Letting Go: The First Shedding

Part One of the Shedding Skin Series

There comes a moment—quiet and heavy—when something inside you whispers: this is no longer for me.

Maybe it’s a relationship.
Maybe it’s a role you’ve played for too long.
Maybe it’s a belief about yourself that once kept you safe but now keeps you small.

Letting go is the first shedding.

Like a snake outgrowing its old skin, letting go begins with discomfort—an inner rub that tells you you’re not the same anymore. You’re growing. And while the skin you’ve been in has served a purpose, staying inside it will only start to hurt.

But what does it take to let go?

It takes truth.
The kind of truth that stings before it soothes. The kind that says, This person, this pattern, this hope I’ve clung to… it’s no longer aligned with where I’m headed.

It takes grief.
Because you’re not just letting go of pain—you’re letting go of the good moments too. The potential. The what-ifs.

It takes compassion.
You’ll need to remind yourself that releasing doesn’t make you weak. It makes you wise.

And it takes faith.
That whatever is on the other side of this shedding is worthy of the space you’re making.

So when do you know it’s time?
When holding on feels heavier than the fear of what might happen if you let go.

When staying is costing you your peace, your growth, or your sense of self.

When the version of you that survived can no longer breathe inside the life that once fit.

Letting go isn’t a single act. It’s a sacred process. One that may ask you to cry, rage, pause, and then choose—again and again—not to go back.

Remember: you are not shedding because you failed.
You’re shedding because you’re evolving.

And you don’t have to do it all at once.

Letting go can look like finally deleting the number.
Or no longer justifying their behaviour in your head.
Or saying, I deserve more, and letting that truth sit with you like sunlight.

This is the first shedding.
The beginning of what it means to be free.

And you are not alone in it.