Have you taken on too much or are you at a crossroads and facing some life defining choices? Patrick Fynn offers some advice on how to let go and move on

Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) is a legal order written in hospital to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or advanced cardiac life support in respect of the wishes of a patient should they stop breathing or their heart fail. If you are not familiar with medical ethics or law, don't sweat it. A DNR is to literally instruct, "Hey, if my heart stops beating, do not attempt any measures to give me life".

A DNR is admitting that when all is said and done and when life's long road is walked, that the time to pull the plug is due. Life, like a river, cannot be beaten into submission. So, when, as fate may have it, the end decides to strike, we can only surrender to its currents.

We live in perpetual denial, but everything gives up on us eventually, and we give up on everything eventually, too. It is true that success is largely about resilience, and about guts and strength. But growing appendages to attach onto heavy weights is weakening. Your energy is not a life source for the negative.

For there is always that moment...

…the heart will slow down to a halt – heartlessness abounds, the once receptive hands that held us tight turn cold, the body lies still, unmoved by the emotions around it: death is glaring. We may attempt resuscitation. But nothing should be forced that is truly and godly meant to be. Any relationship that doesn't end in a break-up, ends in death. Everything falls apart in the end. Everything will.

Letting Go

Sometimes you have to stop giving CPR to dead situations. Let whatever is dead be dead. Do not resuscitate the past! Forgive and disengage. It is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. It's a load off your mind to let go.

Sometimes you have to stop giving CPR to dead situations. Let whatever is dead be dead.

This is a problem that has a solution. Dead friendships, dead businesses, dead prospects, old habits, hoary traditions, old situations. Stop reconnecting with people who cherish you no more.

You may lose the world, but you will gain the universe. Holding onto something that is not good for you now may be the very reason why you don't have something better.

Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it. Heaven knows you did your best.

You must learn to unleash. Pain will leave you when you let go of the hurt, the disappointment, the utter shock, the dark days and the crushes. Release the stress. You were never in control, anyway.

As doctors respect a patient’s decision to not fight anymore, so must you also throw in the towel when people literally write you their notice of disinterest. Sometimes, to win a battle, you need to lose a war. Here too, if you aren't familiar with the concept of hard metaphors, never mind; just let it go.

Patrick Fynn is a blogger at www.patrickfynn.com/@patrickfynn