Leave What's Heavy: A Guide To Letting Go

This is a guided Journey inviting you to release the things that have hurt you in the past. Allowing you to remember that it does not serve you to hold onto these things, but to simply acknowledge them and then release. Listen when you are ready to learn to let go.

Transcript

I'd like to invite you to close your eyes,

Either now or after you take a few deep breaths,

Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth,

Allowing your body to melt into the surface beneath you.

With each breath,

You become more and more relaxed,

Allowing your body to settle,

Maybe wiggling your hips back and forth,

Rolling your shoulders back,

And just finding a comfortable place to rest.

As we go through each part of your body,

From head to toe,

Each muscle,

Each body part,

Will automatically release,

Relax,

And let go.

Allow yourself to feel your head relaxing,

Feeling the small muscles in your scalp let go as your forehead and eyebrows release,

The muscles behind your eyes let go.

As your cheeks relax,

Your lips soften,

And as your teeth gently part,

Your tongue begins to feel heavy in your mouth.

As the muscles at the back of your throat let go,

You feel your ears release,

And you feel relaxation melting down your throat,

Down your neck,

Down your spine.

You feel your shoulders release,

As if a great weight has been lifted.

You feel the muscles from your shoulders to your elbows let go,

As the muscles from your elbows to your wrists release,

And as everything from your wrists to your fingertips relax,

You feel relaxation begin to melt down your spine.

And as your upper back relaxes,

Your lower back releases,

And your whole torso lets go.

You feel relaxation melt through the ribcage and deep into your chest,

Feeling your heart release,

Your belly relax,

As your whole torso lets go.

Feeling this deep relaxation melt through your hips,

Through your pelvis,

You feel your thighs release,

As your hamstrings let go,

Letting relaxation melt through your knees,

To your toes,

Through the soles of your feet.

And it feels so good to release,

Relax,

Relax,

And let go.

And as I count from 1 to 5,

You will feel so much more relaxed,

Going automatically to your deepest level of peaceful relaxation.

Want that to happen?

Allow that to happen.

1.

Feeling your body release.

2.

Your mind letting go.

3.

Relaxing deeper,

And deeper down.

4.

Moving to your deepest state of relaxation.

5.

So peacefully,

Deeply relaxed.

I'd like you to imagine that you are walking through a beautiful meadow.

You feel the sun on your skin,

You smell the wildflowers that fill the meadow,

You can hear the leaves rustling in the trees,

And you are about to begin a hike that you have been looking forward to for months.

People have told you how beautiful it is,

How there are fresh blueberries to eat,

And wild lavender to smell.

That there is a huge lake with the most refreshing,

Clean water.

You cannot wait.

You find the trailhead,

And you begin the hike.

The trail is a narrow,

Rocky dirt path,

And as you are walking,

You get distracted watching a beautiful bird fly by,

And you accidentally stub your toe on a rock.

The pain moves through your foot,

And you are so upset.

You decide to pick up the rock so that you can remember to watch your feet so that you don't stub your toe again.

As you turn another corner,

You see another rock in the middle of the trail.

You bend down and pick up that one too.

The more you walk,

The more rocks you pick up so that you don't stub your toe again.

By holding the rocks in your hands,

You remember to focus your attention on your feet so that you don't get hurt again.

Before you know it,

Your hands are full of rocks,

Your pockets are full of rocks,

Even your backpack is full of rocks that you have picked up along the trail.

You are getting so tired,

So heavy.

It's so hard to keep walking with all of the extra weight of the rocks,

But you keep putting one foot in front of the other,

Continuing to pick up the rocks from the path so that you don't stub your toe again,

And to keep your trail safe.

You are so tired now that you know you could not deal with the pain of stubbing your toe again,

So your focus becomes entirely on picking up rocks to clear the trail.

You don't even notice the beautiful scenery around you because you are so focused on making sure that your trail is safe and free of rocks.

A hiker passes you by and asks what you thought of the beautiful lake.

You think to yourself,

I didn't see a lake.

You keep walking,

Picking up more rocks to keep your trail and your feet safe.

Another hiker passes you and asks if you know what kind of bird was singing such a beautiful song,

But you have no memory of hearing the bird's song.

You keep walking,

Picking up more rocks to keep your trail safe.

Another hiker asks if you tried any of the wild blueberries that scattered the sides of the trail.

You didn't see any blueberries.

You pick up more rocks to keep your trail safe.

Another hiker asks if you smelled the field of lavender.

You don't remember seeing any of these things,

But you kept your trail safe.

Finally,

You reach the summit and you are feeling so tired.

Your hands,

Your pockets,

And your backpack are full of rocks.

Everyone else around you is so happy,

Laughing,

Smiling,

And talking about the beautiful hike that they just experienced.

Your arms are sore from picking up the rocks.

You realize that you don't even feel the pain anymore from your toe that you stubbed at the beginning of the hike.

You realize how tired you are from picking up and carrying all of these heavy rocks,

And how you didn't notice anything on the beautiful hike.

You realize that you really didn't need to clear all of the rocks off the trail and that you really didn't need to carry them with you.

You release your hands,

Letting the rocks fall to the ground.

It feels so good to let go.

You reach into your pockets,

Filling your hands up again with more rocks,

This time throwing them far,

Far away.

It feels so good to let go.

You take your backpack off,

And you walk carefully to the edge of the mountain and turn it upside down.

It feels so good to let go.

You hear the rocks falling out,

Tumbling down the hill.

It feels so good to let go of these rocks that have been weighing you down.

You feel so much lighter now.

It feels so good to let go.

You sit down on a bench and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.

You take a deep breath,

Filling your lungs with fresh,

Crisp mountain air.

You take a big,

Refreshing drink of cool water.

It feels so good to let go.

After taking a while to rest,

You feel rejuvenated again.

So you begin walking back down the mountain,

And as you begin your descent,

You notice just how beautiful it is.

You see the bright green of pine trees and lush ferns covering the earth.

You feel gentle snapping of twigs and sticks beneath your feet as the soft dirt forms to your feet with each step that you take.

It feels so good to let go.

And as you are walking down the trail through the forest,

You can hear the birds singing in the trees.

You can't believe how you didn't hear them before.

It sounds like there are hundreds of birds singing their songs in harmony.

It sounds like a beautiful symphony of nature.

The trail turns a corner,

And you see a beautiful field of wild lavender growing.

The soothing scent is so strong as the gentle breeze blows it your way.

You take a deep breath and let it go,

And again you wonder,

Wonder,

Wonder,

How did you not see or smell this beautiful lavender before?

You keep walking down the hill,

Feeling lighter and lighter with each step that you take.

You notice a large blueberry bush on the side of the trail,

And you gently grab a few blueberries,

Tasting how sweet they are.

You notice that your fingertips are slightly purple as you reach to grab a few more,

Stained by the sweet blueberry juice.

It tastes so good,

And you are feeling so grateful that nature provided such a lovely treat for you to enjoy.

As you continue walking down the hill,

You feel gratitude wash down your spine.

Each turn the trail takes leads you to another beautiful scene in nature.

This is the most beautiful hike that you have ever been on.

As you come around another corner,

You see a beautiful lake glistening in the sun.

You begin to realize that you had been so focused on picking up these rocks to keep your trail safe,

That you had missed the most of the whole hike.

You are flooded with gratitude that you left all of those rocks behind so that you could enjoy everything that this trail has to offer you.

It feels so good to let go.

You walk to the edge of the lake,

And gently cleanse your face with the fresh,

Clean water.

The crisp coolness of the lake feels so good on your skin as it washes away the sweat,

Leaving you feeling so cleansed,

So free,

So refreshed.

You continue walking down the path,

And as you turn the last corner,

You see a rock on the ground.

Instead of picking it up and holding onto it,

You simply leave it on the trail.

Walking by,

You know that picking up and holding onto rocks won't help keep you from getting hurt again,

And that all you can do now is simply be more aware of your surroundings.

The trail guides you back to the meadow where you began your journey.

You feel the sun on your skin,

You smell the wildflowers that fill the meadow,

You can hear the leaves rustling in the trees.

You feel so grateful,

Your heart and soul feel lighter,

And it feels so good to let go.

As I count 5 to 1,

You will begin to return back to the room,

Back to your body.

And on the count of 1,

You will open your eyes,

Bringing back with you all that you've experienced on this journey.

5,

Feeling lighter,

Feeling grateful.

4,

Releasing all that no longer serves you.

3,

It feels so good to let go.

2,

Sensation coming back into the body,

Back into the room.

1,

Eyes open,

Wide awake,

Feeling so refreshed.

Reviews

What beautiful imagery. This was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you 🧘‍♂️🙏

Thank you, I found this so helpful and deeply meaningful.

This was exactly the meditation that I have been looking for. It was exactly what I needed. for the last couple years I have been on that first half of the hike, picking up rocks one zip belong to me and one sit down and carry in them with me and missing out on all the beauty and all the majesty of my journey of life in the past week I finally put down those rocks and I feel like I am on a new journey And I’m ready to see what is all around me. Thank you so much for this meditation. It was perfect and 100% what I needed. Thank you for sharing your gift with me..

I needed to listen to that today. I knew where it was going right away, but the ending was so perfect. Thank you.

So relaxing I almost fell asleep despite not being particularly tired. I loved this so much! Thank you, Jess, for this beautiful meditation about letting go. 🙏🏻💚

Such a great metaphor… really works

A beautifully guided journey to letting go. Thank you 💛