Releasing or letting go is actually an essential part of productivity.

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In this episode, learn:

1. Why releasing is essential to your action-taking nature
2. How to know when it’s time to release something
3. What a releasing ritual is
4. How to create your own releasing ritual

Why Releasing is essential to your action-taking nature

So much of letting go has to happen in the mental-emotional part of you. It’s not just about taking things to the donation center or selling them on Marketplace, although when we physically let go of things it communicates to our body a releasing in a way, you mind still has to process and let go of things in it’s own time.

And there’s really no linear path or timeline to it.

But so often we don’t have physical stuff to just drop off at the donation center allowing our brains to separate from it. Instead we carry with us mental and emotional beliefs and wounds that sometimes aren’t so easy to let go of. And if we don’t tend to them, they have a tendency to come out in other ways, like as physical ailments or dis-ease within the body.

Releasing or letting go is actually an essential part of productivity. It’s normal to think of productivity in terms of just checking things off your list and getting things done, but there’s actually a 4-step process that it follows. And when you begin to think of productivity like this, you are actually able to live in your highest energetic state or energetic presence in the world, which means you are flowing instead of trying to control the seemingly uncontrollable chaos around you.

We’ll go further into the productivity conversation in another episode, but for now, you need to know that the 4 stages of FLOW productivity are:

1. Free to rest and receive
2. Let the plans unfold
3. Own it
4. Witness the outcome

And it’s that 3rd phase, “own it” that releasing is initiated.

Releasing aligns with the peak of summer or flowering and the full moon in the natural world. In your body, it aligns with ovulation. It’s the time when you start to shed what’s no longer serving you, just as nature does that.

In your life releasing might look like getting rid of physical things that are cluttering up your home environment or digital clutter on your device or in your inbox, or it might look like mental clutter that’s taking up precious real estate in your big beautiful mind.

We talked about the energetics behind decluttering in episode #62 of the show, so go back and listen to that when this episode is done if you haven’t, it’s a good one.

But just like physical clutter can make you feel more chaotic, stressed or contracted, mental and emotional clutter can do the same.

And when you are able to let go of whatever is stuck in your brain, you experience freedom and flow. (And it’s beautiful)

Forgiving falls into this category as well, so you may consider what needs to be forgiven in your life when you’re preparing for your releasing ritual.

How to know when it’s time to release something

• • It’s no longer useful or it’s broken (that’s easy)
  • You haven’t used it in a year or longer
  • You don’t actually go back to that email and read it like you thought you would
  • You’re living with a heaviness in your mind about something that doesn’t seem to go away no matter what you do to try to “fix” or control it. Something that feels heavy in life is a good indicator that you may need to examine it and see if it needs to go.
  • You feel stuck in a particular area of your life–perhaps it’s with feeling like you don’t have the time to give to yourself to workout, practice yoga, meditate or journal– in that case, what is the barrier that’s keeping you stuck–is it needing help with the kids so you can do that, or having a conversation with your spouse so that he or she can take some of the load and you can give back to yourself, or other habits that are getting in your way of giving time to yourself, or a lack of motivation or perhaps a belief pattern about working out or movement that’s keeping you stuck. Whatever it is, when you feel stuck, it’s a good indicator that something is calling for your attention to be released.

What a “Releasing Ritual” is

Ritual =  A sacred way of putting your spirit and authenticity into a habit to give it more meaning in your life. An intentional act that results from an increase in the amount of attention or energy you put into it.

I talk more about the benefits of making mundane tasks or habits you do regularly into a ritual in Episode #73 and Episode #76.

It’s a ritual because it’s something you ideally want to do at least monthly. And when you make it ritualistic, you’re more likely to enjoy it and stick with it.

It’s a time to look at the past month, forgive what needs to be forgiven and let go of that which is no longer serving you–whatever feels “heavy” in life.

A releasing ritual or ceremony helps you place intention around whatever it is you want or need to let go of in life.

Creating Your Own Releasing Ritual

The full moon is a beautiful time to do this process because it aligns with nature’s rhythm to begin the process of releasing, but another good time to do a releasing ritual is mid-cycle of your menstrual cycle which is right around ovulation.

It’s a time to let emotions out. The full moon is all about emotions and bringing them to the surface, so it’s a conscious way of acknowledging and honoring whatever it is your feeling and letting it breathe.

Energy with Full Moon and often with ovulation:

• Excess energy
• Expansive and active
• There may be tension because of the high emotional vibrations
• Your full potential is peaking at this time (femininity!)

Releasing in the Menstrual Cycle looks like

• It’s beginning to let go of all the hormones that have been building up in your system over the past 2 weeks (if on a 28 day cycle)
• It is releasing the egg to begin its journey of either fertilization or disintegration

Your Quick Steps for a Releasing Ritual:

1. Grab some paper, light a candle or a campfire, and ask your inner guidance what it is you need to release most. You might not even have to ask…you might just know.
2. Then write it down, sign it, date it.
3. Thank it for being in your life, see yourself being blessed by it (even if it was challenging), surround it with love and imagine it leaving you in whatever way works for you (floating away, burning it, cutting the cord with it, flushing it down the toilet…)
4. Then burn that piece of paper you wrote it on and do some self-regulating movement to release it’s energy from your body and regulate your nervous system.

Wrap-up

In order to FLOW with life, you have to be able to let go, to release what’s no longer serving you or to put out into the world what you have to offer the world so that you can move onto the next stage of productivity which is celebrating. But so often perfectionism, fear, or not knowing what action to take stops us and we get stuck in the cycle of planning and doing for the sake of doing without actually placing intention behind the doing or action-taking.

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More episodes like this one:

#73:  Habits vs. Rituals

#42: Your Vacation is No Different

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