ASK COLETTE: How to Get Happy

Looking for intuitive guidance about love, finding a new purpose, managing stress or connecting with your own sense of spirituality — or maybe you just want to be a tad naughty and chat about sex? Zoomer guru Colette Baron-Reid invites you bring your deepest heartfelt questions to Ask Colette.

Here, Colette tells a reader how to let go.

Q: “I have been through a lot in life, but I just can’t seem to let things go and move on. How can I heal the past to celebrate the present?”

A: Healing the past has a lot to do with changing your perception and the story you’ve created around it. Some of us hang on to the past because it solidifies personas such as victim or rescuer. Being unable to release the past can mean that you have a hidden agenda for maintaining your role in it. Ask yourself these simple questions: “By hanging on to the past, what do I gain from it?” and “How would I see myself without this story?”

However, you can only begin to heal once you’ve accepted things to be what they were. Even the most painful situations can be seen in an empowering light once you decide to stop resisting the facts. Holding on to your perception as a victim of your past prevents you from being present in the now. Acceptance is the key. When you look back on a circumstance that has haunted you, do you wish it were different? If someone has hurt you, do you keep reminding yourself by fostering resentments against that person? What if you just accepted that the hurt happened and has no place in your life now?

Acceptance doesn’t mean condoning a hurt; it allows you to define the event objectively. You gain the power to heal and you can celebrate your life fully.

If you have a question for Colette, you can email her at [email protected].

Colette Baron-Reid is an internationally respected intuitive counsellor, motivational speaker and best-selling author.

(Winter 2009)