Release and Let Go
This is YOUR invitation to open to the present. This is YOUR invitation to open yourself up to infinite possibility and abundance. This is YOUR invitation to RELEASE and let go of what no long serves you. There is a great quote from spiritual teach Deepak Chopra that emphasizes what I’m going for here: “In the process of letting go you will lose many things from your past, but you will find yourself. {…} It will be permanent Self, rooted in awareness and creativity. Once you have captured this, you have captured the world.” Today I invite YOU to capture the world, find yourself and let go of what no longer serves you.
AN EXERCISE IN LETTING GO
Getting Started:
- Take a blank piece of paper (scrap paper is ideal as it’s paper that you’d throw away).
- Write down what you need to release or let go of on the paper. It can be a feeling or emotion. It can be an event or how you feel toward a certain person. It can be one word or a sentence. Just get it out and get it on paper.
- Crumble the piece of paper up into a ball.
The Process:
FEEL IT. Place the balled up paper in one hand (it does not matter which one) and squeeze it as hard as you can. As you squeeze in on the paper, center in on the feeling of what you are releasing-what is it that you are holding onto? What does that piece of paper represent? Let yourself FEEL it and be present with the feeling. Just as we must be conscious and aware of our thoughts in order to change them, so too must be know, understand and experience what it is we are feeling. We must know the feeling we are trying to release.
B r e a t h e . While still squeezing the balled paper, close your eyes and slowly inhale and exhale. Think of a deep four-count inhale, followed by a deep four-count exhale. As you inhale, acknowledge the feeling of what is on the paper; as you exhale, imagine the feeling rising out of your body as steam does from a seeping hot cup of tea. Continue this breathing exercise for roughly one-two minutes, or until you feel relaxed and free from that feeling.
OPEN your eyes and open the hand holding the balled paper.
FEEL IT. What does your hand feel like? Is it uncomfortable? Is there an odd sensation? Is it still familiar? The feelings and circumstances that we hold on to, much like the sensation in your hand is uncomfortable. Carrying around the weight of sadness, regret, anger or the like makes us uncomfortable but yet we continue to hold on it as a result of our conditioned beliefs or expectations. The longer we hold on to these feelings or circumstances, the more familiar they become and the harder is it to release them. While our bodies spontaneously let go of pain the moment the underlying cause is healed, our minds have an instinct for holding on, particularly to what is negative.
You are the architect and you also hold the key that will set you free. Take notice of the balled paper. It is in YOUR hand. YOU are the one holding it. It is NOT attached to your hand. The same is true of our feelings or the circumstances that we hold on to. Remember, you are always in control over what it is you think and say and do.
CAPTURE THE WORLD. Let the balled piece of paper fall to the floor. Let. It. Go. Root yourself in the awareness that you get to decide what it is you hold on to and what it is you let go of.
This is a simple and effective (and might I add, sweat-free!) exercise to release what isn’t serving you. Know that you can return to it at any time you need. But I invite YOU to try it today as we cannot fully move ourselves into a place of limitless possibility with access to our strength until we let go of what is holding us back. Our words are powerful and we can use them to declare the direction we wish our lives to go, but the extent of that path and how far we can travel on it is dependent upon what it is we are thinking and how we are acting. If our thoughts, actions and attitudes are not in line with what it is we say we want, then we’re out of integrity. If we’re holding on to past hurt, deep regret-if we are gripped with immense fear or worry-then we’re also out of integrity. And, what that basically means is that we’re up against walls on that path we’ve created. But we are the architects and we also hold the key. We get to choose in each moment who it is we want to be. We get to choose what it is we hold on to and what we let go of. We get to choose what walls we build and what walls we take down.
Who are you choosing to be today?
Capture your world. Invite abundance in. Let go of fear, worry, doubt. Breathe in peace. Let go of anger, sadness and suppose-to. Breathe in fullness. Design. Create. Dream. Build. You alone hold the key.