We are human beings, but most of the time we are humans doing.

“To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own.”

– Jack Kornfield

“It’s all about the let go. Without the release, we have nothing.” I have said this countless times while training riders and their horses. Over time, I realized I wasn’t just teaching them, I was remembering something essential about being human.

Everywhere I looked, the same lesson appeared, repeating itself across different parts of my life. I understood that letting go was the way of Nature as she moved effortlessly through her cycles, never holding on to what was. Likewise, within my work with animals, they let go, as seen by their willingness to respond with the slightest release of pressure to move on to the next clue. And I also witnessed the necessity of letting go to deepen my yoga practice.

There is a yoga pose called Savasana, also known as the corpse pose. It is a relaxation pose routinely done at the end of a yoga practice. Although Savasana looks like doing nothing, it demands the one thing we resist most: surrender. Stillness exposes the mind’s restlessness. It reveals how deeply we are wired to do, fix, manage, and control. This is because the core element of Savasana is to let go, to let go as if you are a corpse. To do nothing sounds so easy, yet it is quite the reverse.

Many find it difficult to turn their brains off while lying still; some become agitated, while others may fall asleep, defeating the ability to relax while consciously observing their state of mind.

The idea sounds simple, but the experience is anything but.

To let go is vital to everything.

Getting to ‘how to let go” starts with ‘why we hold on.’ We hold on to old relationships, outdated identities, anger, fear, grief, expectations, and the stories we tell ourselves about what should have been. You name it, and we can cling to it as if our lives depended on it.

It is not just the negatives we hold on to, but the version of ourselves we once were. The one we are afraid we’ll never be again.

So why do we hang on, even when we know it is better to let go?

Holding on can create the illusion of fullness, but it often leaves us stuck, unable to move forward. Yet unable to return to what was.

The stuff we hang on to can have many effects on our psyche, both positive and negative. Often, we have become entangled with belief systems that are out of sync, outdated, and no longer helpful in where we are or who we want to be. So while nostalgia is okay, it can keep us shackled to what will never be again.

We cannot erase the past, but we can stop feeding it. Holding on keeps us living in a time that no longer exists. Holding on prevents us from living in the present.

This challenge is why Savasana is so tricky: our mind doesn’t want to be in the present. It wants to do.

We are human beings. But most of the time, we are humans doing.

Letting go is not passive. It begins with awareness. When we bring awareness to the parts of our lives that no longer serve us, we have an opportunity to take action and open the door to change.

Being present in the moment is the core of letting go. If we live now, we cannot be in the past or the future. If there is nothing, but now, there is no need to hold on to what was or will be.

Being Here Now is the antidote to doing our way of discomfort. Practice your Savasana, the simplest and hardest pose of all. In that stillness, you may rediscover what it means to be a human being rather than a human doing.