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Welcome to The Fire Inside Her, the podcast where we explore the incredible stories of individuals who have discovered their inner fire on their journey to authenticity. I'm your host, Diane Schroeder, and I am so grateful that you are here.

Hi, friend. Before we dive into this week's solo episode on trampolines, I want to offer a couple of invitations. 1st, if you have a burning question for me regarding leadership, community, navigating life's transitions, or really anything else, send them my way. I will choose a couple of questions to answer in upcoming episodes. Go to thefireinsideher.com for questions, or check out the show notes for other options to get in touch with me. And if you would like to receive mostly regular emails that offer additional wisdom and tools, head on over to thefireinsideher.com/list to sign up. Okay. That's all for the housekeeping items today. Let's dive in.

So, why am I sharing all of this with you? Because I realized recently that I was carrying around a life safety net when I no longer needed to. Not a real one, of course, but metaphorically speaking, I was holding on to tools and beliefs that once served me. But as I have evolved and done the work and healed my past traumas, these tools and beliefs were no longer serving me. I grew up feeling unseen and not good enough, so I became a people pleasing, overachieving rock star. I got straight A’s in school. I played the sports. I was involved in student government, and a lot of this was driven because I wanted to be loved and accepted. Of course, I did not realize this at the time. Thankfully, hindsight is a gift. I continued chasing acceptance and love for most of my life until I burned out.

When my world fell apart personally and professionally, almost 10 years ago, I had to rebuild and acquire some new tools, self-care, self-love, acceptance, healing, yoga, grace, and courage have helped me find my authenticity and navigate life's transitions a little easier. But what I didn't realize is that I was still holding on to my people pleasing and overachieving ways, even when they no longer served me. They were like this old comfortable sweatshirt in the bottom of a drawer, and I couldn't get rid of it even though I didn't want to wear it. I knew it was time to let them go. The reality is I could use all the new tools and acknowledge the old ones even though they no longer served me, but I still had to figure out where to put them.

I needed to remove them from the new version of me so I could create space, just like taking the old safety net off of the ladder trucks. Your life safety net may look different. Maybe you're holding on to biases, limiting beliefs, religious ideologies, or behaviors that were all necessary at a time in your life. Still, you don't use them anymore. And if you do use them, they aren't really helpful or current. Perhaps you need to change it up. Whatever you no longer need to use or no longer use ultimately holds you back, weighs you down, and it takes up valuable space. I'm always reminded of what my friend, Gretchen, told me. It's not the change that gets people, it's the in between. Since we don't have physical trampolines that we can pull out of our brains, how do you release the tools that no longer serve you? Well, here are 3 ways that I invite you to try.

The first is acknowledge that you might be carrying things around that no longer serve you. Working with a therapist or a coach can be really beneficial, and figuring out why those tools are still there, if they're necessary, and if they're essential is a really important first step. 2nd, I would encourage you to write a letter directly to the tools or whatever it is you're carrying around. This is my favorite way to let go of things, feelings, and people I no longer have in my life. I write them a letter, I speak from my heart, and then I rip it up, I burn it, or I soak it in water and release it. And finally, I invite you to send loving kindness to the younger versions of yourself that needed these tools to survive.

You can do this through meditation, write more letters, and talking it out in nature. However, you connect with your past selves and offer them an energetic hug and some grace and send them love. You may decide that you're not ready to let go of these things, and that's okay. I'm not here to judge you. Just recognizing that they exist can help in your decision-making process as to which tools are best for what situations moving forward. Thank you for sharing your time with me as always, and I need to remind you what an incredible, beautiful human you are and that you are worthy and loved. Until next time.

Thank you for giving the valuable gift of your time and listening to The Fire Inside Her podcast. Speaking of value, one of the most common potholes we fall into on the journey to authenticity is not recognizing our value. So, I created a workbook. It's all about value. Head on over to thefireinsideher.com/value to get your free workbook that will help you remember your value. Until next time, my friend.