How to Let Things Go

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Feeling overwhelmed? Step away from life’s mounting demands and free yourself up for what matters with this succinct and sensible guide by the Zen Buddhist author of the international bestsellers The Art of Simple Living and Don’t Worry.

Amid the relentless cycle of news, social media, emails, and texts, it can be hard to know when, if ever, we can step away from everything clamoring for our attention. Renowned monk Shunmyo Masuno offers us a radical message: We can leave it all be, and indeed sometimes the best thing we can learn is how to do nothing. A few of the things How to Let Things Go teaches us:

• Lesson #2: Give people space—being caring and being nosy are not the same thing.
• Lesson #13: Follow your goen to good opportunities.
• Lesson #15: Remember that social media is a tool and nothing more.
• Lesson #19: Let farewells be, and leave your relationships to nature.
• Lesson #40: Think of letting things go not as throwing them away, but setting them free.
• Lesson #75: Make decisions in the light of the morning—don’t rush into them.
• Lesson #90: Take more breaks the busier you become.

With these and ninety-two other practical tips, we can abandon the futile pursuit of controlling everything in our lives and unlock the key to a fulfilling social life, individual well-being, and a calmer, more focused mind.Shunmyo Masuno, the head priest of a 450-year-old Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, is the author of the international bestsellers Don’t Worry and The Art of Simple Living as well as an award-winning Zen garden designer for clients around the world. He is a professor of environmental design at one of Japan’s leading art schools and has lectured widely, including at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cornell University, and Brown University.

Allison Markin Powell (translator) won the PEN Translation Prize for her translation of Hiromi Kawakami’s The Ten Loves of Nishino and was a finalist for the Man Asian Literary Prize for her translation of Kawakami’s The Briefcase. She has also translated Shunmyo Masuno’s The Art of Simple Living and Don’t Worry, and works by Osamu Dazai, Fuminori Nakamura, and Kanako Nishi, among others. She was the guest editor of the first Japan issue of Words Without Borders and maintains the online database Japanese Literature in English. She lives in New York.US

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