What does it mean to let go?
“The human journey is a continuous act of transfiguration. If approached in friendship, the unknown, the anonymous, the negative and the threatening gradually yield their secret affinity with us.”
- John O’Donohue, Anam Cara
In Chinese Medicine, Autumn is linked with the Lungs, the element of Metal, and the emotions of Grief and Letting Go.
Grief lives in us in many forms - big, small, shared, personal. It settles in the body in quiet, complex ways. & “letting go,” I think is often much easier said than done. How do we actually let go of the stuff?
Us humans, we tend to either avoid things that we find uncomfortable or in a bid to understand, trap ourselves in linear and binary ways of thinking. We set stories about who we are, about others, about society - about our pain, our past, our future. We get stuck in patterns shaped by nurture, nature, and years of unavoidable social conditioning. It’s not all wrong, but it’s easy to forget the thought patterns we might subconsciously be conforming to.
As I feel the lungs breathe and watch the trees shed their leaves, as I think about the earth, the origin of Metal, its ability to expand and contract, melt and reshape. I see again the slow, unaffected pace of nature and its ability for renewal and regeneration, all existing without the intervention of thought. Away from the conscious mind, life still exists. Thinking on it reminds me of the power the conscious mind has over us, but also the potential of it, of our brain’s incredible capacity for neuroplasticity. When used intentionally, its ability to adapt, reorganise and rewire itself.
With a bit of attention, we can reconfigure our patterns of thought. So maybe “letting go” could be about transformation & regeneration, about revisiting how we see. Taking time to feel and observe what we’re carrying and exploring holding it differently.
Maybe it’s about shifting the weight, the angle, the story. Maybe it’s about holding things more gently. Or just expanding our imagination, moving out of our head and back into our body and in turn, opening up to the full capacity of who we are and the unknown in the people we see.
