Insight Isn’t Enough: Why “Letting Go” is Harder Than It Sounds

You know that feeling when you hear a phrase that just clicks?

Like:

• “Addiction is just anxiety looking for an outlet.”

• “We fall in love with parts of ourselves reflected back at us.”

• Or the big one: “To free your future, you have to let go of your past.”

It feels powerful, right? A little hit of truth.

But here’s the thing:

Insight isn’t change. Letting go—as simple as it sounds in a quote—can be one of the hardest things we ever do.

The Social Media Dopamine Trap

Our brains love novelty. Clever ideas, new perspective, they give us a little dopamine hit. It feels like growth.

But there’s a difference between a spark and a fire.

Without repetition, without emotional engagement, without real action in our lives, insights fade. They become slogans we nod along to, but they don’t change how we feel, how we react, or how we live.

Why Letting Go is Harder Than It Sounds

It’s a tempting story:

"Your past is holding you back. Let it go, and you’ll be free."

Sounds simple.

But what if your past isn’t just a story you tell yourself, what if it’s living in you?

In your body.

In your nervous system.

In your reactions, your relationships, the ways you protect yourself.

That’s why “letting go” isn’t something we can just decide to do.

The Spark is Real, But It’s Just the Start

Sometimes there is a moment that sparks something, a conversation, a moment of being truly seen, something that shifts the weight.

But the process of letting go? That’s not a one-off. It’s a slow, sometimes painful process of understanding:

• Seeing how the past lives in us

• Feeling what was too much to feel at the time

• Mourning what was lost

• And slowly, over time, loosening its grip

Therapy: Where We Do This Work

This is what therapy offers.

Not just clever insights or polished ideas—but a space to explore, feel, experiment, and live the process of change.

It’s where we take those truths—about your anxiety, your relationships, your patterns—and make them yours.

In your world.

In your body.

In your relationships.

Therapy isn’t a place for slogans.

It’s a place for understanding.

Because you’re not a project to fix.

You’re a person to understand.

The Invitation

I’m not here to judge. I get caught in the insight-scroll too.

But I also know this:

You deserve more than slogans.

You deserve more than dopamine.

You deserve to be understood—in all your complexity, your history, your relationships, and your longings.

So the next time you hear an idea that feels powerful, pause. Don't just save it. Don’t just nod.

Ask:

• How can I live this, not just know it?

• What’s the deeper story here, in my life, in my body, in my relationships?

Because that’s where change happens.

Not in the scroll.

Not in the insight.

In the slow, relational work of being seen, felt, and understood.

That’s the real work.

And you’re worth it