7 steps to letting go
Seven Steps to Letting Go of the Past
“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new
thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?” Isaiah 43:18
This is adapted from a short talk-show interview I saw with Bishop Dennis Leonard, the Senior
Pastor at Heritage Christian Center in Denver, Colorado. These are his seven steps and then I
added my own thoughts.
1. Let go of the baggage. Whether we realize it or not, as long as we hold on to our past, it
serves as a heavy weight on us. We need to let it go! This may not be an instantaneous
experience, but it can be our goal. My friend who experienced a very painful divorce
uses an image of a leaf floating down a steam. Whenever a
negative thought comes into her mind about her ex-husband and
the pain he brought to her and their family, she imagines that she
drops the thought onto the leaf and watches it float down the
steam and out of her sight.
I have written the names of past pains on a sheet of paper and had
a ceremonial “burning” to help me get in touch with letting go of the pain forever.
Another imagery I use is a set of keys. Imagine that I tossed you my keys and then
walked away. Someone comes to me and says, “I need your keys, Susan. Can you give
them to me?” I have to explain that I no longer have the keys. In the same way, I “toss
my cares” to the Lord . . . then if someone asks for the care (my mind or emotions), then
I send them to the Lord who has them!
2. Close that chapter. Just as in the verse of Isaiah 43:18, the Lord says, “Do not remember
former things.” Another way of saying that would be, “That was then and this is now.”
Rather than going back and re-reading the same chapter again and again, close that
chapter in your life. Move on . . . read on to your future. You can’t read two chapters at
the same time. Close that chapter and let it go. Let it get dusty on your “life bookshelf.”
3. Quit talking about the past. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those
who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21 Every time we talk about the problem or
pain, we take what is in the past and bring it back into our present day! God forgets our
past . . . so should we.
I was able to help a friend end the dwelling she was putting on a painful relationship.
She kept going back to the past. She said, “I just can’t stop thinking about it.” I told her
that the next time she turned to those thoughts to imagine that she was sitting down to
her dining table and serving herself a bowl of putrid smelling poison. That did it for her.
She used that imagery for the next several weeks and it broke of thinking about the pain
and thus talking about it.
Seven Steps to Letting Go of the Past 2009 by Susan Gregory
By Susan Gregory
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