemingly simple concepts?

Letting go of anything is exceptionally difficult in a society that impresses upon us the need to hoard, worry, over think, over plan and constantly speculate on the what if’s. I wish sometimes I were born an Amazonian Rainforester or some such similar existence, and that ambition would quietly drift out of my head and let me be.

I desire a life that is uncomplicated and simple, and yet day in day out, I, like so many others, stuff my brain with thought toxins and ram my diary full to bursting. Comparatively my brain is far less full than it used to be, and since recently getting knocked up with baby No. 1, my diary too is emptying rapidly. Yet still, like many a good spiritually inspired human before me, I often fail to let it be, relax, chill, release and all that other good stuff.

But this is important. Releasing our lives to the universe, or to whatever power you believe in (God, Goddess, Karma, Fate, Random Nothingness or Fairies at the bottom of the garden), is vital to living a soulful life. We simply must give up the controlling aspects of existence that see us clamoring for a specific finale to our train of thoughts.

Our thoughts will rarely create the existence we think they will. Worry is a fine example. We all pick specific areas of concern, focus on them, and they become everything. We focus on our shoelaces to the extent that we trip over the unseen approaching curb. All this overthinking does nothing but close us off to the wonderful possibilities our lives could hold should we choose to simply relax, release, let it go and chill.

Putting Into Practice
We can practice the art of releasing these concentric mind circles every single moment. Whenever your brain starts to toddle off down lanes of fantasy (good or bad), then you simply have to stop that track of thinking. There is no point hiking up and down the paths of imagination when reality is a whole different color. So instead, don’t entertain it. Relax, release, chill. Let it be.

When your mind fixates upon a specific worry, expand it and consider the other possibilities. Maybe take some time to count up all the things you have worried about this month and actualize how many of them really came to pass? My guess is not many did, and your over analysis of them made no difference to their occurrence or otherwise.

Even positive thinking can have it’s drawbacks as we may not be correct about what is best for us. A longed for canoodle may turn out to be flat and bland. A new car might not transform your reality into the gold spun fantasy you desired. As such the best bet, perhaps the most soulful bet, is to hedge all bets and see what life has in store for us, no strings attached.

I advise you to practice the overused but well-intentioned new age phrase – live in the moment. Chances are anything and everything outside the walls of your mind is going to happen anyway. So the best way to prepare for everything is not to contemplate a damned thing.

This week, be inspired to let it go, let it go, let it go. Whatever it is stalking your thoughts right now, yes. I’m talking to you and you know what it is I refer to. Let it go. It doesn’t matter. It never did. And your thoughts do nothing but churn your emotions and delude you into thinking you can do something about it.

Trust, release, let it go, and exist minute by minute. Let all else drop away…

Alice Grist is the author of “The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment,” and “The High-Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living. She is the publisher of John Hunt Publishing’s Imprint, Soul Rocks Books, which publishes spiritual books for a new generation. Her third book, “Dear Poppyseed: A Soulful Mommas Pregnancy Journal,” will be published this year. She is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and The Conversation, and lives in the U.K. For more information, visit www.alicegrist.co.uk.