Letting Go To Reinvent Yourself
February 19, 2009 by Akemi
I guest posted awhile ago on Pick The Brain explaining how to purge the old unnecessary stuffs in our living space in order to usher in the new opportunities, which leads to reinventing yourself.
“Before creating your new YOU, you need to let go of your old YOU. Physically taking care of your environment by cleaning and decluttering can stimulate letting go of your mental clutter that has been holding you in the old pattern.”
Now throwing away your old clothes and magazines is easy. It takes physical work, but really, it’s a no brainer work. The challenge is letting go of something that you once cherished. (Photo by Kruggg6)
Letting go of what you once treasured
For example, presents from your ex. Or honorable memorabilia from your school days or when your career was at a peak. Even when you realize you don’t resonate with these things anymore, it may be challenging to purge them.
If you want to stick to your old glory, fine. But if you sincerely desire to reinvent yourself, to be the you that haven’t emerged but you know you can be, let them go. Say thank you for the old days, and purge them.
Physically letting them go leads to letting go of your mental and emotional attachments to the old you. And of course, this is the critical part: Letting go of your mental and emotional attachments. Empty yourself. Be “no one” that you yourself don’t recognize.
Yes, this is a scary process. You probably feel disoriented. That is the precursor of freedom.
Letting go of the people you love
Further, there comes a time you may need to let go of your friends, teachers, mentors, or even some of your family members who don’t resonate with you any longer.
I personally went through this recently. When I wrote Soul Shifting And The Light Ascension Of Maybe 2012, my teacher and some of my peers opposed me and told me to bend my view. That was a total surprise for me.
First, I didn’t write that article to upset anyone. In fact, I was only trying to help. Some readers were so excited to read my recent changes that I shared in my Gratitude Journal of January 23rd that they commented and personally emailed me to write about the reason, the background of all those changes. They were going through similar changes themselves and wanted to know what was going on. So I wrote, and it turned out that this soul shifting is affecting far more people than I initially imagined.
(BTW if you are a blogger, please consider introducing that soul shifting article so that more people get a chance to learn about it. There seem to be so many people who are going through this change but can’t figure out what is happening to them. They are so frustrated and confused. You’ll be helping those people by linking to that article. Thank you.)
Second, the whole idea that a student must always follow the teaching she received surprised me. If that was the case, there would have been no progress in human history! I think a true teacher would encourage the students to utilize the methodology to find further truth, even when that new truth contradicts the old. I don’t think a true teacher would force students to subscribe to his or her teaching.
Accepting the new
So I just had to let go. This was a very sad and scary process for me, honestly. To be clear, I have nothing against them. These are the people I have loved and respected tremendously. I have learned a lot and I am grateful for all the contributions they have made in my life. But the time was here for me to walk my path.
My spirit guides kept telling me things were happening in perfect order. This was tough to believe considering all the mess I was going through, but wow, now I see it finally! The end result of all this is I have the expertise to read Akashic Records and to communicate with other people’s Spirit Guides, AND, I’m the only Akashic Record reader who can deal with the light ascension situations. Because others in my previous circle are rejecting or not willing to deal with it. (There may be other psychics who can do this. The world is wide and I don’t claim to know everything. But I’m the only one I know of. Well, actually, I know one more, but she is not taking clients at this time.)
Did someone say “niche”?
The world is changing. Are you with the change?
If you are in similar situation, facing the choice of either sticking to your old circle or venturing into the unknown, I am with you. Most likely, you just need to be willing to accept the new. You may not need to break up with the old – they’ll just fall off on their own. Just let them go with love and gratitude. Harboring resentment to them only keeps yourself stuck, so don’t. Your responsibility is to take care of yourself in this challenging time of change.
Are you ready to jump into the unknown? If not, what or who is it that you can’t let go? It’s okay, let us know, and you may find the courage just by sharing . . .
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Hi Akemi,
I don’t think you have to let go of the old first.
The new (at least our desire for it) is part of us. Sometimes we can be drawn to a new way of doing and have this replace the old way without our realising. Sometimes we realise and say to ourselves, “Oh, this is so much easier”.
Letting go of the past can be difficult and it is a block that needs to dealt with. But sometimes I think we don’t need to do it first.
Akemi, It does not surprise me … your venture away from your teacher and those who have been your peers. I love the branching direction of your soul’s melody and encourage it. As a matter of fact, today I sprouted a new direction as well birthing a new blog called Souls Melody. Do you hear it? Seems that you do! Reinvention is a familiar theme in my life and my experiences have included both releasing the past identities before or after the new can find clear patches of Earth (get that image???) to drop new seeds. I suppose it has something to do with the clarity of purpose and communion between body and soul. Even a small patch of Earth will bare amazing beauty. Look at the amazing LEHUA groves that emerge from tiny cracks in the solid sea of lava. Now that is a soul bound for reinvention.
I love the sound of your melody!
Evan,
You don’t need to let go of the old. But please also be warned that trying to move onto the new while holding on to the old is far more difficult than making a clean cut. Despite the seeming difficulty, the latter is easier.
Mokihana,
Wow, you just keeping birthing new blogs, huh?
Actually, I sort of knew I was meant to leave her at some point in the future, I just didn’t realize it was going to happen this fast and in this particular way. And as you know, someone who walks into our life for a season is very valuable for good reasons. We can’t measure our relationship by the length of time it holds.
Thank you for your kind words. I love your analogy.
Hi Akemi,
My point was about the timing. If we are holding on I quite agree.
Hi Akemi – I hear you about purging. In the recent months I’ve been purging things out of the house. As more stuff leaves, I feel lighter and more creative.
In the past I would mentally hold onto friends who has already “left”. I didn’t want to admit their presence in my life had served its purpose, but eventually I let go. In some ways its sad we couldn’t be friends forever, but like you said, that doesn’t make room for the new.
Lovely Article Indeed, thank you
In order to expand and add another perspective for more value, I would like to contributing my perspective of these things:
Letting go of what you once treasured -
The mind soaks in everything around its environment, like a sponge to
water. Therefore, let go of the old by making your home an environment that suggests positivity.
For example:
• Put positive pictures with positive words on the wall.
• Keep positive notes on the bathroom mirror.
• Place inspirational quotes on the fridge.
• Place positive books on the bookshelf.
• Place plants around the environment. Plants not only provide oxygen,
they will also remind you to keep growing.
• Put diplomas, awards, and achievements around to remind you what
positivity can accomplish.
• Keep your environment ventilated. If you feel stagnant (drained, tired,
weak, etc), one of the main sources is your oxygen supply or air flow.
Keep a window (or door) open on both sides of the room in order to
maintain good air flow, provide oxygen to the body, and get the
positive feeling/ energy back.
Change your environment in ways of this sort and you will subconsciously
program the mind in the direction of letting go with of the old.
Along with this, you might find that your still holding onto something that you no longer use but not sure why it’s still in your life. For example, as soon as I get rid of anything, in a few moments later I realize where it fits in my life. I used to think that this was because we always want what we can’t have, right?. As I grew and expanded my conscious awareness, I saw that everything we attract in our lives is there for a reason or it would not be there, it would attract-itself-out of our lives quite naturally. In this manner I don’t get rid of anything unless I can see that it has no value to anybody else and I am only hanging on to it in order to hang onto the old past.
However for the other things, if a friend comes over and sees something that they are more passionate about than I am, then I will give it to them. To me this is the natural order of things. It may not fit in your life, but if it’s still in your life; there is a reason. Perhaps it’s meant for someone else who needs it.
When I first started blogging, I would delete many articles after writing them because I couldn’t see who they fit in with what I was trying to accomplish. Those articles had a feeling of not turning out right. However, a day, or week, or month goes by and I see exactly why I wrote that article. Now it’s too late though and as a writer you know you can try to reproduce it, but it will never have the same structure, voice, and heartfelt words to it.
Letting Go of people you love -
I apply the above statement to this too, but usually you will know when it’s time. For example, I had a mentor when I first found my spiritual path, he was very helpful and I learned everything I needed in that moment from him. However there was this point where I grew enough awareness to notice that I had information that he didn’t seem to be aware of and as I was telling him my learned experience, he said “No Nick, I am your mentor, you can’t teach me anything. My spirit guides tell me everything. There is nothing I do not know.” At that point I realized that if the teacher can not learn from the student, then the student most move on to learn more.
Thank you for this opportunity to express myself through this comment
Barbara,
Yes, letting go of friends is hard emotionally. I agree. I’m glad you see the point of letting them go.
Nick,
Gee, you could guest post . . .
I like your idea of giving things away to someone who need them. As I wrote in the article on Pick The Brain, when I purged “stuffs” I not only dumped them but also sold or donated them too as appropriate.
And I agree what you have to say about a teacher. No one knows everything. When someone stops learning, that person stops growing, and that won’t make a good teacher. It makes fearful person who cling to the old. established status.
Thanks for this post.
25 years ago, I had to let go of a whole group of family members. It was very hard for me, and maybe even harder for them. It has proved to be the right choice time and time again.
I’ve been working on a new transformation that I feel inside, even though externally the time doesn’t seem right for it. I’m taking the steps anyway, and it’s going slowly, so maybe the time will be right when it’s completed.
In a recent meditation, I was guided on a mental trip around the rooms of my home. My intuition felt a heigtened awareness when it reached certain items, s if they were spotlighted, items that I needed to get rid of because I feel bad when I see them. This wasn’t about clutter, but about reminders of people who were not good for me, and I was very surprised at how quickly they identified themselves. I had a sense that I would move forward faster if I got rid of them all.
I have no problem with that, except for one. I’m stuck on one big one — my journals for my entire life to date. Although they’re filled with a lot of painful situations, they’re also the history of me, and I don’t want to throw that away.
Dot, I’ve enjoyed reading your comments. We may be the same age and after reading today’s comment about letting go of family and not (yet) being able to let go of your journals I relate to both of those experiences. I too had boxes of journals I filled, that kept me company for decades. In the past fifteen years my life has been one move after another … each time the move offered me the choice between holding on or a miracle yet to be. Each time I truly did not know where I would be doing … I slowly culled the journals and sometimes had small rituals of purging.
My spiritual life has grown to fill me up in the today. Today two or three journals remain in a box back in Hawaii. Life is mostly now here, and it’s magnificent to live with this freedom. Shape-shifting and reinvention come as we navigate life. Love the journey, leave the baggage … the timing is divine. Thanks so much for your honest disclosure.
Akemi thanks for continuing ….
Dot and Mokihana,
Love the development of this conversation, and I’m so happy and proud you are talking to each other, sharing and helping.
When I was writing the article, I thought of mentioning of purging journals, but opted not to, as I thought it may be a bit too much for many readers. So glad you guys figured it out.
For me, yes, purging journals was a big deal. When you are ready, you can do it, I think.