Letting go is not giving up.
It’s not a failure.
It’s not laziness, or weakness, or resignation.
It is a return — to harmony, to flow, to trust.
Laozi, in the Tao Te Ching, reminds us:
“To hold and fill to overflowing is not as good as stopping in time.”
“He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures.” (Chapter 9)
In other words: when we cling, we lose balance.
When we let go, we allow life to breathe through us.
In Western culture, we often treat effort as a virtue, and surrender as defeat.
We’re taught to “push through,” to “grind,” to “hustle.”
But effort without harmony becomes resistance.
And resistance wears down the soul.
Letting go isn’t about doing nothing.
To let go is not to flee, nor to resign —
but to meet the present moment with open hands.
The Tao does not command, it does not conquer — it invites.
To follow the Tao is not to force the path, but to walk it attentively.
Letting go is not a retreat, but a return — to what is already here.
Look at nature.
The river does not insist.
It moves around rocks, not through them.
It may seem soft, but over time it wears down even the hardest stone.
The wind does not hold form, and yet it touches all things.
Its strength lies in its freedom.
The seasons do not argue with impermanence.
They pass, dissolve, reappear — without resistance.
Spring lets go of winter. Summer yields to fall.
There is no control. Only rhythm. Only trust.
Zhuangzi, great Taoist sage, said:
“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free.”
To let go is to rejoin the flow — not by doing nothing,
but by doing without resistance.
Letting go means remembering:
you are not separate from that rhythm.
You are the river, the wind, the season.
You don’t need to hold everything together.
You only need to stop holding yourself apart.
When you let go, your body softens.
Your breath deepens.
You make space for life to move through you — not as something to conquer,
but as something to receive.
There’s a power in that softness.
A wisdom in that surrender.
And the first step… is simply to stop tightening your grip.
Try it. Right now.
Unclench your jaw.
Soften your shoulders.
Breathe — in and out.
Not to fix anything. Just to feel. Just to be.
That’s where it begins.
Letting go isn’t a decision you make once.
It’s a practice. A returning. A remembering.
You don’t need to let go of everything.
Just one breath is enough.
My deep gratitude for these words just arriving in my inbox. How could I ever possibly know that today a stranger would offer me such peace, such flow?
Amazing words