Letting Go

Holding on is believing that there’s only a past;
letting go is knowing that there’s a future.
– unknown

According to author Mark Manson, there’s a part of Navy SEAL training called “drown-proofing" where they bind your hands behind your back, tie your feet together, and dump you into a 9-foot pool.

Your job is to survive for five minutes.

The vast majority of cadets who attempt drown-proofing fail. Upon being tossed into the water, many of them panic and scream to be lifted back out.

With your arms and legs bound, it’s impossible to maintain yourself at the surface for the full five minutes. Even worse, your limited attempts to keep your body afloat only cause you to sink faster.

The trick to drown-proofing is to actually let yourself sink. From there, you lightly push yourself off the pool floor and let your momentum carry you back to the surface. Once there, you can grab a quick breath of air and start the whole process over again.

Counterintuitive as it may be, the goal is to teach the mind to achieve what it desires by giving up what it desires. To show it that the only way up is by first letting yourself sink. And how do we do this? By letting go. By surrendering. Not out of weakness. But out of a respect that the world is beyond us.  By willingly accepting that some things are just out of our control.

In times of dread and uncertainty, lean in – and let go.

Just when you think you’ve gone too deep, you'll touch the bottom.

And launch yourself back up again.