I can let go of any painful thoughts.

Thirty seconds under a hot tap will open a jar lid that no amount of grip would shift. It gives without an argument, having refused a stronger hand a minute earlier.

Painful thoughts work closer to that than to the wrestling match they seem to demand. Very few people have ever thought their way out of one by pushing harder against it. What loosens them is a change in conditions — daylight, food, another person in the room, forty minutes of walking.

Letting go is less an act you perform than a thing that becomes possible. If a thought has hold of you tonight, you are not failing at anything. You are waiting for the water to run hot.