List, Lift, Let Go

“When the soul is ready for renewal, it will come to fetch us.”
— John O’Donohue

There comes a moment where you realise you’re carrying too much. Not in your hands, not in your schedule, but deep in your spirit. Wounds that never fully healed. Regrets that echo. Words unsaid. Apologies withheld. And most of all, the invisible weight of fear: fear of beginning again, of forgiving, of letting go.

Welcome to the practice of List, Lift, Let Go—a three-part soul detox that isn’t just about healing, but about reclaiming your life.

List

We all have a “mental closet” crammed with the junk of our past that we dread to open and clean out. It is so much easier to simply throw everything inside, slam the door shut and forget about it for a while. Maybe it will all magically vanish into the netherworld: mistakes, shame, guilt, heartbreaks, missed chances, and painful memories. Some of these are buried so deep, we’ve forgotten they’re even there, while the rest is purposely suppressed and ignored. But whether we notice or not, they still weigh us down, and unless you clean it out, it will forever affect your mindset, tone of voice, and attitude. 

List it. Quietly. Honestly. Write down what haunts you. That grudge you’ve nurtured like a toxic pet. The person you hurt but never apologised to. The one who never apologised to you. The dreams you buried. The fears that keep circling back. Name them, not to relive them — but to reveal them. Because the first step to healing is seeing what’s holding you hostage. Remember when our grandmothers used to say that sunshine is the best disinfectant for laundry? Well, as it turns out, it works the same way with emotional baggage. 

Lift

Once you’ve named it, lift it. This is not just metaphorical. It’s spiritual. Emotional. Sometimes physical. Lift those burdens up — to the sky, to God, to the universe, to whatever higher ground you believe in. Acknowledge that you were never meant to carry everything alone. We are human, after all. We break. We falter. We mess up. And we are allowed to ask for help.

Forgiveness is part of the lift. Ask for it. Not because you’re weak, but because you’re brave enough to say: “I did wrong.” And give it too. Even when they don’t say sorry. Because forgiveness isn’t always about the other person—it’s about unshackling yourself from their hold on your peace.

Some things you will lift once and feel instant release. Others, you’ll have to lift daily, like weights that only grow lighter with practice. That’s okay. Healing isn’t linear. It’s a spiral. A dance. A slow burn back to lightness.

Let Go

Letting go doesn’t mean pretending it never happened. It means loosening the grip it has on you and the dependency you built up over the years. Let go of the old stories you keep telling yourself—I’m not good enough, I always mess up, people like me don’t get second chances. Who wrote those stories anyway? Who gave them permission to be true?

Letting go means making room. For peace. For joy. For love that doesn’t come wrapped in pain. For dreams that scare you in all the right ways. For fresh starts without the stale air of old guilt.

It means saying: “This chapter is over. And that’s okay. I’m still the author.”