Ever since we were little, we've been taught to hold on

You learn to hold your mom’s hand, or you'll get lost.You learn to hold onto the monkey bars, or you'll fall. You learn to hold the door, the steering wheel, your loved ones, your friends and just about everything in between.

But, what we're never taught is how to let go.

How to let go of your mom’s hand and get lost all by yourself.

How to let go of the monkey bars and fall down a couple times.

How loosing your grip might just lead you in the right direction.

There's an art to letting go.

It's in the breath you release when you let the fear pass.

In the weight lifted off your shoulders when you let the anger go.

It's in the silence when you let go of the need to fill the space.

Letting go is not about loosing things. It's not about giving up or throwing in the towel.

Letting go is knowing when it's better to just move on, it's understanding your strengths and listening to yourself.

We've been taught for as long as we can remember that if we just hold on a little longer, a little tighter, it'll all work out. But that death grip, that need to hold every aspect of life in your hands, it's holding you back.

It's the cheesiest line in the book but if you never let yourself fall you'll never fly.

Life is about failure and feeling things. If you've got a tight grip on every move you make there will never be room to change.

If you hold every mistake with white knuckles all you'll be left with is a life of regret and no lessons learned.

Letting go is not easy. Relinquishing control is not easy.

We have these memories, these events that we want to replay over and over again. We want to hear the words someone said just one more time. We want to live in that moment just one more time. But living in that moment, replaying those words only holds you back from the life ahead of you.

If you spend your life holding on to what once was, you will never experience a new right now. You’ll never make new memories to replace the old.

So now is the time to let go.

Let go of the burden.

Let go of the regret.

Let go of the lost love, let go of the first.

Let go of the mistakes.

Let go of the hurt.

Let go of your mother’s hand and let yourself get lost.

Get lost in the moments and the fears, get lost in the excitement and the unknown.

While I can’t tell you the secret to happiness, I can tell you where it starts.

It all starts in the simple act, of letting go.