Personal Development

We’ve all had moments where the past seems to cling to us like a shadow, influencing our thoughts, emotions, and even our present relationships. Whether it’s past relationships, painful events, or unresolved emotions, these lingering memories can have a significant impact on our current life. The good news is that it’s possible to let go of the past and move forward into a healthier, more fulfilling future. This blog post will guide you through an 8-step process to help you release the emotional baggage from past experiences and embrace the present moment with peace of mind. By letting go of past mistakes and negative thoughts, you can create space for personal growth and a beautiful future.

1. Find the root cause

If the blockage you want to clear is an uncomfortable memory you regret ever happening, then this will be very easy for you. Obviously, the root cause of the blockage is that very memory that keeps popping into your mind at the most random times.

However, if you want to clear a blockage in the form of a limiting belief or something you can’t even properly define, then this step might just be the most difficult one for you.

You need to dig deep and try to follow the bad feeling back to its root cause. What is the earliest memory you associate with this feeling? For example, let’s say you have the belief that money should only come from hard work and not through easy or unexpected streams of income.

That limiting belief might be traced back to you as a child overhearing your parents talking badly about ‘lazy’ influencers who don’t deserve to earn that amount of money without any ‘real’ work.

Or let’s say you keep putting in a lot of work over a long time but have disproportionately little to show for it. In this case, the blockage that’s keeping you from more success might be traced back to some memories from school or sports competitions where you scored less than others, even though you had put in so much more practice time.

Really take your time with this part of the clearing. When you come across the right memory that is the root cause of your blockage, it should feel right to you.

Should you not be able to find a memory that truly resonates with you as the source of the block you are dealing with, then simply use this memory for now. Over the next few days or even weeks, as you make it a habit to search for the underlying cause of every blockage you experience, you might just have the Aha moment you’ve been waiting for. But for now, do what you can with what you have. Every cleansing has its worth.

2. Visualize the memory and relive it in first-person view 

Now comes the uncomfortable part. Instead of trying to repress the memory as you usually do, you need to let it play out from beginning to end. Don’t look at the memory as if you are a spectator.

You need to truly feel all the emotions that this memory evoked in you originally, and for that, you need to relive it in first-person view.

Yes, this is uncomfortable, but you can’t rush this process. The more you repress something, the more it preserves. 

To truly let go of a memory, you need to finish dealing with it. And reliving it is the first step for that.

3. Tell the people involved you forgive them

Once the memory has finished playing out and you’ve felt the corresponding emotions, it’s time to deviate from the original events.

As the next step, I want you to visualize yourself speaking to the people involved in this memory and tell them that you forgive them. Forgive them for their rude words, whether they were intentional or not. Forgive them for having laughed at you or for not having aided you. Whatever role they played in your memory, forgive them for that.

If you truly resent them for what they did, you might balk at the idea of bestowing them with forgiveness, even in thought. To truly bring up the emotions of forgiving someone, you might want to imagine all the ways they might have been hurt before that led them to behave like this. Or you could imagine them as a little child who doesn’t know any better.

4. Project your current self into the memory and watch it as a bystander

Next, I want you to switch perspectives and watch the memory again as a bystander. By now, the memory should already feel less uncomfortable to watch.

5. Tell your younger self you forgive them.

Once the memory finishes playing out a second time, you get to forgive your younger self for their part in the memory.

While some people hold grudges against others, other people keep blaming themselves for every little misstep. For this latter group, this step in the cleansing process is especially important.

Forgive yourself for not knowing any better back then. Forgive yourself for having made a mistake and acknowledge that you’ll do better in the future.

6. Tell them what you would have wished somebody had told you back then and give them a hug

As you forgive your younger self, you should also say all the things you wish someone had told you back then.

Things like: you are not the only one to make this mistake or have this happen to them, their words don’t impact who you are, you can always do better, mistakes are how we learn, this trauma has made you stronger than you ever were before, you are so brave for persevering the best way you can.

If you want, you can end the speech with a hug or a forehead kiss for your younger self.

7. Imagine your younger self dealing with the same situation with the knowledge they have now—in other words, turn it into an ideal version of the memory 

Now that you have forgiven all the parties involved and heard all that you needed to hear to feel understood, supported, and loved, it is time to go through the memory one last time.

This time, you modify it so that it plays out in an ideal way. The memory becomes just one more memory that easily fades into the background and leaves no blocks behind.

8. Release the memory like a lantern floating into the sky

Lastly, you can end the cleansing session by releasing the memory and letting it fade. You can do this by imagining it floating up and away from you like a lantern floating into the sky.

Or you could imagine it being written on a paper, which you throw into the fire. Maybe an angel comes and takes the memory from you and flies away with it.

Whatever image works best to give you a feeling of release.

Letting go of the past isn’t always easy, but it’s one of the most powerful steps you can take toward a better future. By confronting past trauma, forgiving yourself and others, and focusing on the present moment, you allow yourself to grow into the best version of yourself.

As you continue to practice these steps on a regular basis, you’ll find that old memories and past negative experiences lose their grip on your current life. Remember, it’s never too late to create a new beginning.

With each step forward, you’re not just letting go of the past—you’re making room for new opportunities, healthier relationships, and a more peaceful mind.

Good luck on your journey to letting go and embracing the now!

In a world that never seems to stop talking, introverts face unique challenges that can feel like swimming against the tide. The loud world around us often misunderstands the true essence of introversion, equating quietness with shyness, or a preference for solitude with an aversion to social interaction. But being an introvert is not a bad thing; it’s a personality type with its own set of strengths and insights. This post will explore four painful life lessons that introverts, like myself, must learn. We’ll delve into what it truly means to be an introvert and discover how embracing our quiet nature can help us navigate social situations and build deeper relationships.

What Does It Mean to Be an Introvert?

Being an introvert means that you draw energy from your inner world of thoughts and ideas, rather than the outer world of social interaction and large groups. It’s about having a genuine interest in exploring your own thoughts and spending time in quiet reflection.

Introverts often thrive in environments where they can focus deeply on a single task and may prefer small groups of close friends over large social gatherings.

Contrary to common misconceptions, introverts are not anti-social. They simply approach social tasks in their own way, often preferring meaningful conversations to small talk.

As Susan Cain highlighted in her groundbreaking book, the power of introverts lies in their ability to listen deeply, think carefully, and connect with others on a deeper level.

Uncomfortable Life Lessons For Introverts

Isolation breeds social anxiety

The COVID lockdown was, in a way, the ideal introvert lifestyle. You could stay at home, in your safe and comfortable bubble. Classes were held online, and the home office was introduced in many companies. If you disregard the anxiety around COVID itself for a moment, it could have been called an introvert’s dream.

However, nothing lasts forever, and with the end of COVID came the harsh reintroduction into a daily life that caters to extroverts. We introverts had to make the very uncomfortable discovery that normal daily interactions were suddenly a cause for social anxiety. Things that were effortless before suddenly took weeks to get used to again.

This teaches introverts a very important lesson: While staying at home, cozy under a blanket with a good book or fan fiction will always be more tempting than going out, you need to go on those outings, or else you are making your future life unnecessarily difficult. Isolating yourself too much breeds social anxiety for when you do have to leave the house. And most of us do need to leave the house eventually.

So do your future self a favor and make sure not to isolate yourself for long periods of time. Your future self will thank you for it.

Being happy right now doesn’t mean you are content looking back

You might enjoy spending your afternoons and weekends at home, reading a good book, drawing, or writing. However, looking back on your year, do you find yourself happy with the way the year went?

Looking back on the year, are you able to point out multiple great memories you’ve made, or does the year fade into the same unrecognizable blur as past years?

We’ve become used to doing things we don’t really want to do if there is outside pressure. We study because there is an exam looming on the horizon. We send out applications because we need a job to earn money. We go to that birthday party because otherwise, our friend would be disappointed.

However, without that outside pressure, most of us fall back on doing what we want to do over what we should do. Rarely do we consider how our future self will feel about our actions looking back on them.

And while living in the present is far more important than living in the past or future, we should also consider creating a life we can feel content with and even proud of. Sometimes that requires us to do things in the moment that we might not want to do, though the feeling afterward is reward enough.

Nurture your current friendships and allow room for more  

Since introverts don’t go out to socialize as much as extroverts, we tend to have fewer friends. And there is nothing wrong with that, but you can’t expect these friendships to stay the same forever.

People change over the years, and with them also their relationships. While an introvert might cling to their current friends, content with seeing them once in a while, your friends are out and about experiencing life and potentially making new friends.

So treasure the friends you have right now, but also be open to making new friends.

True growth lies outside your comfort zone

I know, I know. We’ve all heard it a thousand times before, but that doesn’t make it less true.

Intellectually, most of us agree with this statement and know it to be true, but few of us ever consistently act on it. We’d rather stay in our comfort zone until we are forced out of it because of outside circumstances. That’s growth enough for most people.

This attitude will only change once you have experienced a phase in which you repeatedly stepped outside your comfort zone. The amount of growth that can happen in such a phase is beyond staggering, and once you’ve had a taste of your potential lurking underneath, you will want to bring it forth again and again.

So as much as we humans, and especially us introverts, love our comfort zone, you’ve got to get out of it, girl. Because real life is waiting on the other side of it, and you are missing out on so much!

As introverts, we face the world with a unique understanding and sensitivity that can be both a strength and a challenge. The key to thriving in a world designed for extroverts is to recognize and embrace our personality traits, rather than trying to change them.

By taking personal responsibility for our well-being and seeking out new experiences in our own way, we can turn the painful experiences of life into stepping stones toward becoming the best version of ourselves.

Remember, the next time you feel overwhelmed by the demands of a social world, your introverted nature is not a limitation but a great resource that offers a deeper understanding of life and a path to genuine, meaningful connections.

In today’s fast-paced world, energy is more than just the fuel that powers our physical body—it’s the driving force behind every action, thought, and emotion we experience. Whether we’re navigating the challenges of our personal lives, engaging in energy work, or simply making decisions in our daily lives, the type of energy we embody can have a profound impact on the quality of our experiences. Just like in the building industry, where the choice of raw materials and construction methods can determine the strength and sustainability of a structure, the energy we harness influences the strength of our nervous system and the depth of our connection to the present moment. In this post, we’ll explore five levels of energy you can embody, examining how each one shapes your reality and asking the all-important question: Which energy do you embody most?

What does it mean to embody an energy?

To embody an energy is to align your entire being—mind, body, and spirit—with a particular vibration that influences your thoughts, actions, and interactions with the world. Think of your physical body as a building design, with your energy field serving as the architectural blueprint that guides the construction process. The total energy you carry isn’t just a static force; it’s shaped by various factors, including your belief systems, stress levels, and even the amount of energy you expend in your daily activities. Just as the energy payback time of a solar cell depends on its efficiency and the energy values embedded in its manufacturing process, the energy you embody determines how efficiently you navigate life’s challenges. When you consciously choose to embody a higher level of energy, you unlock the potential to transform not only your internal environment but also the external world around you, much like how high embodied energy in building materials can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of construction.

The 5 Levels of Energetic Growth

1. Level – Life happens to me 

The first and lowest level is one that most your will already have surpassed if you are reading content like this. However, most of you will know at least one person who seems to be stuck at this level.

People who embody this low level energy are full of complains. They complain about their jobs, their boss, politics, taxes, the neigbors, their current or former partners, traffic, the weather, prices, the food in a restaurant, the service in a hotel, the amount of commercials, the bad program in TV or Netflix, that everything is getting worse and things used to better, etc. You get the point. 

These people seem to siphon energy off others which makes them so exhausting to be around and prolonged exposure is going to make you grumpy as well. 

This lower level energy makes you think that life is happening to you, as if you are the victim and life the perpetrator that loves f#cking you over. You find yourself thinking things like: 

• Why do all these things always happen to me? 
• My luck is horrible.
• What are you complaining about? Have taken a look at me?

As a result, the people who embody this low energy always seem to attract little daily inconveniences:

• They have to wait ages for their food in the restaurant while everyone else get’s theirs first. 
• Their food order is constantly delivered wrong. 
• Packages and letters get delivered to the wrong address.

This puts them into a reaffirming cycle of doom and gloom. If they do manage to break the cycle, they find themselves embodying the 2. Level energy.

2. Level – Life sucks but I’m going to fight my way through

After being put through the wringer by life itself, many of us tend to get p#ssed. We’ve had enough of this sh#tshow and finally want to live the great live everybody else seems to be experiencing. So we pull determination around us like a shield and tackle the improvement of our life like the biggest fight we’ve ever experienced. 

“If life is against me, then so be it, but I am not going to let that stop me!”

This aggressive and determined energy brings with it a phase full of gritted teeth and hard work. We stop allowing ourself time for pity parties and instead take action, action, action no matter how many times life kicks us back down. 

This grind will eventually bring success and a general improvement of our daily life with it. But it is an exhausting existence that can’t be sustained forever. The search for an easier way usually leads to Level 3.

3. Level – I can manifest a better life

The third level of energy is embodied by people who have consumed self improvement content and become more self aware. They realise that there are countless studies showing the effect our thoughts have on our reality and how athletes use visualisation to improve their performance. People with this kind of energy have also become self aware enough to notice their negative thoughts. 

To combat this spiral of negativity, they usually attempt the complete opposite: “Positive thoughts only! Don’t you dare think negative!”

After all, if positive thoughts create a positive life, than you should think as positively as possible, right?

At this stage, you start working less and put more effort into your visualisations. 

As a result, people who have embodied this energy do see an improvement of their life. They feel more relaxed and optimistic while achieving more. However they fail to hit their goals because they are more focused on their thoughts than their actions. Also, humans are not meant to have only positive thoughts. The negative thoughts are there for a reason. Suppressing them can eventually cause a yoyo effect in the sense, that surprisingly bad moods come out of no where and hit you hard. 

These problems get solved as you learn more about personal development and the law of attraction and reach Level 4.

4. Level – Manifestion is about more than positive thoughts

At this level you have advanced knowledge into the law of attraction and know that happy thoughts are not going to create your dream life. What you need to do is embody your next level self in every way. So you ask yourself: 

• What would my next level self think, feel and act like? 
• How would I dress? 
• Where would I do my workouts? 
• What kind of things would I stop purchasing?

And once you have your answers, you go about your life doing as much of these things as you can at your current stage:

• My next level self would have a space dedicated for their work so they can focus properly, so that’s what I am going to do, even if it just means sitting on the other side of my desk
• My next level self would take care of themself, so I’m going to allow myself more rest and self care
• My next level self would feel luxurious, so I’m going to level up my surroundings bit by bit, a luxurious aesthetic doesn’t have to be expensive

People who embody this 4. Level of energy know that negative thoughts are ok, as long as I work through them. One bad thought is not going to manifest a bad life. But if you notice yourself thinking the same bad thoughts over and over again, then that probably means there is some sort of inner block you need to work on.

Journaling and meditation are your new BFFs for getting rid of limiting beliefs

5. Level – Of course, I’m co-creating my reality with the Universe

And lastly, there is the glorious Level 5 energy that few people reach. If you embody this level of energy you have found some sort of inner peace. You are confident in yourself and your abilities and how to interact with the Universe. 

You know that there will always be new challenges and limiting beliefs that pop up but you also know how to deal with them. There is none of this aggressive determination or nervous hope in you anymore. What’s left is a warm surety that your manifestations will come true. The how, when or where really doesn’t matter to you anymore. You know that once it happens it will be beautiful to witness, as always.

You’ve come so far and are so incredibly grateful for both the things you did for yourself and the things others guided by the Universe did for you.

You are still interested in personal development but not out of a desperate want for a better life. Instead, you use it as the tool to help you answer your main question these days: “How can I be more and provide more?”

Understanding the five levels of energy is like performing an energy assessment on your life—identifying the areas where you can make better investments of your time, focus, and emotional resources. As you become more aware of the energy you embody, you’ll start to notice the subtle shifts in your personal life, from reduced stress levels to a deeper connection with the present moment. Just as in architectural design, where a careful selection of building materials leads to a more sustainable structure, choosing the right energy level can lead to a more fulfilling and impactful life. So, take a moment to reflect on the energy you’re embodying today. 

Are there any other levels that you have experienced and want to share? Also, which level do you find yourself in currently? I’m somewhere in level 4 and can’t wait for the day I have mastered it enough to reach level 5! Who knows, there might even be levels above that, which I am not yet aware of. Isn’t that an exciting thought?!