{"id":4600,"date":"2022-08-24T13:31:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T17:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/?p=4600"},"modified":"2023-01-23T09:32:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T14:32:24","slug":"release-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/?p=4600","title":{"rendered":"Release: The Other Side of Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are you letting go of today? What can you release that no longer serves you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/mlbkypf41w52.i.optimole.com\/w:300\/h:200\/q:mauto\/http:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ruayvmjvpzw.jpg\" alt=\"burning white paper to release that which no longer serves\" class=\"wp-image-4658 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/mlbkypf41w52.i.optimole.com\/w:300\/h:200\/q:mauto\/http:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ruayvmjvpzw.jpg\" alt=\"burning white paper to release that which no longer serves\" class=\"wp-image-4658 lazyload\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We as a society talk so much about growth &#8211; grow, grow, grow. We get physically bigger, we buy bigger cars and bigger houses, our bank accounts get bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growth is great, growth is fun but for growth to be sustainable we have to also talk about what we are releasing while we grow. We can&#8217;t take  everything with us as we grow in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m reminded the concept of release every time I look at my beautiful <a href=\"http:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/let-go-to-grow\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"4105\">Dragon Plant Murph<\/a> (yes, I did humanize my plant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, every once and a while, especially when he&#8217;s growing, some of his leaves turn yellow, dry out and drop. They drop back down into the soil, decompose and serve as nutrients that further his growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He releases his leaves because he no longer has a need for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Animals shed their fur seasonally to adjust to different temperatures and reptiles shed their whole skins when they grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even we as humans shed our skin and hair regularly but that process most often goes completely unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Why do we not notice our physical shedding?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Because we as humans haven&#8217;t yet normalized this process of letting go, releasing, and shedding that which we no longer need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, we *need* to shed what is no longer needed and compost the lessons we learned so that they may support our continued growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can either do this from a place of sadness and feelings of loss or we can thank the things, the people, the experiences and fill our hearts with gratitude for having had the opportunity to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One practice that I like to do weekly to help me release that which is no longer needed is two fold &#8211; one to clear my physical space and another to clear my mental\/emotional space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Release Physical Items<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I like to find one item in my house that is no longer needed and help it find a new home. I use the <a href=\"https:\/\/konmari.com\/marie-kondo-gratitude\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/konmari.com\/marie-kondo-gratitude\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marie Kondo<\/a> approach of thanking these items for coming into my life and being grateful for the gifts they brought me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week I used my local <a href=\"https:\/\/buynothingproject.org\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/buynothingproject.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy Nothing<\/a> Facebook Group and parted with two metal containers that had been used for entertaining and house parties. Post-kids, they haven&#8217;t seen any action. So now they are sitting in a teacher&#8217;s classroom and I feel lighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Release Emotional Baggage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Salt or Fire Ritual<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">Write down on a piece of paper what mental or emotional thing(s) you are releasing &#8211; this could be behaviors, relationships, feelings that you wish to metabolize, anything that you are really to let drop.<\/li><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">Once you have your pieces of paper, you can either grab a bowl and some salt (I use Epsom salt) and hot water or you can grab a fire-proof bowl and a lighter.<\/li><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">Salt has a long history as a purification tool and fire as a transformational one.<\/li><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">Take your pieces of paper with what you want to release and either soak them in the salt water or burn them in a fireproof bowl with a cup of water on hand. <\/li><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">As you do this, you can thank the item\/person for their support in helping you grow and let them know that you are moving on now without them.<\/li><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">If you pray, this can also be a time where prayer can be added. I have some prayers I can share if you&#8217;re interested.<\/li><li style=\"padding-bottom: 16px;\">At the end of the ritual, I will either take the completely cooled ashes outside to fertilize nature or pour the salt water over rocks (the salt will kill plants &#8211; so think driveway\/sidewalk\/patio). The idea is that you are taking the ashes or salt water outside and releasing it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you opt to use fire, please do so responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What practice do you have for releasing that which no longer supports you? <a href=\"http:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/contact\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"989\">Message me<\/a> and let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"has-text-align-center\">May You Be Well and May You Find Peace<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Release physical items and emotional baggage to harness the full power of growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[51],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4661,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600\/revisions\/4661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorelei.jennysmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}