Embracing Peace and Joy: The Power of Letting Go

What if letting go is the key to unlocking unexpected peace and joy in your life? Join me on this emotional journey in the season of growth on the "Have a Cup of Johanny" podcast, where I open up about the power of releasing what no longer serves us. Reflecting on my own challenging year, I candidly share the resilience it took to navigate life's daunting inclines while remaining true to myself as a woman, an immigrant, and a Latina leader. Together, we explore the transformative act of letting go—whether it’s shedding control, grudges, or perfectionism—and how it can create space for serenity and happiness. Through these shared experiences, I reaffirm my commitment to optimism and a can-do spirit, pushing against the tides of prejudice to embrace the possibilities that lie ahead.

As we prepare for a peaceful and joyful December, I invite you to immerse yourself in the present moment and consider what you're holding onto that might be holding you back. This episode focuses on the importance of self-care and staying grounded, urging us to replace negativity with positivity. It's a heartfelt call to embrace new beginnings and fresh starts, to engage in thoughtful introspection, and to connect with each other through comments and ratings. Join me every Wednesday as we continue this journey, fueled by optimism and community, with a warm cup of coffee or tea in hand. Let's welcome the possibilities together, recognizing the profound impact of letting go and the beauty it brings to our lives.

I have two new series on YouTube:

Chapters

• 0:00 Season of Growth
• 18:11 Letting Go and Finding Peace

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh, we could, we could fly. Welcome to this new season of the have a Cup of Chahani podcast. So I want to title this new season that I'm embarking on with I'm growing, so this is going to be the season of growth and that's what I'm going to share with you throughout the season. So I thank you for coming over here and sitting with me, and I hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Hola, vasitos, welcome to have a Cup of Joani. I am your host, joa for short, and today we are talking about a topic that feels very fitting for this time of year, but also something that I recently went through and that's going to be the fitting for this time of year, but also something that I recently went through and that's going to be the theme for December, okay, to kind of like prep us for this new year, which I feel is very symbolic of new beginnings and of new starts, right, and then just feeling fresh and new and going after things that we want to and letting go of those things that no longer serve us. So the theme for December is the power of letting go. Folks, what do you think? What do you think? I think, as the year winds down, right, this is the perfect time to reflect on what we're holding on to. That is just, it's not serving us, it's holding us back, it's keeping us stagnant or in a place where we don't want to be be. And whether it's control, grudges or perfectionism, letting go can open doors to unexpected places, to unexpected peace and, more importantly, joy. God, that is so real. But let's be honest here, that's not always easy. Take it from me, someone who has a hard time letting go. It is not easy. So if you're like me and you're like, but I don't want to let go, whether you're saying it out loud or your actions are saying that, I feel you, I feel you. So I want you to grab your cup of a coffee I have mine with me here because it's early in the morning or tea, or really whatever, your water bottle, whatever brings you comfort, and let's have this conversation about letting go and what has been the most transformative experience this year for me of letting go. Right, I want to share that with you. And it's going to get like super vulnerable, a little messy in here no names, as always, because you know I'm not about that life but saying that are you ready? That Are you ready? Of course you are. I mean, why else would you be here sitting with me? Let's go All right.

Speaker 2: 3:13

This year, this year, I faced a lot of challenges in this last assignment, which I'm closing the chapter on here in a few days. Not going to lie, it tested my resilience. It really did, in ways that I was not expecting it. Oh, my goodness, just when I thought it was going downhill. Now all I need to do is close the loop on certain things. Just when I thought like the road was going to get easy because I was humping all this time, it instead got harder, the incline got steeper and I had to figuratively, symbolically put my head down and then just keep moving forward. And I had to figure out who I could count on, what I really needed to focus on and, most importantly, what I needed to let go of to stay sane and stay being me. Because, at the end of the day, I have held on to this promise that I made to myself, and I barely held on to that this year, to be honest with you. But the promise I made myself was to not let the burden of leading to make me a cynic or to make me bitter.

Speaker 2: 4:41

And I read something on Instagram, a meme that say Soy como el cafecito Alguna vez es dulce, alguna vez es con pan, pero nunca amargo. And that means like, I'm like coffee, and if you know Dominican coffee, it's very sweet. So the meme goes. I'm translating it in English for you and that is I'm like coffee. It's very sweet. So the meme goes. I'm translating it in English for you and that is I'm like coffee. A tiny coffee. I am sweet, sometimes I go with bread, but I am never bitter Sounds so much better in Spanish, but nevertheless it just means, no matter what life throws at you, I will continue to be me, and for me that is being optimistic, that is being a can-do-er, a person that gets after things, that I believe very little in impossibilities and I believe very little in impossibilities and I believe a lot in possibilities. At the heart of Joani, that's who I am and I know that I know myself very well.

Speaker 2: 5:52

But I also know that being in this environment and being a leader, being a woman leader, an immigrant leader, latina leader it's just like it's a toll that it takes to not just to get here but to stay here. I said it in a reflection this morning from reading the book Latino Land. It's like every day I have to prove myself, I have to prove that I belong, that I do have a place on that table. There's a chair there for me and I deserve to sit there. Every day it's almost like this internal battle to fight against prejudice, against people, internal thoughts of what they perceive me to be, and every day I have to combat that, every day to prove them wrong and it's exhausting. But I knew that beforehand, before taking this promotion and taking this role, that that's what awaits me. But I'm not one to back down from a challenge. That's not me. And I'm not one to use excuses either. That's not me. So I accepted the challenge and I went in knowingly. I just didn't know the extent of it and even thinking about it like I'm getting very emotional over it because the toll is hard, but I know that it's worth it in the end. I know that there's somebody that listened, that there's somebody that was looking, that was inspired, and that makes it worth it.

Speaker 2: 7:28

I'll be honest, letting go didn't come naturally to me For as long as I can remember. Anger feeds me, it makes me strong, it makes me break through barriers and walk through fires so I can get to the other end and reach an objective or a goal or a dream. But that comes with its own set of problems, because I found myself just being filled with resentment and frustration and I noticed, because I journaled, that's one of my habits that I've maintained, that kind of like keeps me sane and, as I like to say, they're like my life-saving habits. So I was able to assess fairly quickly that these emotions were dragging me down and it just wasn't about the assignment itself and the hurdles of the assignment. It was about just not allowing those feelings to seep into my personal life, into my family time. And I realized pretty quickly that if I didn't let go I would be ruining moments I cherish the most, moments with my family, moments that I need on my own to recharge, and I deserve that. You know, I deserve those moments. What I didn't deserve was this frustration seeping through my personal time. I didn't deserve that. So I knew I had to do something about that and, like I said, like you hear me say, what helped me to let go of that resentment and those frustration was that journaling habit. That's one of my life-saving habits, along with working out, and I lean into that hardcore a lot.

Speaker 2: 9:22

When I go through my journal now I see that I had like two, three, one day five entries because I was so filled with emotions that I needed to let go with thoughts, with frustrations, with this internal monologue that was just going on and on and on about all the bad things that were around me, that was happening to me and things of that nature, and I needed to drop those in a place, because if I didn't, I already know myself. They'll just continue to go around in my mind. And that's what happened when those emotions just became too heavy. I'd sit down with my digital notebook and write everything out when I was driving or just unable to type on my phone. I will record these thoughts, I will record myself. But whichever way I was exercising these emotions, these very heavy emotions and thoughts, and putting it into my journal, whether the digital journal on the app or through recording, which I would then like plug into my digital journal.

Speaker 2: 10:33

But journaling helped me to identify why I was feeling that way, because one of the things that happens with my journaling is that I do a weekly review on Sundays, right? So it's this thing that is kind of like it hashes through my entries and then it just tells me look, these were the mentions that you made, these were your emotions. And I go back and read my entries and I'm like, oh my goodness, it was like a rollercoaster of emotions and I will see a pattern, how I would identify something. Get down and then I will see, like this resurgence of resilience and hope coming through, you know, either at the end of that day or the very next day, and then I will finish up that week feeling hopeful yet again. And I was so proud of myself when I saw that because, while I was accepting identifying these counterproductive, very heavy emotions and frustrations and internal monologue that was going on, at the end, after each of those emotions were identified, I was able to find also the silver lining, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 2: 11:53

And I think I was able to do that because I was naming those feelings and I was understanding where those feelings were coming from, so they became less scary, less overwhelming. It wasn't like this mystical thing of oh no, the world is against me and things of that nature. I could identify it through journaling. This happened, I thought this and I felt this. So when I identify those three things in my journal, it's like the sun came out and then it shined a light and whatever was hiding in the shadows was no longer hiding in the shadows, was no longer intimidating me, and I understood what was there. I understood the emotions that were there and therefore I could start releasing them.

Speaker 2: 12:46

And here's what I learned and you heard me say this in the introduction is that holding on to those negative emotions was robbing me. It was robbing me of my peace, it was robbing me of my joy. It was robbing me of my ability to be fully present with my family and my family. It's so important to me, and once I realized that, it became clear that I had to let it go. It became clear that I had to let it go. You know as much as it was filling me up and helping me to take one step after the other. Just the fact that it was robbing me out of that quality time with my family and the job that I am sometimes that's not a lot, so I have to make it count the time that I get, but letting go isn't a one-time thing. I know about all of this. I got certified to understand these kinds of things, so it's nothing that I just learned. However, it is something that I had to practice, and that's what this is. This is a practice.

Speaker 2: 14:01

Journaling helped me create a plan to stay emotionally balanced, especially when I encounter triggers in my day-to-day life, and when the emotions were still very raw and so recent right that I mean they weren't scars, they were open wounds. I gave myself the time and space to process them fully. You heard me say before I give myself crying breaks, I give myself space, alone, time I exhaust myself, journaling and recording my words, my emotions, raw, without filter, just saying it as it is, as I feel it, and it's like a release valve for me. Practice to have this habit that I do every day, sometimes three or four times a day, helped me to let go, even when I felt as if letting go will leave me empty, will leave me raw, will leave me vulnerable to more attack. The practice helped me to ease into that and I think the biggest aha moment because that's what this podcast is all about, right Is every oops becomes aha.

Speaker 2: 15:30

So the biggest aha moment for me was understanding that letting go wasn't about ignoring the problem or ignoring my feelings or pretending as if they don't exist. It was about acknowledging them, processing them and then choosing not to allow them to control me. I have the controls here. I have the controls of my emotion, of what I continue to live rent-free in my heart, in my soul and in my mind. I have control over that and that was my biggest aha moment. So when I found out that I could control that, that meant that I can control letting it go, that I can control thinking about it and utilizing that energy for something that is good for me. Or when it's convenient to me, like when I need to lift really heavy, I can tap into that memory and get the anger that I need to lift those weights. You see what I'm saying. So that's what that taught me that I have control over that, that doesn't have control over me, and you know what it worked. Letting go, knowing that I have that control, brought me peace in ways I did not expect, and I found myself being more present. I found myself being more joyful, more connected with my family. I wasn't stuck in my head replaying old frustrations. I was in the moment, in that moment that I deserve to have.

Speaker 2: 17:27

And as we close out the year, I want to invite each and every one of you to take a moment and reflect what's one thing you're holding on to that you can't just let go of today. Maybe it's a grudge, perfectionistic tendency, maybe it's just a little frustration that's been nagging at you. Grab a notebook, a journal or record your thoughts and let yourself exercise that out of yourself. You might be surprised by what comes up and by how much lighter you feel afterwards. That's the best. That's the best feeling.

Speaker 2: 18:11

And vasitos, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate y'all. Like I don't want to get emotional yet, but I really do appreciate y'all. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I wish every one of y'all a wonderful day and awesome December, a peaceful and joyful December. And remember I have new episodes every Wednesday, so subscribe and share this episode with someone who you think may need a little reminder themselves to let go and until next time, take care of yourself, stay grounded, don't forget that and let go of what no longer serves you. You got this Bye. Thank you so much for listening. I want to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Leave me a comment, do a rating if you can on the podcast, share it with somebody you love, but most importantly, come back.

Speaker 2: 19:11

See you next time.

Speaker 1: 19:12

Bye.