The Art of Letting Go

Have you ever been so smitten with someone that right from under your nose you let an amazing catch get away because you couldn’t lift your head up long enough to see that the grass really was greener somewhere else? Are you that person that is super hung up on your ex and convinced that if you just coast along, your ex will come to his senses and come back to you with arms wide open saying something like “I've made a huge mistake and I realized you are the one for me, I’ll never leave you again... ever!" Well if you are, then ask yourself this question: Why would you want to be with someone who has left you once or twice already? People who are deserving of your love are the ones who stand by you even when the time gets tough.

I must admit, that I completely dropped the ball a few times on love. I have let people who loved me get away because I couldn't move on and was determined to get back the affection of whoever it was that I had my sights set on. Somewhere along the way, destiny can be so cruel to take away the person that makes each day of our life a fairy tale. Then our world would start to turn upside down and we just find ourselves empty and broken.

When it comes to love, each of us can have our different stories to tell. Nevertheless, all of us can be on the same predicament, which is finding the strength to let go of the feelings that seem to haunt us. Being able to move on is not something that happens over night. The process of removing hurtful feelings from your life is not easy and not something to be taken lightly. So when the time comes that you decide that you've had enough and want to take a more positive path in your life, here are a few things that you can consider.

Dwell in the past. Yes, I've said it, dwell in the past but not too much, just let yourself reminisce each moment you've spent together. Ironic isn't it? But sometimes it's only through allowing ourselves to find painful joy in the broken pieces of our past that we can start to feel tired and willingly wave our hands and give up. When that happens, we can start the next step towards totally letting go. After all, suppressing our feelings and holding back the tears are bad to our nervous system. So its okay to cry. There are stages of grief, that people sometimes have to go through in order to move on. Don't be ashamed to take your time and allow yourself to feel the pain.

Realize your worth. Sometimes, when we fall in love, we tend to neglect ourselves, our personal goals and plans because every move we make seems to consider our loved one. Now is the right time to contemplate on what you really want to do with your life, what you've always been wanting to attain. It is through loving ourselves that we can start to move out from the doomed world that covered us. It is through loving ourselves that we can start to find the light again and start a new life.

Commit to accept. It is pointless to say you have given up and after a few days you start to dwell in the past again. You have to decide whether you want your life to be miserable forever by living with the past or start again and find joy. Once you've decided, you need to commit to yourself that you will accept your fate. Total acceptance will allow your state of mind to focus on moving on instead of holding on. This will help you learn to appreciate the brighter side of things and eventually lead you to a new dimension in life.

When your relationship takes a nose dive, you won't believe the statement that you are better off. But as time passes by, you'll realize that you are. If you can firmly believe that everything happens for a reason, you will soon realize the power of those words. After the dust has settled a bit, the reasons that you are better off will begin to fly through your head. Giving yourself time to get past the demise of your love will ultimately be all that it takes. There are no magic bullets to make the pain go away in a snap of a finger. It is something that we must work through in order to get to the better end. Time will teach you the great art of letting go.

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The Art Of Appreciation

What do you value more? Finding a partner who understands you or one who appreciates you? How would it feel to wake up in the morning and be told how much you are loved? I've certainly turned these questions over in my head quite a few times. Honestly, I've always been interested in finding someone who really gets me and if you'd ask me what I mean, I'd quickly say, someone who understands, who empathizes, you know.. But now that I think about it, I realized that what I want more than that is someone who simply appreciates certain ways I see the world, and respects certain choices I've made, even if he doesn't completely understand how my mind works. As a matter of fact, the guys with whom I've had the least in common or who didn't seem to entirely understand where I was coming from, did seem to treat me better and were more into me than the guys with whom I had a common ground.

I’ve met so many couples whose main relationship issue boils down to not feeling appreciated by their partner. It’s so easy to take each other for granted and to get caught up in a pattern of not expressing your appreciation of each other. When you do not show appreciation in relationships you risk the chance of running into trouble as appreciation is one of the best expressions of love and care. It is extremely important to show appreciation to your partner because as they say, you never know the value of what you have until you lose it. Sad to say, some people are often engrossed in what they hope to achieve, forgetting what they already have.

Now what can you do to really let your partner know how grateful you are for everything that they do? I guess the first step is to think about all the special things that your partner does for you, not only physical things like doing the household chores or making your favorite dinner. How about the way that he/she is sensitive to your feelings? Or makes an effort to be respectful to you in front of other people? It’s all the little and big things that count. Once you have all these things in mind, it will be a piece of cake for you to appreciate your partner and show them how much everything they do for you means to you. If you deliberately, proactively choose to focus on what you value about your partner as much and as often as you possibly can, you’ll find that the love in your life just grows and grows.

As you see, that’s the true meaning of appreciation. It’s not just another word for gratitude, a polite “thank you” after someone has done something nice for you, but appreciation as valuing. The thoughts you think, when you are appreciating someone or something, are thoughts about their worth, their value to you, what they mean to you, and why they matter.

What about in our everyday life? Would the same concept apply? You bet! Showing appreciation can be done in many ways. But the most important thing is simply recognizing how fortunate we all are. The fact is that, in this country, even our slums are better than the best of what many other countries in the world have to offer. So it's time to focus not on what we lack, but to fully appreciate what we already have. To give gratitude for our health, our family, our friends, our possessions, however large or small, right now. It's time to count our blessings instead of discounting them.

Appreciation is a cornerstone of love, one of its most important elements. Whether it is appreciating the beauty of the sun rising in the morning, acknowledging the joy of spending quality time with loved ones or the intimacy of making love to your partner, appreciation in general helps pave the way for a deep connection, intimacy, and honesty in our relationships.

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