Many years ago – decades in fact – way back in the times when cassette tapes were the dominant media, I bought a very expensive training programme called, "The Sedona Method."

The claims were amazing. With this method I would find, "Freedom Now."

The freedoms on offer were emotional, relationship, even financial. I would be free from fear, free from guilt, and free to be me.

You can well imagine my frustration when the 15 or so tapes all had the same method on every tape! Did I become financially free? Nope! But I did get value from the technique, and it's stayed with me ever since. I don't believe the claims made for the method, but I do believe in the worthwhile nature of a very simple approach to letting go of stuff we don't want.

To share this effectively with you, I need you to play along!

You'll need a pencil or a pen – something you'd be happy to have clatter to the floor.

Let me give you an insight into what's to come. I'm going to ask you to squeeze the pencil tightly in your hand – as if it was a stressor that you were stressing over... even though it's just a pencil.

Then I'm going to ask you three very simple questions:

Firstly, COULD you let this go?

Secondly, WOULD you let this go?

Thirdly, WHEN?

OK, let's do this.

Squeeze the pencil.

Ask yourself the first question: COULD I let this go?

(Your answer is going to be, "Yes!")

Then ask yourself the second question: WOULD I let this go?

(I'm no mind-reader, but I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest your answer is again going to be, "Yes!" After all, it's just a pencil! You don't NEED to hold on to it, do you?)

Finally, ask yourself, "WHEN?" If your answer is, "Now!" DROP THE PENCIL!

I've had some minor upsets recently that have preyed upon and weighed on my mind. These upsets have damaged my energy, and I wanted to let them go. I wanted to be rid of them. Then I remembered the Sedona Method from all those years ago.

The upsets were far more emotionally charged than an inert pencil.

I pictured the offending party and asked myself, "COULD I let this go?" The answer, by the way, is always, "Yes!" to this question. Its purpose is to remind you that you have a choice.

The cross-roads is the, "WOULD I let this go?" question. The answer, here, can legitimately be, "No!" And here's the key point. If you WON'T let something go, get real and forget about doing anything else of any quality until you've confronted and dealt with the situation. Until you get to the point where you genuinely WOULD let this matter drop (like a pencil), it will consume your energy and drain you of passion.

I'm hoping for better things in our cases though; I'm hoping that we'll say, "Yes!" and when we move on to the, "WHEN?" question, we'll say, "Now!"

I did this with the emotional damage I'd received. It took a few attempts, but I succeeded in letting it go eventually. Then I deleted them as my Facebook friend and LinkedIn contact – that was really letting go!!! Let's not be naive, there are some people we are better off not having in our lives!

I don't believe in the spooky woo-woo claims for the Sedona Method, but I know it works well enough for me to be glad to have learned it, and well enough for me to use it time and time again.

I hope it will serve you well too.

Lex

A Moodscope member.