600 Days of Letting Go - A Documented Journey

Hello everyone!

The goal of this post is to offer what I hope will be a valuable testimony of what it’s like to apply the Letting Go technique in one’s life. A post like this is something I wish I had when I first picked up Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender on September 29th, 2024 by Dr. David R. Hawkins. At the time, I was a staunch atheist, and the idea of God or anything mystical belonged in the same category as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, something to be laughed off immediately.

During my first read, I endlessly intellectualised and outright mocked the books content (resistance), with thoughts like “this is absurd” or “this is a bit too woo‑woo for me.” Two months later, in late November 2024, it was on my third read of the book that I began to realise I would never truly validate its truth until I actually tried it. Looking back, what kept me returning to it was that, unconsciously, I intuited the book to be profoundly truthful. On top of that, I was getting desperate, as the way I had been living was reaching a breaking point, with episodes of depression, cycles of addiction, and suicidal thoughts becoming ever more frequent. Nonetheless, the realisation arose that by endlessly thinking about it, I was getting nowhere. So I decided to apply the technique for six months and determine its value later.

Fast forward to today, approaching two years later, and this post is a documentation of the discoveries that have been made. Not only do I speak from first hand experience, but I also refer to a personal journal of almost 250 pages that details the inner discoveries, realisations, and lessons that have unfolded along the way. Whether you're on the fence, on the journey, or can already attest to its findings, I’m sure this post will reach whoever needs it most.

Note: the terms release, surrender, and letting go all refer to the same thing (the technique itself). Additionally, the use of the word "I" (this particular consciousness) is merely used for convenience.

The First Release

The simplicity of the technique cannot be overstated. Whether standing or sitting, bring awareness into the body, and whatever feeling wants to come up, let it come up. There is no judgement, no attempting to force a feeling, and no wishing it away. Whatever is ready to come up will do so of its own accord, eventually dissolving by its own nature. The best analogy I can conjure is that of a match. You light the match and simply watch it. Eventually, by its own nature, the match extinguishes by being allowed to burn. It might sound paradoxical, but you don't need to do anything. You set the intention of “I’d rather be free than let this feeling stay lodged in the body/nervous system,” and by observing the emotion pass, it does so.

At the time of my first release, I was 25 years old and couldn’t tell you the last time I actually felt anything other than chronically numb. Strangely, I often prided myself on never crying, as if that was something to brag about. Nonetheless, despite the mind strongly resisting what was coming, when the decision was made to let whatever wanted to come up come up, it was, as Dr. Hawkins has previously described, like Pandora’s Box. It was a grand explosion. The moment awareness came into the body, up came a surge of fear (around the technique itself). There was also guilt, anger, and a lot of grief, decades of emotion dating back to early childhood. The emotions mixed into a cocktail of what I noted at the time as nothing more than “a heavy dark cloud.”

As these feelings came up, there was a sense of relief, as though there was a subtle “ah finally.” I liken it to carrying around the weight of a 20 kg dumbbell in your body for much of your life, and then eventually the weight begins to slowly lighten. After about twenty minutes or so, the grief did in fact vanish, just as reported in the book. Although the other lower emotions were still present, there was a profound lightness that arose, almost like a breath of relief after sitting down at the end of a long day. The next morning when I awoke, I noted feeling somewhat lighter and significantly less afraid of what might come up as the practice continued. The fear of the technique itself had now been faced, and amazingly, I found that it was nowhere near as scary as initially thought. The emotions really were nothing more than just energy, again as the book notes.

The Mind/Thoughts

When first using the technique, one of the first things I noticed is the endless rambling that goes on within the mind. In the beginning, there was an endless amount of fearful thoughts on the technique, such as:

• "Am I losing my mind?"
• "Is this even working?"
• "This doesn't seem healthy."
• "Am I dying?"
• "I'm such a (insert self-loathing thought)."
• Thoughts of ex partners, people hurt, sad situations, etc.

What becomes clear is that the mind, like a sports commentator, is constantly trying to explain and justify the presence of a feeling. If grief is being felt, there will be all kinds of sad thoughts. If anger is being felt, there will be all kinds of resentful or attacking thoughts. The technique is applied not only to the feelings, but to the thoughts as well. The thoughts are nothing more than the mind rationalising the feelings, so one can let go of the feelings whilst simultaneously ignoring the thoughts. Ultimately, whatever the mind has to say is not all that important, because 99 percent of the time, in the present moment, nothing is actually happening that demands constant incessant thinking.

The body/nervous system is being allowed to do what it is meant to do, which is release the emotions it has been holding onto for so long. In a way, the technique is you getting out of the way of a natural process. In fact, in using the technique one realises that it is much more unnatural to hold onto emotions long after a particular event has occurred. To handle the mind then, and this gets easier with practice, identify as the watcher, witness, or observer, and simply bypass the mind. The mind will protest of course, but the more you watch it, the more humorous the whole process becomes. As Dr. Hawkins reports, the mind is the self, whereas awareness is the Self with a capital S.

The more you use the technique and realise the thoughts and feelings are not you, the more you begin to identify with that silent eternal watcher. The sense of 'I' goes from a suffering self, full of all kinds of stories from the past, to the Self that is always present and merely needs activated through intention/choice. As this process unfolds, one begins to truly grasp the meaning of being unconcious/conscious. The mind is not you, but merely a tool for analysis, and a commentator of external events. With continual surrender, the mind eventually falls silent.

Positive Feelings

A first experience in a higher states of consciousness is completely unmistakable and truly life altering. Once experienced, you begin to orient your life around wanting to live in those states most of the day, if not forever if that’s your life goal through choice. In the early days of using the technique, I recall curiously wondering what Dr. Hawkins meant by “let go of the resistance that blocks the positive feelings.” It sounded paradoxical.

Eventually, while letting go of a wave of grief that came up (I can’t overstate how much grief and guilt this body carried from childhood), I brought awareness into my heart region and wondered what feeling might want to come out behind the grief. Suddenly, that curious question was all it took. The grief instantly vanished and a surge of the most amazing sweet feeling arose. The feeling came up the spine, passed through the heart, and then began to reach the top of the head.

I strongly reiterate here that it wasn’t forced at all, but allowed. The feeling of love arising from the heart was simply allowed to flow, almost as if the heart itself was wide open. There was no personal “me” doing anything, because what was occurring was purely impersonal. The feeling then reached the head and alchemised into an exquisite Joy. In the presence of these somewhat indescribable feelings, the mind completely switched off for there really isn’t much that can be said about such beautiful feelings, they can only be lived. This has been the great struggle of all great spiritual teachers, attempting to describe the undescribable. The more awareness brought onto these feelings, the more intense they became. This particular experience occurred two weeks after my first release.

The best analogy that summarises positive feelings (love, joy, and peace) is that of the sun. These feelings, like the light of the sun, are constantly shining. The nervous system, when unblocked by suppressed or repressed feelings (clouds), effortlessly bathes in the warmth of the sun. Therefore, there is no such thing as creating or forcing positive feelings, because they are your natural state. As Dr. Hawkins states in almost every book he has authored, peaceful conditions cannot be created. Peace arises when that which is blocking it is removed. The feelings of shame, guilt, grief, fear, desire, anger, and pride act as clouds that block the effortless light of the sun (courage, acceptance, love, joy, and peace).

Important caveat: This discovery can only be verified after you've let go of enough emotions thare are blocking that light from coming through. Do not attempt to force positive feelings as you'll only create more stress on the nervous system, but instead let go of that which blocks the heart from remaining open.

Outcomes in Daily Life

Rather than vague promises of what is possible, I will list the documented outcomes that have been directly expericed and have been attributed to the letting go technique. The results are as follows:

• Chronic addiction slowly began to disappear. After dealing with p*** addiction since childhood, I had quite literally tried everything in the scientific/self-improvement space. Habit tracking, new hobbies, willpower/avoidance, exercise, reading endless books, everything! I would manage a couple of days without it, then would predictably slip up and find myself back into a state of shame. With the letting go technique, rather than doing all of that exhausting work, I simply asked "what feelings is the p*** covering up?" With that, I'd always get an answer in the form of a feeling to let go of, such as shame (disappointment in ones self), guilt (insecurity), or grief (loneliness). Over the months and eventual year of using the technique, the desire for the behaviour dwindled gradually, eventually losing all attraction, as the high that I was chasing with a quick hit of p*** induced cortisol, was now replaced by the feelings of love, joy, and peace simply by being alive. The fact that I exist, was enough. Now, I feel like a kid again, before I did when I first unknowingly watched p***.
• Love has become a baseline and non‑negotiable. Although it might sound shocking to some, maybe even downright bizarre, the feeling of love and joy is now a predominant state of being throughout daily life, no matter what is occurring. After looking back at the sheer amount of lower feelings I had been carrying, and have now let go of, it is no wonder I was so lost in life. Now, if I sit down and bring awareness into the body, there is rarely a lower feeling that wants to come up. They still arise occasionally of course, but far more rarely and often pass quickly. I've found that grief, though, is almost impossible to feel, because it simply isn’t there anymore. It's almost as if it's "run out" so to speak. Instead, love has become the predominant feeling, and I find it almost impossible to want to control anyone or act in a way that might harm someone. Anything lower than love or joy has become deeply unattractive. By constantly letting go of the negative, the positive really is mostly what remains.
• Tolerance for negativity. The more you let go, the thinner your tolerance for negativity becomes. You begin to notice even the most subtle drains in energy with incredible clarity. For example, I used to be an avid video gamer and a chronic user of social media. After surrendering feelings for some time, I began to notice how incredibly drained I felt after indulging in these activities. It has nothing to do with morals; they’re not “bad,” simply taxing. With that realisation, I no longer indulge in them, and I find less stimulating activities far more enjoyable, such as reading, going for walks, exercising, being with friends/family, so on. WARNING: It is best to be prepared for the fact that you will realise how taxing modern technology is on the nervous system and ones overall energy. It can be quite a disturbing lesson to uncover due to how normalised it become in the world at large. This constant stimulation is incredibly detrimental, as modern technology advances at a rate a thousand times faster than that of the natural evolution of the human nervous system.
• Career/work life has become effortless. I used to work in law enforcement, a career I had poured my emotions into and built an entire identity around. When I began using the letting go technique, my career curiously took a sudden shift. I got injured, and the idea of leaving brought up a lot of heavy feelings. Nonetheless, I did leave, and rather than endlessly thinking about it, as I used to do so often, I let go of all the feelings surrounding the situation. In the weeks that followed, it ended up being a beautiful event of intelligent design. I found myself being offered a job I absolutely love, surrounded by a team I love. Due to the predominant presence of positive feelings, work now feels almost effortless. The once incessant desire for career progression has been replaced by the joy of simply being. As they say, it’s the journey, not the destination.
• Relationships. I met the love of my life when I wasn’t looking. I had gone on a couple of dates here and there, and something I found difficult was feeling profound love for them while simultaneously knowing they weren’t really for me. There was a small amount of guilt in turning down people, but it was always done so lovingly and with respect. It was while dating that I began to understand what Dr. Hawkins meant by “thinkingness is slowly replaced by knowingness as one continually lets go. The mind thinks and argues, while the heart knows and continues.”This has proven true and has now been verified, because when I finally met my partner, I took one look at her and just knew she was the one almost immediately. It’s unexplainable to logic and reason, but it seems to arise out of a field of knowingness that can only be described as intuition. Lastly, all relationships across the board throughout life have thrived and become more loving, forgiving, and healed. Interestingly, humour in particular seems to have become a constant occurrence in work, family, and friendship, as commonly reported for as key traits of spiritual teachers in much spiritual literature.
• "What is held in mind tends to manifest" As a former diehard atheist and hater of all things woo‑woo, this statement has now been verified as undoubtedly true. However, it cannot be “proven” in any conventional/scientific sense, but can only be verified through one’s lived experience. Nothing is personally brought into manifestation, as much as the ego would like to take claim. Instead, everything comes into manifestation as a consequence of the field that is predominant. For example, being in a state of love brings about loving conditions. The catch is that the more love you feel, the more complete you feel, and the more complete you feel, the less you desire or want. Therefore, the puzzling phenomenon of “it arrived as soon as I stopped looking” is answered. Focus on being, less on having. Reality responds to your state of consciousness, not the way the mind thinks it "should" be.
• The Dark Night of the Soul. It has been reported in countless spiritual texts/books that the Dark Night of the Soul often comes before the breakthrough. This, again, has been verified as undoubtedly true. It sounds paradoxical, but it appears that the intelligence that governs all that is, whether you call it God, Source, the unconscious mind, or whatever floats your boat, seems to know exactly what will bring about healing (the feelings that need let go of). There have been numerous "crises," as labelled by the mind, that were in fact precisely what needed to occur for the next stage of consciousness to evolve, such as an important lesson, a feeling to be let go of, or better and happier conditions in daily life (i.e. the sudden injury that led to a better job). This brings about hope, because one begins to truly comprehend that no matter what occurs in life, one is always protected, forever and always.

The Limitation of Letting Go/Surrender

So far, there has only been one genuine limitation I have encountered, and paradoxically, it arises from the effectiveness of the technique itself. As documented in many of Dr. Hawkins’ work, as one approaches the level of Peace (600+), the spiritual devotee will often retreat from worldly life. The energy that begins to arise in the body becomes incredibly taxing on the nervous system while simultaneously being exquisite and almost indescribable. It is as though the nervous system is not fully equipped for such intensity, like 40 volts of electricity passing through a wire only made for 20.

In order to process this energy, worldly life and all of its jobs, commitments, and attachments often have to be released, as is well documented throughout much of spiritual literature. I have discovered this to be profoundly true.

Early this year (2026), I moved to Sydney for three months for work and found myself living in a small apartment. I decided that during these three months, I would surrender at great depth, and whenever I wasn’t working, I would let go continuously rather than sparingly. At night, and sometimes even at work, the presence of profound energy would arise (which had to be suppressed at work occassionally). A joyful and incredible ecstasy would come up, but admittedly was quite taxing on the body (burning sensation). Sometimes, the energy became so profound in states of meditation that it became increasingly difficult to leave the state and return fully to ordinary waking consciousness after letting go continuously.

Regrettably but somewhat humorously, I recall a particular time when I was meant to meet a friend for coffee. I had a bit of time to kill before meeting them, so I thought I would sit down and meditate whilst letting go. Immediately, profound feelings came up. While bathing in the energy of pure bliss, I recall the thought, “I think it’s been about 30 minutes, I should come back into the body.” When I began to come out of the state and checked the time, it had been four hours! I had a bunch of missed messages and apologised deeply, but I was baffled at the passage of linear time. This was my first experience of Dr. Hawkins’ comment that “time in higher states of consciousness almost occurs in slow motion.” It was a clear example of how difficult it can be to navigate these higher states of energy.

Therefore, to verify the states of consciousness above Peace 600+, it is not possible to be in the world of events, happenings, and so on. To go all the way is to quite literally, go all the way. Due to certain commitments that I am unwilling to let go of at this current stage of earthly life, I have chosen to instead just be as loving as I can throughout daily life, rather than going all the way and aiming for Enlightenment. In the end, that's the beauty of free will. As Dr. Hawkins says "you don't have to let go. The choice is yours." Regardless, worldly life has been made infinitely easier with the letting go technique, as there seems to be a consistent flow of energy passing up the spine that is often channelled into whatever might require ones attention at any given moment.

How to Approach the Work

Like much of spiritual work and literature, Dr. Hawkins’ nine‑book series is a lot to digest. Nonetheless, after reading a myriad of spiritual literature, his books are, without a doubt, my personal favourite. I genuinely believe they truly represent the way forward for humanity. However, the best way to approach his books is to start at the end and work your way back.

Although Power vs Force, Truth vs Falsehood, and The Eye of the I are vital on the journey toward understanding the states of energy you’ll experience, they are incredibly difficult to grasp until you’ve read and actually applied the letting go technique. Therefore, I advise starting with the final book in the series, then visiting the others afterward.

If you made it this far, I thank you deeply for your attention.

I hope you found some value in this post.

Much love,
- G