David R. Hawkins’ Letting Go Method

David R. Hawkins’ Letting Go focuses on a method Dr. Hawkins — a nationally renowned psychiatrist, physician, researcher, spiritual teacher and lecturer who was said to have become enlightened — recommended to reach inner clarity and transcend one’s problems by undoing the cause of the problems themselves.

According to Dr. Hawkins, the cause of our problems is not external circumstances, as we are (generally) predisposed to believe, but rather the accumulated pressure of feelings that have been suppressed, expressed, or escaped — where they continue to affect our lives unconsciously.

The mechanism of letting go facilitates a release of this accumulated pressure, thereby surrendering negative feelings and their corresponding thoughts. Once these negative feelings are felt, and the many thoughts correlating to the feelings dissolved, we free up energy to become happier, healthier, and more creative.

One of the best things about letting go is that it can be practiced anytime, anywhere. This means that it can be integrated into daily life at all times, in addition to focusing on it during meditation.

Dr. Hawkins describes the letting go method as follows:

• Become aware of a feeling.
• Allow the feeling come up, stay with it, and let it run its course – without attempting to change it or do anything about it. Drop the inclination to resist, vent, fear, condemn, moralize, or judge the feeling, as it is the resistance to the feeling that keeps it going.
• Ignore all thoughts and mental machinations/rationalizations related to the feeling.
• Repeat.

This method can also be referred to as feeling, because feeling into, taking responsibility for, and, ultimately, dissolving long-held negative emotions and traumas is at the core of what it means to let go – thereby freeing ourselves for a better future. Surprisingly, a consistent letting go practice may reveal that the external circumstances we are lamenting are only partially personal, and may also include generational, familial, and/or karmic healing that we are facilitating for ourselves and others.

Have you tried the letting go method and what was your experience?