How Can I Let Go If I Don't Know I'm Holding On?

Book excerpt: An exploration of the difficult, but necessary lesson of life—letting go—as a means of healing, maturing, and getting closer to God and who and what is important Letting go isn’t just saying good-bye to people, places, and things, as important as they may be. It's also about letting go of attitudes and ideas, such as perfectionism, resentment, worry, and judgmentalism—that keep us from growing in our relationships with God and others. Letting go is crucial to our spiritual and emotional health. In How Can I Let Go If I Don't Know I’m Holding On?, Linda Douty examines a variety of letting-go struggles and offers ways to move on to a deeper spirituality. Weaving together her own experiences and the stories of others, she offers strategies for letting go of the things that keep us from a deeper relationship with the Divine. With practical suggestions and updated versions of spiritual classics such as lectio divina, plus questions for study and reflection, this book is a rich resource for personal spiritual growth as well as for group study. “Every major spiritual tradition endorses a key piece of wisdom: It is by giving up, letting go, and renouncing attachments that we achieve fulfillment and job in life. Linda Douty’s book is a wide guide to accomplish this vital lesson.”—Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Power of Ordinary Things, Reinventing Medicine, and Healing Words