The Power of Letting Go

By Yaoyao Shi

Different life experiences bring us joy, surprises, sadness, disappointments, and other feelings. Especially during COVID, I sometimes found myself trapped in my feelings and negativity tended to consume me. People around me also felt helpless about things happening around us. However, I have realized that we can choose our perspectives, and that can help us feel less trapped. Things like COVID are the ones that we cannot change, so we shall let it pass. The mentality of accepting reality and letting it pass is the key. I have realized the power of letting go and recognizing everything as part of my life journey. This mentality enables me to fill my life with positivity and gratefulness.

My friend has shared the serenity prayer with me during this summer:

“God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.”

One important thing I have learned is to acknowledge the temporal nature of moments. Not all things are the best all the time. We should accept what we have been offered and be open to those. When we face obstacles, we can either think of them as disruptions to our lives, or we can think of them as challenges to make us stronger and more successful. It is all about perspectives, and we can choose. When I reflected on my past challenges in this positive mentality, I realized how much I have benefited from them. We can never imagine how these experiences may bring happiness down the road.

Another important thing I have learned is that it is important for us to accept things that we cannot change and let them pass. At the same time, we should make efforts to change the things that are within our reach. If we could distinguish the things within our control from the ones out of our control, we will have a much more positive mindset. We have the circle of influence which contains factors that we can control, and we also have the circle of concern which consists of things that we have no control over. The circle of concern is much bigger than the circle of influence, but we should only care about the circle of influence, and we will no longer have any headaches or negativity caused by things that we cannot control. For instance, the difficulties that COVID put to our lives are out of our control, but we do have the power to do our best to create a strong and positive community with care and love.

I wish that the serenity prayer will give us insights for having the wisdom to let things pass and make changes when needed.