Friday Exhale: What Does It Mean To Let Go

Hello Friday. What a big day it is today. I'll tell you why. Well, it's Friday. My name is Jean. I'm here in Minneapolis. Welcome, welcome. Nice to have you here. Hi Scott, how you doing today? Where are you calling in from? I'm always curious where everybody's at today. Maybe you live there, maybe you're traveling somewhere. But my name is Jean Mitchells. I am a cadre coach and contributor. I am a coach in real life. Hi, Andy Mack. how you doing? It's been so long. I live in Minneapolis. It is a beautiful fall day.

It is officially Friday the 13th, and I think it's a lucky day. If you are into astrology, today is also the last day of Mercury in retrograde and Mercury in Venus. So tomorrow things are going to feel a little lighter, a little more sane again. Both of those events astrologically speaking are designed to help you slow down, be a little more introspective, find a calmer cadence and pace so that you can be a little more mindful and intentional. So this Friday 13th is a big one. Now, a little bit about me.

If you haven't been here with me before, I am a coach. I teach a lot of spin classes. Andy's been in my class. I do a lot of sound baths meditations. I'm a Reiki master, corporate consultant. So all these hats. So when I hit Friday afternoons, I am either like jacked up ready to go because it's just been amazing or I am zonked and ready to pass out, have some pizza, call it a day. Today, as you can tell, I'm kind of jacked up. It's been a really fascinating week. I'm coming off a trip that I've been on and we are flipping into Friday.

So on Friday afternoons, I invite us to do a couple of things first. Take a breath. Hey, T North, how you doing today? So my invitation to you is let's just take a few breaths. We're here. We've arrived. So let's do that with me. We're going to do three breaths. We're going to do a five count in, one count pause, and a five count exhale. It's a lot of counting. But let's try. I'll count for you. just breathe. So take a long, slow inhale. Pause. Exhale. I'm holding my breath, trying to count at the same time.

It's like patting your head and rubbing your belly. So let's do a second one. Shake out your shoulders, shake out your hands, adjust your head a little. If you're not driving, you can do all those things. Let's do one more. Long, slow inhale. Pause. Exhale. Let go. Just let go. One more. Long, slow inhale. Pause. Exhale. How do you feel? Like whenever I do that, I just can feel my whole system reset. I facilitate a lot of breath work, a lot of meditation, so. I'm going to do some short videos to break out some different breathing techniques.

But for today, our topic really is just let it go. So when you hear that phrase, let it go, feel free to type in the chat if you're not driving. What does that mean to you? What feeling is surfacing when the phrase let it go is spoken? or even red. I think oftentimes it depends on the context. There are sometimes when people just tell me to let it go, and I'm like, nope, not letting that go. Not today. Heaviness, I like that, Terry, thank you. Tina North. So when I find that phrase, let it go, sometimes it actually can be a little activating.

because if the context or the situation isn't right, it could actually trigger someone to get a little more stubborn or feel not heard or validated. So when I'm saying it here today on Friday, it really is more reflective than that. I think about the week that we've had or the week that you've had, the week that I've had, and I look back on it and It's a good opportunity to decide what are you going to carry forward with you? What are you going to carry into the weekend? What might you carry into next week?

Or what are you truly, truly going to set free and not hold any attachment to the thought or the task, the heaviness? So for me this week, I am really focusing on letting go of expectation. And what I mean by that is, is there are certain activities that are happening this week that are really super important, at least important to myself or my team and those outcomes. I have an idea of what I hope for. I have what I think is the right path. But right now, everything that I could possibly have done to drive an outcome or decision even, because the gray space is really hard to sit in.

I've done everything. There's no more questions left to be answered in this moment. There might still be more questions, but truly it's a point of somebody else making a decision. So for me, as I move into the weekend, I really am working on letting go of that expectation. Letting go of the fact they might need more information, letting go of my hold on what I expect the outcome to be. Because there could be a plot twist that I don't see coming, but I'm not there. I'm right here. So in this moment, I really am just choosing to let go.

Put faith wherever you believe. And also trust that I've done what I needed to do. And if the outcome is different than what I'm expecting or what I'm hoping, then that will be okay too. And there will be a path forward. So I'm really sitting in this space of, I don't know what I don't know. But honestly, I'm super excited because we're at the point that there's going to be a decision one way or the other. And I have a plan for each decision that happens. I'm not even really a planner, but I have like a stake in the ground and a plot twist.

So I'm ready to pivot whichever direction this decision goes. It's not easy, is it? My question to you is, what does it feel like to let go of control? Here's what I actually, truly, truly know. The only thing that we can actually control is this moment. This one, the one that we're in, right here, you and I chatting. This is the only moment that we're in. It's the only one we know. We can't control what's going to happen in an hour from now. We have a plan for what might happen in an hour from now.

For example, I have a sound bath tonight and I know that in 40 minutes, I'm going to load my car and drive to the destination, unpack my car, do a sound bath. But between now and then, something could happen, a plot twist. There could be a traffic jam, nobody could show up. all the things, but what I can control right now is what are the actions I can do in this moment. I can control my breath, my thoughts, what I'm doing right now in this moment, everything else I can kind of just let go. Now, you might be saying, yeah, there's some things that I can't let go.

I have an emotion about something or Something bad really just happened, and all of those things are so valid. But sometimes all those things are out of our control. For the best of us, all of us. So I'll go back to what I know right now, is that I'm standing here, planted feet on the ground, just like all the retrievers. here to my side, laying down, probably ready for a walk, just had dinner. And I know that I have some words for you that aren't written by me out of one of my favorite books to navigate through.

And I'm going to share some of those with you right now. Maturity is when you can finally ride the ups and downs of life without getting tossed around by them. You don't expect everything to be perfect change is a constant. You don't judge yourself when times get hard. You live in gratitude and you enjoy the good when it is here. So when I say those words, read those words to you, if you aren't driving and something resonated with you about that, I'd love to hear what that is and feel free to type it in the chat.

I went book fast with my book. It's called Lighter. And I have a number of this author's book, Young Pueblo. Follow them on Instagram. And varying books have just different sets of inspiration for me. So if you haven't checked out this author, maybe try. It's actually a story and then inside there they have like little quotes and little poems or phrases. I'm going to share one more thing for you. So recently in August, I was snorkeling and the dive master, the people that were facilitating the snorkeling experience, we were jumping into the ocean and they said, okay, is there anybody here that doesn't like sharks?

And a few people raised their hand and I was like, I'm shark curious. Been watching and studying a lot about sharks and they said this. They said, Okay, if you're afraid of sharks, here's the deal. When you see one, close your eyes and count to three and then they'll be gone. And I was like, hmm, not so sure about that, but okay. So I'm out there doing my thing and sure enough, a shark, I don't know, probably maybe as long as I am, maybe a little longer, come swimming towards me. And I didn't close my eyes, but I counted to three.

And I watched. One, two, three. Came in my sphere, made a turn, went a different direction on their way. So it made me wonder, how might I use that in a normal day? Our thoughts are simply our thoughts. There isn't anything to them until we attach something to them. An emotion, a continued thought spiral, anything else. So I've been practicing, and it's not easy, but I've been practicing the art of letting go of my thoughts. So when I find something, maybe it's I'm talking down to myself about something.

I think we've all done that or still do that. I've found that I've been practicing. Oh, why am I beating myself up right now? What if I let that go? What if I change my thoughts? Something to consider. Our thoughts really truly are and if you're in meditation, meditation isn't not thinking, it's about creating space in between our thoughts. How do we create space? We have to let go. So there are so many ways that we can use this Friday breath, letting go of the tension in our body, suspending judgment on our own thoughts, giving ourselves permission to feel more gratitude, to be present, to enjoy the day, to let go of the things that we can't control because we've done every single thing we could to drive the outcome that we hope for.

and trust that. So Friday team, what will you let go? I love you with all my heart. I'll be popping in again early next week. Otherwise, I'll see you next Friday. What was the author of the book? Great question. Young Pueblo. I'm going to hold it a little closer. I can't tell if it's backwards for you or not. But it's Young Pueblo, Y-U-N-G, P-U-E-B-L-O. And Lighter is the name of this particular book, but there are several. Great question. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your evening. If you're in Minnesota, enjoy this beautiful fall day.

And I look forward to holding space with all of you again soon.