Letting Go with the Seasons: What Fall Can Teach Us About Release
Nature Is Inviting Us To Let Go… Are You Ready?
As Fall arrives, change is all around us: shorter days, cooler temperatures, and leaves drifting to the ground. Nature begins to shed the high energy of summer as we move from a season of growth into one of rest, reflection, and letting go. This shift in our environment can often prompt an internal shift as well. When the world slows down, it invites us to slow down with it. To reflect on what we may need to shed or release.
Unlike nature, which releases with grace, we often meet change with resistance, clinging tightly to what’s familiar - even when it no longer serves us. That’s why letting go of identities, habits, relationships, or expectations rarely feels peaceful or beautiful. Sometimes it feels like failure, loss, fear, or messiness. But letting go is often the bravest and most honest step towards self-trust we can take.
“The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are.”
Why We Hold On (Even When it Hurts)
Chances are, at one point in your life, the thing that you now need to release felt right. The habit, the relationship, the job, the identity. It served you. It protected you. It helped you get to where you are. But as you grow, you may begin to sense that some of these things no longer fit. That recognition can bring sadness, resistance, or grief. After all, releasing what once felt essential can feel like letting go of a part of yourself. These are what I call our growing pains: uncomfortable, but necessary signals that your soul is asking for something new.
Beyond our growing pains, there are also physiological reasons change can feel so difficult. Our brains are generally wired for survival and stability. Therefore, when we know what to expect, we feel more prepared and more in control, even if it’s painful. It’s familiar, and familiarity feels safe. But when we don’t know what to expect, the nervous system may interpret change, or the unknown, as a potential threat, triggering discomfort, fear, and a natural instinct to resist.
Letting go of what we know takes courage. It’s a leap of faith into the unknown, and an act of trust in your capacity to navigate whatever comes next.
What Does Letting Go Look Like?
The process of letting go is often a layered and evolving one that requires turning inward, listening closely to yourself, and recognizing what is no longer aligned.
Sometimes, this is an internal shift: releasing expectations, rewriting beliefs, or accepting truths that are hard to face. Other times, it calls for external action: setting boundaries, ending relationships, changing jobs, or walking away from environments that no longer support your growth. This release can look different for everyone, but often it’s about untangling yourself from old patterns and stories that once felt safe, but now feel heavy.
Here are some real-life examples of what emotional or mental letting go might look like:
Releasing the need to have it all “figured out”
Stopping the emotional labor in a one-sided relationship
Letting go of needing to be understood by everyone
Loosening your grip on control or perfectionism
Letting go of a version of yourself that no longer fits
Unlearning the belief that your worth is tied to productivity
Accepting that closure may never come from the person you want it from
Letting go does not always happen in a single moment. Just as the trees shed their leaves every fall, we may need to release our patterns again and again - not because we failed the first time, but because we move in cycles too. We revisit familiar patterns and encounter similar situations, and that’s okay.
Each time our cycle repeats, there is an opportunity to evolve rather than revolve. A chance to keep practicing the art of release, until we find clarity, stillness, and a deeper connection to our authentic self.
How Do I Know I Need To Let Go?
There are many ways that your mind, body, or spirit will tell you that you are ready to release something. Here are some signals that you might notice within yourself:
You feel drained after you take part in an interaction with a particular person
You’re staying in a situation (a job, a relationship, a friendship) out of guilt, not connection or fulfillment
You feel complacent, stagnant, or unable to grow
Your needs are not being met
The version of you that chose this is no longer who you are
You can’t be yourself around someone
You have to compromise your values in order to maintain peace in the situation
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
What Are You Ready to Release?
If something is quietly tugging at you, asking to be released, here are a few journal prompts to help you gently explore what that might be:
What have I been carrying that no longer feels aligned?
Am I gripping something that used to serve me, but doesn’t anymore?
Is there a belief about myself that I’m ready to question or unlearn?
What situations, habits, or relationships do I want less of in my life? What do I want more of?
What would letting go actually make space for in my life?
The biggest fears holding me back are…
You don’t need a full answer or action plan. Just noticing is a start. And remember, letting go doesn’t always feel like a dramatic change. Sometimes it’s a quiet unclenching, a gentle exhale. A small step toward feeling more like yourself again.
If this resonates with you and you’d like support amidst your season of change, please contact me for a free 15-minute consultation. It would be my honour to hear your story, and guide you in the process of letting go.
You are not alone.
With warmth,
Alessia Manzoli
Registered Psychotherapist