Letting Go

I read a book about Zen:

The key to joy is to let go. 

Let go of things that are toxic, that make you un-joyful - be it your thinking, your needs, your expectations, your possessions, your ideas, your striving, your addictions, your burdens etc. 

Strip away the unnecessary. Go back to your center, your core.

Be free.

Then you will be joyful.

****************************************************************

That is Eastern Zen teaching. Western psychology explains why it is so hard to let go - 

Loss Aversion.

"Loss aversion implies that one who loses $100 will lose more satisfaction than another person will gain satisfaction from a $100 windfall." -Wikipedia

That means a person will illogically assign more value to the things ($100 in the example) they possessed than things they don't.

This is obviously a fallacy and it explains why it is so hard to let go.

Good traders know this and counter this innate bias of theirs everyday.

Maybe we can apply this to life in general too.

Let go.