You’ve been told so many times that you already have what you need to be who you’re here to be (and do what you’re here to do), but sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. Sometimes it feels like, well where is all that magical stuff? Where is my self-love, my discipline, my clarity? If I already have it then why doesn’t it feel like I do?
The phrase, “right things, right timing.” is a favorite of mine because it helps me release my tendency to control. I say it to myself all the time when things don’t go the way I want them to or aren’t happening on the timeline I’d prefer.
This phrase isn’t just a platitude to soothe disappointments–it’s true. I can’t think of a time in my life when something didn’t go the way I wanted, but I realized later that what I’d wanted wasn’t the best thing after all.
This week I channeled some guidance I didn’t want to hear. It was intended for my email subscribers but I didn’t want to send it out because it felt too challenging. (Note that this guidance is for me, too, and I wanted something less challenging!) So I channeled more guidance, which I also didn’t like.
I kept channeling guidance until I had six weeks’ worth of guidance…and I didn’t like any of it.
Terrible things happen all over the world everyday. Most of them we never hear about, but some of them we do. And realizing that the one atrocious thing you’ve heard about is just one thing, and there are so many more atrocious things you’ll never know about, is even more upsetting.
Sometimes when we hear about the sad, horrifying, awful things we may wonder how they’re even possible. Or we may wonder how it’s possible that at our core we really are all beings of love, when some of us perpetrate such terrible acts. Sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense.
Do you ever feel like you’re living out the same story over and over? Like the same issues and problems keep cropping up in your life, even though you’re self-aware, even though you’re trying so hard to grow and evolve and improve and leave your old troubles behind?
You’re not alone.
Repeatedly confronting the same kinds of issues doesn’t mean you’re broken, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed at life, and it doesn’t mean you’re not growing.
I was talking to a friend recently about faith and trust. Specifically, our faith and trust in the universe to provide what we need to move forward on our paths. For many people, it’s hard to put a lot of faith in “the universe,” because it’s so intangible.
We can talk all day about how we’re all part of the same energetic whole, aka “the universe” or “source” or whatever you want to call it, but it can be hard to wrap your mind around that unless you’ve studied quantum physics.
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve heard the phrase, “Step into your power,” so many times that it’s become little more than a self-help platitude. When I first started on my personal growth journey I liked this phrase, I liked to imagine my power as an outfit I could put on and then BOOM! I’m powerful and ready to take on life from this mighty new position. And for a while it did work that way–using the phrase as an affirmation along with my outfit visualization did help to bolster my confidence in myself.
Release rituals are often done at the time of the full moon so that the energy of the waning moon as it moves from full to new can help support the dissolution of things we’re ready to let go of. The truth is, though, that you can do these rituals anytime. Sure, it’s nice to work with the energy of the moon and allow it to support you, but as long as you hold in your heart the intention to release that which is no longer serving you, any ritual you do to support that release will help you regardless of when you do it.
That being said, I did a release ritual last night in honor of the Pisces Supermoon, and it was lovely. I’d been feeling the need to release from my ego and wanted to harness the energy of the moon to support me. I like my rituals simple, so that’s what you’ll see below. However, it’s important when performing a ritual to pick and choose elements that resonate with you, because ritual is about connecting with your own inner wisdom and divinity. So listen to your intuition and do what feels right to you!
Here’s my simple release ritual:
Choose your location. You must choose a place that feels safe and comfortable. You can be inside or outside, it doesn’t really matter as long as you feel good in the location you’ve chosen to do your ritual. Many people like to be outside when doing a full moon ritual. I usually start inside and then move outside when it’s time to start burning things!
Prepare your space. There are several ways to go about this, but some of my favorites are:
- smudge the space using a sage smudge stick
- light a candle (or several!)
- burn incense
- spray a mixture of distilled water and essential oils (I like a blend of lavender and clary sage)
- clap your hands in the corners of the room (keep clapping until your claps are nice and sharp and don’t sound flat)
- call in white light to purify your energy and your space
The point of preparing your space is to cleanse the energy where you’ll be performing your ritual so that you can get the clearest transmission from your intuition and connect as purely as possible to Source.
I also like to bring some crystals into my space to support my heart, third eye, and crown chakras (keep it simple! I use rose quartz, amethyst, and clear quartz). Last night I also brought in a couple of special crystals to support my ability to see anything hidden that needed to be released (malachite) and to release it (green calcite).
Set your intention / ask for help. For my release rituals, my intentions are often requests for help because I know that I’ll need it! I like to turn my problems over to Source so that I’m not limited by my own mind. I usually use one of these phrases (or a variation of them, there’s no need to get the wording exact as long as you honestly communicate your own personal intention for the ritual):
“Please help me see the things in myself and in my life that are no longer serving me so that I may release them.”
“Please help me release anything that is preventing me from serving the highest good of all.”
I also often write this intention at the top of my page:
“I see clearly all the things I must release in order to be of service. These things are:”
Write down everything you want to release. Listen to your inner guidance when you make this list. Continue to hold the intention to be shown anything you need to release, whether you were previously aware of it or not. Don’t be too picky about everything on the list being a fully-formed thought or idea, or having it all be perfectly written out. Just write down everything that comes through without judgement or editing.
In my case last night, because I wanted to release my ego, I wrote down not only the limiting beliefs and fears that stem from my ego but also all the things my ego wants.
Set your intention again. This time focus your intention on releasing everything you wrote down. Again, I often ask for help with this step because tapping into the divine is so much more powerful than relying solely on my own mind. Here are some of my favorite ways to do this:
“Please help me release all of these things that are no longer serving me.”
“Please help me release that which is preventing me from serving the highest good.”
“I am ready to release that which is no longer serving me.”
“I joyfully and willingly release these things and any others that are holding me back from the fullest expression of my divine nature.”
“I release control, fear, and attachments.”
“I see what needs to go and I am ready to let it go.”
Hold space / invite the divine to assist you. When you release things that are no longer serving you, you create space in your life for things that do. It’s so important to hold this space and not rush to fill it up with ideas of all the things you want to manifest. Hold space to allow the universe to bring you what you need.
For this reason, even when performing a release ritual, I like to invite the universe to bring me whatever it is that I need. This invitation creates space for miracles to unfold. I also find that affirming my openness to receive whatever it is that the universe sees fit to bring me really helps bring me into deeper alignment with Source. If you, like me, feel a strong call to serve humanity, this is also a great time in your ritual to state your commitment to service. Here are some of the intentions I use:
“I am here to serve the highest good of all.”
“I release what no longer serves me and trust the universe to bring me what I need.”
“I turn my problems, concerns, and desires over to the universe so that my life may unfold in alignment with divine order.”
“I give and receive with open hands and an open heart.”
Burn your list. I like to burn my list of the things I want to release, but you don’t have to burn yours if that doesn’t resonate with you. You can rip it up, bury it, or crumple it up and throw it away. You don’t even have to destroy or get rid of it, but having tried that myself I can tell you that I find it significantly more powerful and effective to get rid of the list. You may think you’ll want to refer back to it, but why? You’re done with those things, let them go.
I often find the next morning that I have trouble remembering what was on the list I burned the night before, which helps me further cement my detachment from whatever was on the list. As someone who can tend towards a little too much self-examination and introspection, I find this very liberating!
Anchor your intention. I keep a small crystal or rock as a symbol of my both my willingness to release what no longer serves me and my willingness to align my life with divine order. After I burn my list, I infuse my crystal with this energy (by simply saying it is so) and leave it outside to charge under the full moon. If I’m doing this ritual when there isn’t a full moon I still leave the crystal outside to cleanse its energy and power it up. If you don’t have access to an outdoor area where you feel like you can safely leave your special rock or crystal overnight, put it on a windowsill or in the dirt of a potted plant.
I keep the crystal with me in my pocket and sleep with it near my bed. It’s a wonderful reminder of my faith in the universe to support me.
End your ritual. I like to end with a simple expression of gratitude for my experience in this lifetime and restate (yes, again!) my alignment with divine order. Something like this works well for me:
“I am grateful for this opportunity to serve. I let what wants to come, come and what wants to go, go.”
You may choose to end with a soak in an epsom salt bath (it’s helpful to visualize your energy being cleansed by the bath and everything you want to release going down the drain with the water at the end), or simply a few deep breaths.
That’s it! Nice and simple and a wonderful way to reconnect and reset.
Have you ever done a release ritual? Would you like to try it out? What would the essential elements in your ritual be?
Sending lots of love and light to you!
xoxox
When we bought our house a year ago our realtor gave us a housewarming gift of placemats. Eco-friendly, fancy-pants, expensive placemats. As far as placemats go, they were lovely, but we didn’t want or need them, so I took them back to the store where they were purchased to see if I could exchange them for something else.
The store turned out to be a very upscale home goods boutique. They had fancy china and knick knacks and a million other things that held zero interest for me. I thought, great, I’ll be holding on to this store credit forever! Then, when I was about to leave the store I noticed a glass case full of crystals. I’d been dreaming of getting some nice big crystals for my office, especially an amethyst because of it’s calming and intuition-supporting properties. But, having just purchased a new (95-yr-old!) house, we had a lot of other expenses and crystals for my office were waaaay down on the priority list.
You know where this is going. In the glass case were three large amethyst cluster geodes, along with many other large and small crystals. Nothing was labeled by type, because it was a home goods boutique. They don’t care about the metaphysical properties of crystals, they only sell them because they’re pretty and people like them for home decor. I chose two large crystals, an amethyst mixed with smokey quartz and a clear quartz geode. They had a few containers of smaller cystals for $15 each, including some pale aqua ones that I was really drawn to. But since I wasn’t sure how much store credit I had, I only bought the amethyst and the quartz. The purchase used up almost my entire store credit, and they gave me a voucher for the remaining $16.
I took my new crystals home, cleansed them in the sun and charged them under the full moon. They’re in my office and they have delightful energy. This may sound weird, but I’ve realized that they’re very happy to be with me because they’ve been liberated from their superficial existence in the boutique. They were getting stale and stifled in there and now they’re used and appreciated and they bask in the flow of energy that swirls around my space. (Yes, I’m learning to read the energy of crystals just like I do with people! Always something new to add to the toolbox!)
Fast forward several months and I still had the store credit tucked in my wallet. I’d forget about it for a while and then remember and think, yeah, I should go back and get one of those small aqua crystals. But I’m a busy woman and I often have my two young kids in tow, so any errand that isn’t essential usually gets put off.
One day last week I started seeing images of the small aqua crystals in my mind, especially one in particular that was mixed with an opaque white mineral. I remembered the store credit and how it was the exact amount I needed to buy one of those crystals. I put an item on my to-do list for the following week to go buy an aqua crystal.
Well, when I woke up the next morning the aqua crystal was the first thing on my mind. There would be no waiting until next week, I had to go that day. As luck (aka fate) would have it I had a brief window of time when I was kid-free and could run a quick errand that morning. I went to the boutique, walked straight to the crystal case, and started looking for the aqua crystals. There were only two left and one of them looked almost exactly like the image I’d seen in my mind.
As I mentioned before nothing was labeled by type. The small crystals were all jumbled together in a few containers simply labeled “small zeolites & minerals $15.” So, I didn’t know what the crystal was, but that didn’t matter to me. I knew that crystal was coming home with me for a reason and that the reason would be revealed to me at some point.
When I went to pay for the crystal, the total actually came out to be $1.10 less than my store credit. I was thinking, fine, whatever, I’m just going to throw the store credit away because there is nothing else I want from this store and I don’t want to be bothered. Right after that thought sailed through my mind the woman who was helping me opened the cash register and pulled out $1.10. She handed it to me and said, “just don’t tell anyone!” (Who would I tell?!) So, I got my crystal and some cash and I was on my way!
When I got home I wanted to figure out what the crystal was. I had some ideas, but wasn’t sure. I shared the photo with some of my Internet friends who know a lot more about crystals than I do and we determined that the crystal is green calcite. Metaphysically speaking, green calcite is exactly what I need right now. Like, exactly. Green calcite is ideal for helping dissolve energy patterns and beliefs that may be holding us back as well as supporting us in times of transition. How fitting considering all of my recent work on releasing limiting habits and beliefs, which has pushed me to the edge of some very big shifts. This crystal has the exact soothing, encouraging energy I need right now. I’ve been carrying it around with me even though it’s too big to fit in my pocket!
This particular crystal coming into my life at this time and under these circumstances is a wonderful reminder that when you have faith and you act with intention the universe will give you what you need. The crystal itself is a lovely gift, but more importantly, it’s a sign of bigger things to come. It’s a reflection of my intentions, efforts, and trust. It’s the universe saying “I have your back.” It’s the tip of the iceberg of all the things I’ve been working to manifest–finally coming into physical form.
Trust in your ability to create what you want. Act with intention. Surrender your problems, perceived limitations, and expectations to the universe so that you may be transformed. The combination of these things is the gateway to manifesting the experience you want to have. The universe will send you signs, small ones at first, and if you notice and appreciate those then larger ones will follow.
I’d love to know what kinds of signs you’re seeing in your life that what you want is on the way. And if you have any questions about intention, trust, surrender, manifestation (or anything else!), please leave them in the comments, I promise I’ll answer them!
Sending so much love and gratitude to you. We are all one in our divinity.
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