Don't Let Go
May 01, 2026
Your child is spiraling out of control, arrests, another overdose, declining help ... and you're told to let go. Really? How in the world do you let go of someone you love so much and worry about to the degree that most of us do? I don't think so! How do you let go when your loved one is part of your heart and soul?
If you could let go, you would. Can you just drop it? I can't. There's worry, fear, exhaustion for very good reasons. And it's normal to experience all of it. It doesn't mean you're stuck there though.
So don't let go. Please do not pressure yourself to let go when it seems you really can't. There's another way that is much kinder.
A Kinder Way:
Try to develop a willingness to accept reality as it is, and of course you probably won't like it, you don't have to condone it, ignore it, numb it, deny it. Your child may in fact be spiraling out of control, getting arrested, they have overdosed, they are declining help. Can you really let go of that? You stand a much better chance of surrendering to the reality of it.
Acknowledge the circumstances for what they are. This means letting things be what they are, for the time they are. And while you're practicing letting circumstances be, invite a willingness to allow your emotional experience too. Fighting your emotions can intensify them. Instead increase your compassion and self-care to nurture yourself, especially during hard times.
Breathe. Slow down. Let it be. Feel. Now what? What makes sense as something you can do that does not involve controlling or fixing someone else, or playing ruler of the universe?
How do you want to and need to show up in your own life, to take care of you during these hard times? Because you'll need to if you want to show up for your child with more clarity and calm. Simplifying, prioritizing, taking it one small step at a time, and extreme self-care is a really good place to be.
How do you want to show up for your child? Frantic in fear and the pressure that they get it and you should be getting over it? Or calmer in clarity that for now you're meeting them where they're at, and dealing with what you've got on your plate? You're not in the past or future, you're taking care of what you've got just for now.
You may find that the letting go is more like a release of the pressure to let go so that you can move into the sanity of letting it be and allowing your next choice to unfold.
Does letting it be make everything easy? No. Does it bring ease to the hard? In my experience it does.
If there is something to let go of it's this term to just let go. It's used too often when someone just doesn't know what to say, when it's uncomfortable and you can't fix it, when someone is tired of the same old story. In fact, let that be too and see what happens, because it may show you your next choice to be in a different conversation.
Let it Be and let Love lead. It will, if you let it.
Love wins here!
Peace to you and your family,
Joanne
