Let It Go

It is funny how things can strike you. During the holidays my wife and I were looking for some relaxation one evening with a bit of home entertainment as we both are recovering from COVID.

Her experience with COVID was feeling exhausted, along with some brain fog. I, on other hand, was a bit more dramatic and needed a 6-day stay in the hospital on oxygen while the MD-types pumped me full of drugs and then sent me home with my COVID pneumonia.

So here we are isolating at home with limited options. One evening we were looking for some light entertainment. Candidly, we had kept the TV off for quite some time as we could not take any more “news” updates on the spread of the virus.

Let's watch a children's movie

After a quick look at the offerings, we were about to switch over to a paid service when my wife noticed that the 2013 Disney animated film Frozen was about to air. It had been years since we had seen the original and taken the kids to see the movie. My wife said, "For fun let's watch it." To our amazement the movie was both familiar and, at the same time, there were many scenes we had forgotten.

One of the classic songs in Frozen is the tune Let It Go and as we watched and listened the meaning of those words took on a whole new significance now that I am a blood cancer survivor.

A message in the movie

There are several different messages in each of the” Let It Go” stanzas” but the one that hit both of us was the following:

• Let it go! Let it go!
• I am one with the wind and sky!
• Let it go! Let it go!
• You’ll never see me cry!
• Here I stand and here I’ll stay
• Let the storm rage on.

The line "Let the storm rage on..." speaks to many of us who have faced the raging storm of treatments we endured to keep our blood cancer in check.

Letting go of the emotional clutter

Combine all this with all the emotional clutter in our lives and it becomes harder and harder to hear the quiet messages of peace our souls yearn for. If only there was a way to strip out the unnecessary things that cause anxiety and stress.

As humans we only have a limited of days on this planet. At some point all things come to an end. So here is the question, does it not make sense to live life to its fullest each day?

It's difficult to follow the advice of this animated character

As a blood-cancer survivor I think it is not a bad idea to spend some time thinking about what is going in my life and to ask where my stress is coming from. And  while it is easy to follow the advice of Elsa one of the films characters just “Let It Go” it is not that easy to do.

A while back I had decided something needed to be done so I made a list. On one side of the were the positives and on the other the negatives. Each negative was followed by question mark – suggesting it might be a target for removal.

Clearing a storm at a time

Next, I pick the top 3 emotional storms and ask why I am keeping these things in my life. After that I took a walk outside to clear my head and give myself some time to decide the next steps.

So far 7 storms have been removed from my life and it feels so good. It worked for me perhaps it can for you if you are looking for ways to “Let It Go.”