Letting Go. Letting Be. Letting In.

Release freely. Hold gently.

Receive openly.

Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash

There is something about the turning of a year that invites us inward.

 A soft pause. A smooth breath. A moment to look at what we’ve carried, what has grown heavy, and what might be ready to fall away like soft Winter snow gently releasing its hold on a poinsettia leaf.

This year, three invitations rose up for me:

Letting Go. Letting Be. Letting In.

Each one has its own kind of freedom. 

Each one a doorway.

 Letting Go

 “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”
~Unknown

 When I first wrote about letting go years ago, I didn’t yet understand how often life would ask me to do it. I thought letting go meant giving up, or walking away, or caring less. But now I know it is none of those things.

Letting go is the courage of recognizing what is not ours to hold.

I think of the problems we try to carry — the world, the country, our families, our adult children, our parents, our friends. We take their struggles into our minds as if thinking about them 24/7 will somehow lift them out of their own storms. But if something is out of our hands, then it deserves the freedom to be out of our minds too.

Otherwise, it sits there, bouncing around like trapped energy, giving us headaches, tightening our hearts, and draining the creativity we’re meant to bring into the world.

Letting go is not abandonment.

If we are truly called to help, we help. We offer the camel a sip of water, but we cannot force it to drink. 

And if we carry someone too long, we eventually collapse — leaving them without the strength they could have built themselves.

Letting go is a reclaiming. 
A returning to ourselves.
A clearing of the space within.

So I ask you: 

Is there something in your life you could let go of this new year? 

An expectation?
A role?
A burden you’ve been carrying for far too long?

Letting Be

“Whisper words of wisdom… Let it Be.”
~Paul McCartney

If letting go is an active release, letting be is the softening that follows — the acceptance of what is, the unclenching of the heart.

When we let things “be,” we stop wrestling with reality. We stop trying to change someone else’s choices, or rewrite their story, or insist they become who we imagine they should be. And in that surrender, a deep peace rises through the body.

Studies tell us forgiveness lowers blood pressure, eases pain, and improves sleep.
But long before science confirmed it, our hearts already knew: 

Holding on tight hurts…and acceptance heals.

Letting be is not passive. It is a conscious releasing — a gentle allowing — an inner whisper that says: 

“I cannot control this… and I don’t need to.”

And so I ask you gently:

Is there someone or something you’ve been unable to let be? 

Where might acceptance bring you back to your own peace?

Letting In

“Make your life more about letting in the good things than preventing the bad things.” 
~Margarita Montimore

Once we let go…
And once we let things be…
An open space appears.

This space is where letting in becomes possible.

Letting in is the tender willingness to receive the good that has been waiting at the door — new possibilities, new ways of seeing, new ways of responding, new creativity calling our name.

It is also the courage to let people in without trying to fix or manage their choices. When we release the need to control, relationships become more authentic, more respectful, more spacious.

Letting in is about trust.
Trusting life.
Trusting yourself.
Trusting that when you loosen the grip, something beautiful has room to enter.

As this new year begins, I invite you to wonder: 

What would you like to let in? 
Joy? 
Rest? 
New beginnings? 
A lighter way of walking through your days?

Feel the possibility in that question.
Feel the freedom.

To Let Go
Author Unknown

To let go is not to stop caring
It is to recognize I cannot do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off,
It is realizing I can’t control another.

To let go is not to enable,
But to allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is not to fight powerlessness,
But to accept that the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to change or blame others,
It is to make the most of myself.

To let go is not to care for, it is to care about.
To let go is not to fix, it is to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge.
It is to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to try to arrange outcomes,
But to allow others to affect their own destinies.

To let go is not to be protective,
It is to permit another to face their own reality.

To let go is not to regulate anyone,
But to strive to become what I dream I can be.

To let go is not to fear less, it is to love more.💖

Thought to Ponder:
What is one small thing you could release, one truth you could allow, or one goodness you could welcome in? 

Just one…for today.

Wishing you a year full of possibilities, belly laughs, and so much love. I am grateful for you. 

In Peace, 
Terry🦋

© 2026 Terry Pottinger

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash