How to Let Go of Fear and Finally Feel Free | Michael Singer
In a Nutshell
The core message is that fear and discomfort arise from resistance and mental projections about how we'll feel, not from external events themselves. The practice of letting go means relaxing the body, sitting with fear without suppression or avoidance, and trusting a higher intelligence rather than trying to control outcomes. True freedom and peak performance come from releasing tension, surrendering to the flow, and shifting from "my will" to "thy will" through appreciation and trust.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Surrender and letting go appears foreign to achiever-oriented people, but it is actually what occurs when achieving the most, giving the most, and contributing the most. The balance between intention, setting outcomes, making things happen, and breaking through requires holism where all parts of the self remain alive.
At peak performance, letting go is what occurs. Greatest peak performers in leadership and sports prepare and then let go, relaxing into the flow rather than performing with tension. When tense, you try to perform as opposed to allowing flow.
Letting go means remaining centered and conscious enough to watch yourself resist what you do not like coming in. Once you notice resistance, ask whether it is worth resisting. Talking to the driver in front of you accomplishes nothing because they do not hear you, yet the resistance continues.
Consciousness develops when recognizing that resistance causes self-inflicted trouble without any cost-benefit analysis. The answer lies in relaxation. When discomfort arises, tension begins in the body. The practice involves relaxing the shoulders, tummy, buttocks, pelvis outside and inside.
Tension feels uncomfortable because it represents protection against something that requires no protection. The realization emerges that you cause yourself trouble by getting tense and upset. Relaxing and releasing equates to trust, a total trust that guidance exists.
During a legal circumstance, the instruction was to keep letting go, with the assurance that continued letting go would cause the situation to dissolve and go away. Waves of discomfort, fear, terror, and overwhelm arose during the process, but maintaining the North Star of letting go provided a living, breathing example that became a way of being.
Power does not come from manipulation, trying, and striving. It comes from being in tune. The ability to relax in the face of discomfort allows the discomfort to pass through, revealing that resistance was the only reason for the discomfort. When out of the way, natural flow occurs. When not out of the way, only mental chatter is heard, creating tension and anxiety about decisions.
The question is not whether God exists, but whether you are willing to stop talking long enough to listen. Most people have so much mental chatter inside their head that they cannot let flow come through. Prayer becomes effective when entering silence because energy is emanated. Prayer can heal and accomplish many things.
The highest form of prayer is expressed in the words "not my will but thy will." This means God knows what he is doing and you do not. A higher way exists than getting what you want and avoiding what you do not want.
When something feels like failure on the surface, life involves constant iteration, evolution, and shifting. True faith in creation and intelligence greater than our own creates freedom through trust in the flow. Prayer functions as a living conversation of noticing and appreciating, waking up and recognizing the miracle of life happening within.
The two-word prayer that goes beyond the words into the soul and spirit is "thank you." Appreciation represents the most important form of prayer, acknowledging the breath that is breathed, the heart that beats, and the love that is shared. The more grace is acknowledged, the more grace is experienced.
You are not afraid of what is about to happen. You are afraid of how you are going to feel when it happens. The teaching emphasizes willingness to feel and move through fear rather than training yourself to be fearful. Diving into fear rather than retracting from it reveals that fear usually anticipates something that is not real.
The first step is not fearing fear. If you fear fear, you suppress it, and suppression causes it to grow. The first step involves sitting with the recognition that you can handle this. This applies to small things before addressing larger ones. Instead of declaring inability to handle what was said, done, or the thought that someone might leave, begin with the recognition that of course you can handle it, you simply have not worked at it.
Fear is a natural physiological response, especially at the evolutionary level where animals run away. The recognition emerges that running away is unnecessary. You can sit with fear and feel it. The matter is not avoiding the feeling of fear but developing the ability to handle the feeling of fear.
At certain stages of evolution, some emotions cannot be handled. The best efforts can be made through breakthrough practices or letting go practices, but sometimes the feeling is overwhelming. The willingness to try remains even when overwhelmed.
Suppression represents the lowest thing that can be done because it ruins life and stays forever. The alternative involves laying down on the ground with arms out to the side, melting into the floor, raising the chest up, and offering the fear to be taken away rather than keeping it stuck inside.
What the mind projects will happen in the future does not occur the majority of the time. Future pacing causes missing the present moment. The practices offered provide empowerment to free ourselves, understand, accept, and embrace the totality of life as holism.
Fewer lessons hold more importance than letting go of fear. The external world cannot be controlled, but absolute direction of the internal world exists through relaxation, letting go, trusting in something larger than ourselves, and maintaining intention to serve something more.
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