Miserable people have trouble letting go.
For the longest time, I thought certain people couldn’t let go because of their miserable temperament. But I got the correlation backward: most people are miserable because of their clinging.
Be it anger, disappointment, sadness, or envy, so much of our suffering is a byproduct of prolonged attachment.
We cling to how a former friend treated us.
We cling to the way things should have turned out.
We cling to an opportunity we lost.
We cling to a craving for someone else’s belongings.
And then we wonder why we feel so heavy.
Of course, letting go doesn’t mean we stop feeling. Pain is part of being human. But suffering grows and happiness dissipates when we insist on carrying yesterday into today.
Misery is simply a side effect of holding on too long.
If you want to suffer less, carry less of today into tomorrow.
