Okay, can we just pause for a second? I was scrolling through my phone the other night\u2014you know, that dangerous pre-bedtime scroll where you tell yourself \u201cjust five more minutes\u201d and then suddenly it\u2019s 1 AM\u2014and I stumbled upon something that made me snort-laugh. It was a meme about how we all have that one friend who sends us a voice memo that\u2019s basically a full podcast episode. And I thought, yes, that\u2019s me. I\u2019m that friend. But also, it got me thinking about how much of our lives we spend just\u2026 sorting through stuff. Digital clutter, mental clutter, actual physical clutter in that drawer we\u2019re all afraid to open.<\/p>\n
So today, I wanted to chat about something that\u2019s been on my mind lately: the art of letting go. Not in a dramatic, \u201cI\u2019m burning all my journals and moving to a monastery\u201d kind of way (though some days, tempting). More like the small, everyday decisions we make about what we keep, what we release, and how we make space for the things that actually matter. Because honestly? I think we\u2019re all carrying around a little too much\u2014and I don\u2019t just mean the 47 unread emails in my inbox.<\/p>\n
Let me paint you a picture. Last week, I decided to clean out my email inbox because I was getting that tight-chest feeling every time I opened my phone. You know the one. So I sat down with my coffee, fully prepared to spend an hour doing \u201cadmin stuff,\u201d and what did I find? I was subscribed to the newsletter of a bakery I visited once in Portland. In 2019. I don\u2019t even live in Portland. I haven\u2019t thought about that bakery since I ate their overpriced croissant. And yet, there it was, taking up space in my brain and my battery life.<\/p>\n
I spent the next twenty minutes just hitting \u201cunsubscribe\u201d on everything that didn\u2019t bring me joy or useful information. It felt like a tiny rebellion. And I realized that this is the secret, isn\u2019t it? We think \u201cletting go\u201d has to be this big, heavy, emotional thing\u2014like decluttering your entire life in one weekend Marie Kondo-style. But really, it\u2019s the small stuff. It\u2019s the email subscriptions, the apps on your phone you haven\u2019t opened in six months, the group chat you\u2019re only in because you feel guilty leaving.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I did, and maybe you\u2019ll want to try this too:<\/p>\n
And you know what? Nothing exploded. The world kept spinning. My friends still love me. I just had a little more room in my head for things that actually matter.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where it gets a little deeper, though. Because the digital stuff is easy\u2014it\u2019s just deleting pixels. The harder stuff is the physical and emotional clutter. You know that box in your closet? The one with the old concert tickets, the ex\u2019s hoodie you \u201cforgot\u201d to return, and the birthday cards from people you haven\u2019t spoken to in years? Yeah. That box.<\/p>\n
I have one of those. It used to be a shoebox, then it became a tote bag, and now it\u2019s a full-on plastic bin under my bed. And every time I move apartments, I lug it with me, telling myself I\u2019ll \u201csort through it someday.\u201d But someday never comes, does it? Because sorting through it means facing the fact that I\u2019m not the same person I was when I kept those things. And that\u2019s scary. It\u2019s like admitting that time actually passes and people change and some chapters just\u2026 end.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing I\u2019m learning, slowly and painfully: holding onto something doesn\u2019t make the memory stronger. It just makes your arms tired. So last weekend, I did it. I opened the bin. I sat on my bedroom floor with a glass of wine (for courage, obviously) and I went through everything. And you know what I found? I didn\u2019t even remember why I kept half of it. There was a receipt from a grocery store I don\u2019t even recognize. A movie ticket stub from a film I can\u2019t remember seeing. I literally kept trash. Emotional trash, but trash nonetheless.<\/p>\n
So I made a deal with myself. I kept the things that genuinely made me smile\u2014like the photo of me and my college roommate at our graduation, both of us looking ridiculously young and hopeful. And I let go of the rest. I took a picture of the stuff I was releasing (weird, I know, but it helps me feel like I\u2019m honoring it) and then I recycled or donated what I could. The rest went in the bin. The bin went to the curb.<\/p>\n
And I won\u2019t lie to you\u2014it felt a little sad. But it also felt like I could finally breathe. Like I\u2019d cleared out a corner of my brain that was just full of static.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I really want you to take away from this, friend. We spend so much time telling ourselves that we have to hold onto things\u2014relationships, habits, objects, even opinions\u2014because that\u2019s what \u201cgood\u201d people do. We stay in friendships that drain us because we\u2019ve known them since middle school. We keep clothes that don\u2019t fit because we might \u201cget back into them.\u201d We hold onto grudges because we feel like letting go means we\u2019re admitting we were wrong.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s my little truth bomb for today: letting go isn\u2019t giving up. It\u2019s making room. It\u2019s saying, \u201cI value my peace more than I value this thing that\u2019s weighing me down.\u201d And that\u2019s not selfish. That\u2019s survival. That\u2019s growth. That\u2019s you choosing yourself, which is honestly one of the bravest things you can do.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s easy. I\u2019m not saying you\u2019ll do it all in one weekend and emerge as a zen master. I\u2019m saying you can start small. Unsubscribe from one email list. Delete one app. Put one thing in the donation bag. Text that friend you\u2019ve been meaning to reconnect with, or\u2014here\u2019s a wild one\u2014leave the group chat that\u2019s been making you feel weird. You have permission. I\u2019m giving it to you, and you should give it to yourself.<\/p>\n
Because at the end of the day, life is short. And I don\u2019t want to spend it carrying a tote bag full of receipts from a life I don\u2019t even live anymore. I want to spend it with my hands free, ready for whatever comes next. And I think you do too.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s my challenge to you, if you\u2019re up for it: pick one thing this week\u2014just one\u2014that you\u2019re ready to let go of. It can be tiny. It can be huge. It can be an email subscription or an old grudge. And just\u2026 release it. See how it feels. I bet it feels lighter than you expected.<\/p>\n
Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I have a drawer in my kitchen that\u2019s been calling my name. It\u2019s full of rubber bands and takeout menus from restaurants that closed during the pandemic. It\u2019s time. \ud83e\udd0d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Okay, can we just pause for a second? I was scrolling through my phone the other night\u2014you know, that dangerous pre-bedtime scroll where you tell yourself \u201cjust five more minutes\u201d and then suddenly it\u2019s 1 AM\u2014and I stumbled upon something that made me snort-laugh. It was a meme about how we all have that one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-comparisons"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpsqiuwhite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}