Let Go Now

Millions of fans around the world spend moments of quiet contemplation with Karen Casey daily. Karen is a writer and 12-step recovery workshop facilitator with over forty published titles in over ten different languages. She travels throughout the United States and internationally carrying her message of hope for others in recovery. She is the best-selling author of Each Day a New Beginning, the first daily meditation book written for women recovering from addiction. Oher titles include Let Go Now, Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, 20 Things I Know For Sure, It’s Up to You, Codependence and the Power of Detachment, and Peace a Day at a Time. Karen lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Naples, Florida.

“Karen Casey teaches us how to row our boat (note: not other people’s boats) gently down the stream. When we row gently, we don’t yell who or what must be on the bank around the bend. We peacefully accept what comes and this makes us very merry. We quietly bless the people who are there, knowing that is exactly where they should be. We let go and allow the River to carry us home, certain that the River is our God-given will, our safety, our comfort, and our peace. Let Go Now is one of the most profoundly spiritual and helpful books I have read.”—Hugh Prather, author of Morning Notes and The Little Book of Letting Go“You just can’t go wrong with Karen Casey. In Let Go Now she steers a course though the at-times confusing waters of detachment. She takes the reader though 200 little classes explaining what detachment is and what it is not. This book would help anyone trying to live a life as serene yet productive as possible in this often busy time.”—Earnie Larsen, author of Stage II Recovery: Life Beyond Addiction and From Anger to Forgiveness“A cornerstone concept of both Eastern philosophy and Twelve Step programs, detachment is often misunderstood and misapplied. In Let Go Now Karen Casey elegantly brings this time-honored term into everyday situations so that it can become a true, userfriendly tool for recovery. She not only tells us what detachment means, she shows us how to do it, one day at a time.”—Tian Dayton, PhD, author of Emotional Sobriety: From Relationship Trauma to Resilience and Balance“Casey has given us a wonderful guidebook for one of life’s ongoing challenges—detachment—so essential to our spiritual health. No one with a caring heart would want to miss this essential read. Another winner for Karen Casey and thus for all of us!” —Marilyn J. Mason, PhD, author ofIgniting the Spirit at Work and coauthor of Facing Shame: Families in Recovery“My measure of a book’s worth: 1. Does it open a window in mymind? 2. Do I change? 3. Is my life improved? The answer? Yeson all counts for Let Go Now.”—Anne Katherine, author of Boundaries and Lick It!“Written in the form of 200 meditations, Casey's (Each Day a New Beginning; Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow) book is aimed at those enmeshed in other people's problems and/or deriving a sense of self-worth from others. She points out that while detachment is difficult, its practice paves the way for oneself and others to grow and move in new directions. Casey's reflections will ring true to readers, and she acts as a sister in the process of recovery and becoming whole.”—Deborah Bigelow, Library Journal

• ContentsIntroductionMEDITATIONS1. Detachment is simply watching the events that are unfolding around you, getting involved only when your journey is part of the experience.2. Detachment is stepping back from an experience in order to allow room for God to do His or Her part.3. Detachment promises quiet contentment.4. Detachment is making no one a project.5. Detachment means taking no hostages.6. Detachment means giving up outcomes.7. Detachment is letting the solutions be determined by God.8. Detachment is understanding that we are never the cause of someone else’s actions.9. Detachment is getting over “it,” whatever “it” is.10. Detachment frees up our time.PAUSE AND REFLECT11. Detachment simplifies our life.12. Detachment is an acquired habit.13. Detachment means freedom from obsession.14. Detachment is knowing that what others do is not a reflection on you.15. Detachment is not making a big deal of situations, even complicated ones.16. Detachment empowers us.17. Detachment frees us from overreaction.18. Detachment may mean doing nothing.19. Detachment may be remaining quiet.20. Detachment is not acquiescence.PAUSE AND REFLECT21. Detachment is disengagement, nothing more.22. Detachment means not letting the behavior of others cause you to suffer.23. Detachment can be triggered by the reminder, “Don’t go there.”24. Detachment is not letting someone else’s past determine your present.25. Detachment relies on the “little willingness” to surrender.26. Detachment is noticing people without judgment.27. Detachment is freedom from chaos.28. Detachment is “moving away” from a conversation that begins to irritate.29. Detachment is knowing that the mind can change if what you say to the mind changes.30. Detachment is letting decisions that need to be made by others be only theirs.PAUSE AND REFLECT31. Detachment is “keeping it simple”—staying out of situations that don’t directly involve you.32. Detachment is having your life be about you, not about other people.33. Detachment is living in our adult observer role.34. Detachment is not being dependent on others for good feelings.35. Detachment is taking responsibility for our own life.36. Detachment means not being a victim anymore.37. Detachment is living one’s own life while letting friends and family live as they choose.38. Detachment is never letting someone else control how we think, feel, or behave.39. Detachment is letting go of fear over others’ behavior.40. Detachment is freedom from relying on others to complete our lives.PAUSE AND REFLECT41. Detachment, when fully expressed, promises peacefulness.42. Detachment is a gift that we receive from our relationships well lived.43. Detachment from others is necessary to fully enjoy attachment to God.44. Detachment is knowing that others’ criticisms are about them.45. Attachment to God is what makes detachment possible.46. Attachment to anyone other than God imprisons us.47. Detachment is not letting the mood swings of others determine your own mood.48. Detachment is practicing the awareness that changing our thoughts can produce changed feelings.49. Detachment is knowing that happiness is the by-product of how we live our lives, not how others are living theirs.50. Detachment is not needing attention from others to feel okay.PAUSE AND REFLECT51. Detachment is being able to care deeply about a situation or another person from an objective point of view.52. Detachment is not creating or preventing a crisis when it’s clearly not our business to be involved.53. Detachment is letting others have their own opinions.54. Detachment is being able to let others journey wherever they need to go.55. Detachment is knowing that you are not God.56. Detachment is no longer succumbing to the suggestions of others when they are not right for us.57. Detachment is being able to walk away from situations that are not helpful to us.58. Detachment is knowing that your life is God’s business, not yours.59. Detachment is knowing what is not your business.60. Detachment allows us to hear God.PAUSE AND REFLECT61. Detachment is letting others take care of their own affairs.62. Attachment to people deadlocks our growth.63. Detachment can be as simple as breathing and walking away.64. Detachment can be enhanced by prayer.65. Detachment means giving up “hostages.”66. Detachment is letting the outcome of another’s behavior be his or her problem.67. Detachment is doing the “next right thing” without focusing on the outcome.68. Detachment is realizing that our lives are not dependent on what others are doing.69. Detachment is showing by example, not words, how our lives can change.70. Detachment is looking at life from a distance.PAUSE AND REFLECTetc.