Inviting and Letting Go

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’ve begun using the Life Organizer book each week. I sit every Sunday night and journal on that week’s questions. While most of the questions vary, there are a few prompts that are the same each time. These are: intention, let go of, have to, and could do.

I’ve talked about setting intentions a few times recently, but I haven’t really mentioned the others much. My feeling is that if you can only do one thing each week, setting an intention for the week is the best place to start. It allows you to start your week with a particular mindset, perspective and a focused awareness.

But assuming you’re willing to stretch a bit (or if setting intentions doesn’t do it for you) I think the next great one to tackle is “let go of.” I love the idea of letting go of something each week. I feel like we all carry so much baggage. And I feel that’s what gets in the way of most of our being in the present moment and our worries and anxiety. I have ideas around who I can be in the world. I have ideas around what I am capable of and what my limits are. Around how likable and worthy I am. Around what others think of me. The list goes on and on.

Each of these things seem like great opinions to revisit and see if I can let them go.

But even tiny things are worthy of this level of questioning. For example, this past weekend was fuller than usual for me and I ended up not being able to rest as much as I would have liked. On sunday night, I noticed that I was carrying around the aggravation of having this weekend cut short. The frustration of not being able to go through my todo list. And the unease of having to start a week without feeling fully fresh.

Ordinarily, these would nag at me and taint my week, but because I was doing my journaling last night and came upon the “let go of” prompt, I thought about it and decided letting the frustration and unease go would create the space for me to start the week without baggage and would give me week a chance to be successful and delightful. (Or at least it wouldn’t start the week grumpy.)

Had I not committed to doing the prompts, I probably would have carried it over for a few days (or even longer) before I realized the damage it was causing.

Now that I think of it, for me, letting something go is the opposite of setting intentions. When I set my intentions, they are often to welcome something new into my week. A new level of awareness, openness, or presence. And when I am letting things go, I am saying goodbye to a particular feeling, way of thinking or behavior. So they go hand in hand: inviting something new and giving up something old.

I like the idea of doing both.

When was the last time you invited something new and/or let go of something?