Letting Go: the Power of Ritual

Every year my critique group shares our writing goals with one another. They range from “Keep on keeping on” to 10-item lists of books to write and projects to finish. It’s inspiring to hear what my fellow writers hope to accomplish in 2011—and motivating, because I don’t want the same goals on my list when 2012 rolls around.

This year, we added something to our January goal sharing and recap: in addition to things we want to accomplish, we identified things we want to let go. Things like:

 

 

We wrote our chosen things-to-release on squares of blue Flying Wish Paper, rolled the squares into tubes, and set them alight.

The paper burns away to a puff of ash that lifts to the sky. And strange as it seems, the fear, worry, or struggle written on that square of tissue paper seems to fly away with it. It’s a powerful ritual for release of those things that might be holding you back.

For 2011, I’m letting go of fear in my writing—fear that it won’t be good enough. What about you? What do you need to release to make 2011 a better year?

Happy writing

:-) Cheryl