Word of the Week: Letting Go

Life Lesson:

Every time I propagate my houseplants to create more houseplants or give clippings of my plant babies to friends, there’s a part of me that says “No! Don’t do it! It will never grow back!”

Of course, they always do and then there’s more to go around (and even if they didn’t grow back, that would be ok too  ).

I was thinking about how this applies so much to my life. How scared I get every time I have to cut something or someone out of my life, thinking there is not more where that came from (whether it’s jobs, friends, workshops, etc.). I often forget about how new stems grow from those that have been cut, and in fact, how now there are two stems that can grow. Like when you let something or someone go, it can feel like you are causing them pain. When actually, you cutting ties lets them grow in the direction they are meant to go as well. We are all part of one big, breathing, cosmic organism that will always figure out a way to reorganize for the highest good of everyone.

I notice this fear cropping up when I write, too. I’ll write one sentence that I really like and then bend over backwards trying to fit the rest of my thoughts around that one sentence. Sometimes I can get it to work but most times I can’t. As much as it pains me and I think to myself “No! Don’t do it! You’ll never come up with another good sentence again!”, I’ve found that the best thing to do when I get super attached like that is to delete the whole thing and start over from scratch. Not surprisingly, what I come up with after that is usually 10x better than the original sentence I was so fixated on.

Letting go is both a critical life skill and an essential ingredient to the creative process. New ideas can’t come from a place of forcing or holding tightly onto one piece of the puzzle. As my therapist reminds me, which is something she learned from one of her art mentors, “You have to be willing to get rid of what you like in order to make room for what you love.”

Ask Yourself: How easy is it for you to practice the art of letting go? What is one thing you like that you can let go of in order to make room for something you love?

Weekly Mantra: I am making room for what I love.

 

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