Saturday I was feeling anxious, on edge and annoyed. I was stuck on the long list of things we still need and have to do and the limited funds and time we have to do it in. I was snapping at my family and just not in a good headspace at all. My saint of a husband, he of the bottomless patience, asked me if I wanted to get out of the house just the two of us. And so we did. We drove fifteen minutes to the south and were suddenly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by Wyoming wilderness.
Despite having a brace and crutch due to having torn his Achilles tendon last month, Stephan led me up on a mini-hike. We trekked through sagebrush, Oregon grape, gumweed and sedge grass up to an elevation that allowed us to look down on a breathtaking view.
We sat down on the rocky outcropping and turned our faces to the sun and wind. The wind is ever present in this part of Wyoming. There are stories of it having driven early settlers mad with its constant blowing. But there, above everything and everyone, all I could feel was gratitude for the wind blowing away my anxiety and annoyance. How bad could things be when this beauty is just minutes from home?
After an hour we climbed down back to the car, with me gathering seeds from wildflowers as we went.
Of the four elements Air is the one I have the least connection with. I’m more of a Fire or Earth kind of witch. But that afternoon, I felt the power in Air to carry away my burdens and leave me cleansed. I walked down off the mountain with a new appreciation for the element.
If you are interested in exploring other ways of letting go using the four elements here are a few suggestions. Try an element that you might not have an intimate connection with and work on something that is a lesser issue, to get a feel for what letting go using the element is like. Not every issue that we need to deal with is a life and death one. Minor annoyances are as deserving of being addressed as major life issues.
Consider the following suggestions as jumping off points.
Air
- Stand outside on a windy day and let the air blow away your issue
- Blowing bubbles – assign what you want to let go to the bubbles and then blow them away
- Speak your issue into the blades of a running fan and let the blades break it up and blow it away.
Fire
- Write the issue on a piece of paper and burn it
- With a wet finger write the issue on a cast iron skillet and then heat the skillet so the water evaporates and disappears
- Carve a word that represents what you are letting go into a chime candle and then light it.
Earth
- Write the issue on a piece of paper and bury it at a crossroads, making sure not to look back when you leave
- Pour your anxiety into a handful of birdseed and then scatter it for the birds to eat up and take away
- If you have a garden, weed it, visualizing pulling out your issues as you pull out the weeds and then dump them into the compost or garbage.
Water
- Speak your problem into a small bottle of water and then pour it into a source of running water
- Bathe, letting your problems transfer from your body to the bath water and let it run down the drain
- Write the issue onto a piece of toilet paper and flush down the toilet
First posted on Patreon on September 10, 2022.
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