by Stephanie Bennett Vogt
Are you having trouble letting go of something that’s been bugging you? It could be a pile of things you no longer need, use, or love. It could be a relationship that no longer serves and supports you. It could be a nagging thought or a feeling.
If so, a ritual might help.
If you think of dreams as the way that your unconscious mind communicates to you in special symbolic code while you sleep, ritual is one way you can consciously communicate back to your unconscious while you’re awake. To the unconscious mind real live action and conscious intentional ritual are the same thing! By creating a ritual of letting go, for instance, you can send a powerful message to your subconscious that letting go of stress and stuff is doable and even fun.
Ritual is a great way to anchor intentions. It helps you massage, soften, and release tough holding patterns and bring to conscious reality the longings of your heart.
Here are some simple rituals you can try to help release the things and thoughts that no longer serve and support you. Do one every day, or choose the same one and practice it every day for a week and see if it creates new energy and openings in your life.
- Repeat to yourself ‘It’s not mine,’ whenever you feel some emotional weather creeping up suddenly, and imagine it blowing (peeling, falling, melting) away.
- After a bath or shower, imagine the draining water taking away old energy, thoughts, and beliefs.
- Burn incense and/or clap, rattle and bell to clear away something old or prepare a space for something new.
- Release by burning photos, letters, or painful memories written down on a piece of paper – with gratitude.
- Amplify your drinking water by placing the words ‘Gratitude and Love’ on your glass or on the jug, facing inward.
- Amplify up your food with your thoughts of praise, gratitude, and love.
- Visualize stuck energy moving through your feet into the earth.
- Place a thought-form (of a person, thing, belief, or issue) you would like to release on the palm of your hand. Wish it Godspeed and blow it into the wind, with gratitude.
- Write a letter to someone as if you were going to send it, but instead bless it and burn it with gratitude.
- Create an altar to a food item (or a thing, belief, issue) with which you would like to change or heal your relationship.
- At bedtime, let go of the busy-ness of your day by recalling everything that happened – from your most recent moment (getting into bed) to the first thing you can remember doing earlier that day (like getting out of bed). Unwinding your day in the manner creates space for you to sleep better and dream more vividly. I’m usually sound asleep by the time I try to remember what I had for lunch.
- Create and decorate a special table and declare it your Altar of Letting Go. Place an object on this space that symbolizes the things, thoughts or issues that you would like to let go of. Light a candle and ask this (thing, thought or issue) be released from your life with grace and ease. Remove the symbolic object at the end of seven days, wish it Godspeed, and release it with gratitude. Notice if there have any shifts, synchronicities, ah-has that have taken place since you began your ritual and write them down.
- In the spirit of the Japanese saying ‘Let the past drift away in the water,’ wash your hands slowly and mindfully after each phase of your day to release the strings or attachments to your past. More clearing and organizing tips from Stephanie Bennett Vogt
Stephanie Bennett Vogt, MA is New England’s leading space clearing expert and the author of the award-winning Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are. She brings 35 years of experience to SpaceClear, a teaching and consulting practice she founded in 1996, helping homes and their occupants come back into balance. Learn more at Space Clear