The Power of Letting Go and Embracing Change. By Phiona at Mindful Moments Therapies
Change is inevitable.
It weaves itself through the fabric of our lives, sometimes gently, other times with sudden force. For many, it can feel overwhelming, disorientating, frightening, and even painful.
From our earliest experiences, change is a constant companion. The transition from womb to world is the very first, a monumental shift from the safety of the known to the unknown. This is followed by other developmental milestones: nursery to primary school, onwards to secondary education, further education, work, relationships, and beyond.
Life’s transitions do not end with age, they evolve.
We face changes in relationships, career paths, living situations, the loss of loved ones (both human and animal), and internal changes in identity from adolescence to adulthood, midlife, and elderhood.
Daily life is also full of small but impactful changes, cancelled plans, altered routines, illness, or unexpected events. While some changes feel manageable, others can feel like emotional earthquakes, shifting our very foundations and leaving us feeling lost, anxious, or stuck.
Understanding the Emotional Impact of Change
Change, even when positive, can stir feelings of uncertainty. But when change feels forced, unexpected, or painful, it can bring on anxiety, depression, emotional overwhelm, and even a sense of rejection or loss of identity.
For neurotypical individuals, adapting to change can already be a challenge. For those with neurodivergent minds, such as ADHD, autism, or high sensitivity, change can feel catastrophic. The need for routine, predictability, and control means sudden transitions can trigger heightened stress responses.
Why Letting Go Is Part of Healing
Letting go does not mean forgetting or giving up. It is the sacred act of release, the willingness to make space for the new by softening our grip on what no longer serves us. Letting go is healing. It creates room for clarity, peace, and renewed strength.
By reframing “change” as “transition,” we allow a gentler, more compassionate view of our experience. Transition suggests movement, an evolution rather than an abrupt stop or start. For some, this language shift can ease emotional resistance and support a healthier integration of new life phases.
Exploring the Wider Impact of Change: Mental Health, Relationships & Wellbeing
Change rarely affects just one area of life. It creates ripples, emotional, relational, physical, and psychological. When we understand the full scope of its impact, we can respond with deeper awareness and compassion.
Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing
The relationship between change and mental health is complex. Even positive changes can stir up unresolved emotions, anxious thinking, or exhaustion.
Some common mental health impacts of change include:
• Increased anxiety or panic
• Disrupted sleep patterns
• Depressive thoughts or emotional withdrawal
• Loss of focus or motivation
• Heightened sensitivity or emotional reactivity
In these times, the nervous system may become dysregulated, switching into survival mode (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn). This can make it difficult to make clear decisions, maintain relationships, or look after ourselves properly.
With support, this dysregulation can be gently soothed. Therapeutic practices such as Breathwork, Hypnotherapy, and EFT are powerful tools to support emotional balance, nervous system recovery, and cognitive clarity.
Change Within Families and Friendships. Family Systems
When one member of a family undergoes a major life shift, mental health issues, career change, divorce, spiritual awakening, or illness, it can impact the whole system. Others may feel unsettled, confused, or reactive. Roles may shift, boundaries may need to be redefined, and communication can become strained.
Friendships
Sometimes, life changes alter the friendships we’ve long relied on. You might notice:
• A growing distance between you and someone you once felt close to
• Feeling unable to relate to your social circle
• Emotional needs no longer being met
This can feel like grief, and that grief is valid. Friendships don’t always end in conflict; they often fade quietly. Therapy can support the healthy processing of these shifts, and help you cultivate new, meaningful connections as your life evolves.
Wellbeing in Times of Transition
Wellbeing isn’t just physical health, it’s emotional, spiritual, relational, and psychological. During times of change, you may experience:
• Loss of motivation or creative energy
• Fatigue or overwhelm
• Disconnection from your body or values
• Increased stress or inner pressure to ‘get it right’
This is not failure. It’s feedback.
In sessions with Phiona, you’ll explore how your mind and body are responding, and how to cultivate sustainable wellbeing practices, including:
• Daily breathwork to restore inner calm
• Personalised grounding techniques for emotional safety
• Somatic awareness to stay present in the body
• Rebuilding self-trust and inner resilience
Community, Belonging and Change
Change can leave you feeling isolated. You may no longer resonate with the same people, places, or communities. This can feel like identity loss, a disconnection from belonging.
But community can also be found in new spaces, safe, supportive ones that honour your process and pace. Phiona provides such a space through:
• One-to-one therapeutic support
• Trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming care
• A non-judgemental environment to rebuild trust in self and others
You Are Allowed to Change
Growth is not linear. Healing is not always graceful. You are allowed to:
• Feel lost
• Need support
• Let go of what no longer fits
• Grieve what once was
• Take time to figure it all out
Phiona is here to walk alongside you as you redefine your path, not to “fix” you, but to guide you back to the inner strength you’ve always carried.
Therapeutic Tools to Support Change
Phiona and Mindful Moments Therapies, understands the complexity of change, both the visible and invisible aspects of it. Through a blend of evidence, based and holistic approaches, Phiona offers support to help you move through change with greater ease and emotional resilience:
• Clinical Hypnotherapy Helps to gently reframe unconscious patterns, release emotional blocks, and create positive behavioural change.
• Breathwork Encourages nervous system regulation, grounding, and release of stored stress or trauma.
• EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) A powerful self-help tool for reducing anxiety, clearing emotional overwhelm, and building inner strength.
• IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy) Targets specific emotional imprints and helps to reduce their impact, particularly in cases of trauma or rapid emotional shifts.
Coping Mechanisms for Navigating Change
1. Create Rituals of Closure Honour what is ending with a personal ritual. This could be writing a letter, lighting a candle, or creating space for reflection.
2. Daily Grounding Practices Regular breathing exercises, journaling, or mindful walks can help you remain connected to the present moment.
3. Talk It Through Sharing your experience with a trusted therapist like Phiona can help externalise thoughts and ease internal pressure.
4. Visualise the Next Step You don’t have to see the whole path. Just the next step. This can create momentum and ease anxiety.
5. Accept Emotional Ebbs and Flows Sadness, anger, confusion, or numbness are all normal during times of change. Give them space to exist without judgement.
The Duality of Change: Positive & Negative
Positives:
• Growth and new beginnings
• Opportunities for learning and resilience
• Reconnection to purpose or self
• Improved relationships or environment
Negatives:
• Fear of the unknown
• Grief and loss
• Emotional overwhelm or mental fatigue
• Disruption to stability and identity
Change often arrives uninvited, quietly shifting the ground beneath us or arriving with full force, altering the course of our lives in ways we never anticipated.
It can evoke grief for what’s lost, fear of what’s to come, or confusion about who we are becoming. But change also holds the potential for growth, healing, and rediscovery. Navigating change begins with self-awareness and compassion, allowing space for your emotions, seeking support when needed, and trusting that uncertainty does not mean failure.
With the right tools, guidance, and mindset, change can become not just something to survive, but something that transforms us into more grounded, resilient, and authentic versions of ourselves.
Nature as Our Teacher Through Change
If we pause and truly observe the natural world, we find a quiet, powerful reminder: change is not only inevitable, it is essential. Nature does not resist transition. The trees do not cling to their leaves in autumn; they let go with grace, trusting in the renewal that will come with spring. Winter teaches rest and stillness. Spring encourages growth and new beginnings. Summer offers expansion and energy, while autumn returns us to reflection and release.
By aligning ourselves with the seasons, we are gently reminded that life moves in cycles, not straight lines. Just as no flower blooms all year, we are not meant to be in a constant state of productivity or clarity. There is healing in allowing ourselves to ebb and flow with life’s natural rhythms.
Returning to nature, whether through mindful walks, grounding in green spaces, observing seasonal shifts, or simply breathing deeply outdoors, can help regulate the nervous system, soothe anxiety, and reconnect us with the present moment. Nature models how to let go, how to rest, how to grow again, and how to do so in your own time.
When change feels too much, let nature hold the reminder: you, too, are allowed to change slowly, cyclically, and beautifully.
Nature-Based Mindfulness Exercise: Grounding Through the Seasons
Purpose: To regulate the nervous system, increase present-moment awareness, and cultivate inner calm during times of transition.
Duration: 5–15 minutes
Where: Outdoors in a garden, park, woodland, or even by a window with a view of nature.
Seasonal Grounding Practice
1. Pause and Breathe:
Find a quiet spot in nature or near natural elements. Stand, sit, or lie down comfortably. Gently close your eyes (if safe to do so) and take a few slow, deep breaths. Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth.
2. Tune Into the Season:
Notice the temperature, the quality of the air, the colours around you.
• Is the earth full and blooming like spring or summer?
• Is it shedding and softening like autumn?
• Is it still, bare, and quiet like winter?
3. Engage Your Senses:
• Sight: What colours or changes do you observe in the trees, sky, or ground?
• Sound: Can you hear birdsong, rustling leaves, or distant wind?
• Touch: What does the air feel like on your skin? Can you touch bark, leaves, or soil?
• Smell: Can you sense the scent of rain, earth, or blossoms?
• Taste: If appropriate, what does the air taste like? Cool, crisp, warm?
4. Anchor in the Moment:
Gently place a hand on your chest or belly and affirm:
“Just as the earth moves through seasons, so do I. It is safe to let go, rest, grow, and begin again.”
5. Close With Gratitude:
Before you finish, thank the space or season silently. Slowly bring yourself back with three deep breaths and open your eyes.
Seasonal Journaling Prompts for Navigating Change
Choose a prompt from the season that reflects your current emotional state, or work through them all over time:
Spring (Renewal, Possibility, Growth)
• What is beginning to emerge within me?
• Where am I ready to plant new seeds of intention?
• What fresh energy or ideas want to be nurtured?
Summer (Expansion, Confidence, Action)
• What brings me joy and lightness right now?
• Where in my life can I allow myself to shine more fully?
• What am I ready to commit energy to?
Autumn (Release, Reflection, Letting Go)
• What am I holding on to that no longer serves me?
• What can I gently let go of, without fear or guilt?
• What have I learned from the past season of my life?
Winter (Rest, Integration, Stillness)
• What does rest look like for me right now?
• Where do I need to turn inward for reflection?
• What wisdom is waiting for me in the quiet moments?
Optional Practice: Pair your journaling with a short walk outdoors or a cup of herbal tea to deepen your sense of connection and calm.
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Phiona is here to support you through your transitions, whether they are expected or come as a shock. With empathy, skill, and professional experience, she offers a safe space to explore your emotions, gain clarity, and find ways to move forward with hope and balance. Start your journey of transformation with Phiona today. Let go. Heal. Evolve.
Whether you're dealing with stress, anxiety, trauma, bereavement or looking to break habits, reframe fears, or phobias. Phiona can help you develop approaches to overcome these barriers that prevent you from living life to the fullest. Helping you navigate life’s challenges and take the next step towards a brighter, calmer future.
If you feel you would like support, and you feel therapy may be the answer. I offer 15 minute complimentary consultations, for you to have the chance to discover how therapy might support you. Visit my website for more information.
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