Shedding is a natural part of life: plants shed sick or old leaves; reptiles shed old skin; mammals shed old hair. This shedding can be unsightly and maybe even a little unsettling, but it is often a necessary component of healthy growth. When it comes to our spiritual growth, the shedding of outdated habits, ideas, mindsets, and connections is necessary if we are to make space for new and improved selves and circumstances to take root. Spiritual shedding events may occur after major life events and encounters (e.g. tragic accidents, making a significant new connection, novel experiences, etc.) or through a conscious culling – like what is done during meditation or therapy.
Just as plants gradually reabsorb and relocate useful nutrients from dying leaves, so too must we sift through and retain the parts of ourselves and circumstances that may still benefit us moving forward. This is also to say that spiritual shedding is a gradual process that does not [typically] require us to let everything go at once, especially since there must be some form of foundation left to support the new growth (unless the entire foundation is rotten or useless, but this is usually not the case).
So let us release all of the things and all of the people in our lives that no longer align with the version of ourselves that we wish to manifest. And let us be patient with ourselves and with others as we go through the arduous process of letting go.
