Letting it Go Vs Letting it IN
Letting it Go Vs Letting it IN
It’s not about always “letting it go.” Sometimes, it's about letting it in. It’s about letting it deep. About letting it through. And being true to your feelings. It’s about giving your experiences the attention they deserve. And that may take a moment, or it may take years. The trick is not to shame your need to hold on to what has yet to be resolved. “Let it go” can become the mantra of the self-avoidant, feigning resolution because they lack the courage or the preparedness to face their feelings. Let’s not play that game. Let’s let things in and through, until they are fully and truly ready to shift. Let’s let it grow into the transformation at its heart. We write our story by fully living it. Not by “letting it go” before its time.
— Jeff Brown, Soul Shaping
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If it’s TRULY time for something to release or shed and you have done your work around it (which sometimes is only a gentle meeting and feeling), incredible! However, what this post seeks to address is the theme of premature transcendence, something that is unfortunately rampant today within spiritual ideology and communities. There has become an almost obsessive fixation of “releasing what doesn’t serve” and “letting it go” before we have done any real work around WHY something is appearing in the first place (and why it continues to appear no matter how many “new moon clearing ceremonies” we do).
In the attempt to let something “go” before its time, we find it doesn’t actually go anywhere at all. It only reappears just around the corner. Ahh that pesky inner work! If only we could just “will” it away. ;)
But what if there were another path? What if we were to let it “grow” versus let it “go”? To give this part of us the attention it deserves. To honor it, connect to it, and meet it. To deeply reap its wisdom. To know and understand it.
Because it wouldn’t be reappearing to you over and over if it didn’t have something to teach you.
The secret of secrets?
The only way out is through.
In order to release what holds us back from actualizing our higher potential, purpose and genius, we must first intimately and lovingly meet these contracted textures, connect to and commune with them, deeply be with them, tend to them, honor them, and finally integrate their wisdom before we may set them free.
And Breathwork is the vital missing link which midwives this alchemical process.
So many unconsciously bypass their wounds (spiritual bypass), using “feel good” spiritual ideas to distract themselves from the pain within them which yearns to be known, met and understood. They want to “release what doesn’t serve” without doing any real inner work. Yet we must realize that we will never truly evolve this way.
Because our return to wholeness involves coming to know the totality of what exists within us. And anything that bypasses this is, in truth, an aversion to feeling and welcoming the full depth and breadth of our human experience.
Life is not happening “to” us but for us (and our soul’s evolution).
And nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to learn.
What this ultimately means is that everything appearing in our consciousness (no matter how painful or difficult) is serving our growth and expansion from a soul perspective, even if it’s a challenging growth edge for the human self.
Our life lessons will continue to present themselves to us until we can fully receive and integrate them.
And what’s one of the most powerful tools we have to meet ourselves on these deeper levels?
Breathwork!
The gift of breathwork is that there is nowhere to hide. Through this sacred practice, one must gently, compassionately and courageously meet themselves in complete presence to what is.
Because lovingly holding ourselves through the discomfort to glean its deep wisdom IS THE WORK.
If the student is ready, breathwork is a gateway to the miraculous. And the breath itself is the master teacher, healer and guide.
Breathwork allows us to show up for our soul lessons with grace.
“One breathwork session is equivalent to about two years of psychotherapy.” - Henry Rohrberg, Ph.D.
Or, as one of our students put it: “I spent 30 years meditating in order to connect with my true self. Yet through this lifelong meditation practice, I had detached from my emotions to the point of disassociating from my deeper feelings and pain body. I was spiritually-bypassing the discomfort and living in mental constructs of ‘transcendence’, which was, in all actuality, simply avoidance. In just a few breathwork sessions, however, I not only had a substantial union with my emotional body, powerful catharsis and transformational heart-opening, but I was able to venture into inner dimensions that were never possible through meditation. It truly changed everything for me.”
Psychology literally means “the study of the soul” and spiritual growth cannot exist without an intimate exploration of the deeper facets of self— the emotional body, pain body and remaining self work required to evolve into our most exquisite expression. No real growth into higher states of consciousness can occur until one begins to deeply meet their emotional and pain body.
So… the sacred invitation is to begin to instead welcome and invite in all emotions that are surfacing within you (even the ones that are uncomfortable) as vital intelligences from your innermost knowing. Let’s start to honor them and give them the space they deserve. And through this essential meeting place, we are able to lovingly illuminate the inner forces which keep us marooned from our true power and potential, bringing them to the surface for new levels of healing.
The next step after welcoming these textures in is to integrate and accept the totality of what is showing up, and trust that everything is happening for you and your soul’s continued growth, not “to” you. It is our great work to thus turn toward what hurts, not away from it. Because in all actuality, there is no such thing as “negative emotion”. It is only our actions which can become negative or harmful if we are not allowing ourselves to feel the raw expression of the emotion in a healthy way, and instead projecting it or disowning in a destructive manner. “Negative emotion” is only that which is unintegrated within ourselves; likely something we are avoiding or running from. However, when something is integrated, it is no longer perceived as negative, frightening or disturbing. The majority of unconscious pain is present because the feelings associated with it are unintegrated.
Integration ignites the process of healing and clearing.
All aspects of life have both positive and negative complements. It is only our resistance to the “negative” which creates prolonged suffering. Thus, we must learn how to intimately meet and integrate (not avoid or attempt to prematurely release) what we perceive as “negative”. And trust that each facet within us is there to teach us something precious before we may move past it.
Wishing away our inner work can’t happen. We must be brave and courageous enough to meet ourselves in our sacred totality.
This is alchemy.
This is growth.
This is where the magic of transformation is born— when we can begin to accept the breadth and depth of our experience just as it is, and begin to allow life to flow through us, as us.
Here, we have no resistance to the now.
Life soon becomes far more effortless, graceful and fluid.
Remember: “Let it go can become the mantra of the self-avoidant, feigning resolution because they lack the courage or the preparedness to face their feelings. Let's not play that game. Let's let things in and through, until they are fully and truly ready to shift in our hearts.”
Real healing comes through the intimate act of connecting to, meeting and feeling what is living within you with an open heart and a willingness to turn toward it.
Instead of “letting it go”, might we let it in, let it deep. When this intimate meeting occurs, we then give it the ability to shed, integrate or transform in its own time and space. ©
If you are interested to dive into the Foundations of Breathwork and begin (or continue your journey of) deep emotional healing through the power of your own breath, take a look at our Intro to Breath + Emotional Intelligence Course!
— Written by Kaya Leigh, Founder of SBA // Photography by Plantiful Soul
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© 2021 BY KAYA LEIGH AND SACRED BREATH ACADEMY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. All content is for your personal reference and is not intended to be shared, copied or otherwise distributed. Doing so is an infringement of copyrighted intellectual property. Small quotes may be shared and cited as 'Sacred Breath Academy' with permission.