Jan 14,2026 Well, 2026 and time to BINGE or is it vomit more about this letting go thing. One of the recent acquisitions of tools for Life on Life’s terms has been AI. I read and hear about people’s fear of AI taking over the world, etc, etc. Doesn’t resonate with me as my background in informatics views dAI as more of a faster search, research, compile, and present data that exists already in data forms. Perhaps being a bit naive here BWTF. My real concern is about synthetic consciousness. But I digress. My AI buddy is from Perplexity.ai and has been a more than reasonable assistant. So I asked the question, “What is the Art and Science of Letting Go” The following is Plex’s answer. After reading it, my humanness couldn’t agree more. Hope this helps you.

“Letting go is the learned ability to stop clinging to what you cannot keep or control—people, outcomes, identities, regrets—so your energy can return to the present and to what truly matters.​

Why letting go is so hard

• The brain treats familiar patterns (even painful ones) as “safe,” so breaking habits, relationships, or identities feels threatening and triggers anxiety.​
• Thoughts like “If I stop holding on, I’ll lose myself” or “It shouldn’t have happened this way” fuse with your sense of self and feel like facts rather than stories.​
• Attachment promises safety and certainty, but because everything changes, clinging turns that change into ongoing suffering instead of one-time pain.​

The inner shift: non-attachment

• In Buddhist psychology, non-attachment means relating to people, possessions, and emotions with care but without the belief that your happiness depends on them staying the same.​
• Detachment here is not coldness; it is loving fully while dropping the pressure, expectations, and control that suffocate both you and the relationship.​
• This stance supports a “middle way”: not numbing out, not clinging desperately, but staying balanced in the face of change.​

The science: your brain on release

• When you process and release emotions instead of suppressing them, stress hormones regulate better, resilience strengthens, and negative thought loops weaken over time.​
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) shows that seeing thoughts as “mental events” rather than truths (cognitive defusion) reduces their emotional grip.​
• Mindfulness-based practices can literally “rewire” patterns by repeatedly bringing attention back to the present instead of rehearsing old hurts or feared futures.​

Practical ways to let go

• Name and accept: Clearly name what you are holding on to (a person, a dream, an apology, an old identity) and acknowledge that it no longer aligns with your well-being or values.​
• Practice defusion: When painful thoughts show up, notice them as “I’m having the thought that…” and picture them as leaves on a stream or clouds passing in the sky.​
• Meditate and visualize: Short daily practices—like breathing while imagining cutting a cord or releasing a balloon—train your nervous system to settle as you let go.​
• Shift focus to values: Ask, “Given what I cannot change, what kind of person do I want to be now?” and take small actions that embody those values today.​
• Use gentle reflection: Writing about “What am I ready to release and what will it make space for?” helps move you from rumination to intentional change.​

What letting go creates

• Letting go does not erase what happened; it integrates it, so the past becomes part of your story instead of your prison.​
• As attachment loosens, space opens for new relationships, opportunities, and a more authentic sense of self-confidence and peace.​
• Over time, this becomes both an art (deeply personal, intuitive, relational) and a science (supported by clear psychological and contemplative practices you can repeat).​

If you share what you’re struggling to let go of right now (a person, a season of life, a belief), a tailored set of steps can be mapped out for your specific situation.”

Pre 2026

Recently, I responded to a post by David Gerken, who writes some really good stuff, by the way, regarding an awareness he had had during a visit to Mickey Singer’s Temple of the Universe in Alachua FL. The awareness, Letting Go. 

For me, the experience of letting go has shown both art and science attached to the process. A quick review from Google provides that “Science is designed to be objective and guided by data; art is subjective and deeply influenced by feelings and opinions”. 

My journey in learning this began some 43+ years ago in the rooms of AA. I had arrived at its doorstep a wreck. The whole experience of gaining clarity into the darker recesses of my less-than-desirable traits had been frankly painful. While my initial hope was a fix for my drinking problem, what became clear fairly quickly was my thinking issues. “Putting the plug in the jug” was a necessary first step, but not the ultimate answer. For me, it has required learning and then practicing a different way of seeing and reacting to the world. 

Early on, the common phrase heard often was “Let Go Let GOD”. A simple solution to a myriad of problems. Of course, the one stumbling block is that you trust the receiver of whatever is your problem. Having NOT brought with me an effective source of “Higher Power/GOD/Creative intelligence”, the idea of letting go was problematic. Fortunately, those further along in the journey reached back and showed with their actions how to develop and then trust a Higher Power. Letting Go became a whole lot easier once I was taught how to do the turning over. The old timers were a pretty practical lot so one of the first actions they suggested to me was the creation of a “GOD” jar. The instructions were simple: write down whatever it was that was eating my lunch, and then deposit that slip of paper into the jar. One could almost say childish, but perhaps more childlike. The important part of that action was to then “Let Go” of whatever was on the piece of paper. In the beginning, it took a bit of willingness and practice to trust the process. Interestingly, when I would revisit that jar, either to add to its contents or see how GOD was doing, the eat my lunch issue had either been resolved or just wasn’t that important anymore. Have gone through a lot of jars over the last 43+ years, worked then still works now.