Iyanla Vanzant told us to “call a thing, a thing.” That ’thing’ has set up camp in your Spirit and in your body, and it’s showing.

The ’thing’ can be:

• relationships in any capacity that have run its course
• fear of change
• fear of failure AND success
• self-accountability
• unhealthy habits/patterns
• addiction 
• self-sabotaging behaviors and beliefs & more.

This session with Spirit is timely, as there are a few things I’m also being asked to release in this season. Things I thought I had let go, but the energy lingered like old trash. So, in true fashion I sat with the Ancestors for clarity and well…that’s how the title of this article came to be.

Sure, releasing something and letting it go can be used interchangeably. However, there are subtle differences I’m being shown that can shift our perspectives on what it truly means to be free of something.

Quick Intermission for our Moon Forecast:

The New Moon in Aries occurs Friday, 4.17.26 at 07:51 am ET. It is an energy of ignition and trailblazing forward in your path; however, this moon also focuses on our vision for the future. Use this energy to get clear on what it is you truly want going forward. The faster pace we feel demands clarity and stillness to remain focused and grounded.

The Let Go.

Let go: to relax or release one’s hold —used with of. 

Imagine an animal in its cage with an open door. The opened door says, “you can leave if you want.” It is an act of permission not to be forced in either direction (the desire to stay or go). 

There’s a place for this. In “Let Me Fly”, DMX (RIP) told us,

“If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was. Hold me down, baby.”

In the lyrics, you can feel its permissive nature. It comes off as this internal dialogue where he acknowledges all of who he is as the ‘imprisoned’ and the ‘authority’. 

Who was he talking to? Because not once did he speak of ‘God’ or the like. Well, it wouldn’t be far fetched to envision DMX rapping this song to himself in the mirror. Recognizing himself as the one who is to come to agreement with his hunger for the flight and the fall. 

Powerful. Calling out his own shadows and owning them, aware of both sides of his own coin and standing ten toes down in self-accountability. 

This is the ‘let go’ that permits us choose to honor what serves us and remove what doesn’t. But, only when we name it. 

The Release

Release (ri-ˈlēs): to set free from restraint, confinement, or servitude.

Instead of the caged animal with the open door, this time its a bird in your hand. The bird, like seasons, aren’t here to be held forever. These creatures don’t just land on anyone, though. It’s presence is something we want to hold forever, but if held too long, can be harmful to both the bird AND you. 

The concept of release isn’t limited to precious moments, however. It’s the homes we’ve built on unstable foundations that can’t be sustained (cue The Tower card). Then, because so much time and energy was put into the building, we keep building on it wishing for different outcomes. When nothing changes, the cycle persists. 

It’s mad. One of my mentors calls it, “the devil we know.” Sometimes we hold on to people or situations longer than we should. Our self-limiting thoughts and behaviors get comfortable at enforcing false narratives that keep us dim. It’s the familiar, no matter how screwed up it seems. This becomes our default.

Iyanla’s wisdom rings true in this context also. On the IRL podcast, we see Angie and Ryan discovering in real time how powerful it is to name what makes us uncomfortable, and how it enables release. The energy of nervousness Ryan felt stayed put right up until he called it for what it was. (Starts at the 4:38 mark)

Why It’s Hard.

Refusing to acknowledge what we fear carries perceived power and authority as if it were an embodied truth. We must call it for what it is instead of spiritual bypassing our way to healing. Naming it releases its hold, like the hand that relaxes so the bird can continue on being what it has always been. Free.

On one hand, our Spirit wants the restraints of our self-imposed limitations removed. We start getting uncomfortable. More irritable and less patient. 

On the other, familiarity is safe. Even when detrimental to our wellbeing. 

Releasing what doesn’t serve us seems easy in theory. But, when we’re used to a certain level of functioning makes the desire to change feel unsafe. 

Final Thoughts.

If you say you let something go but it still weighs on you, release it. The ‘let go’ is the open door that allows arrival and departure. The release is a one way flight. What are you holding on to in this season that needs releasing? Remember, the first and most important step is to call it out and move accordingly. 

Until we do the deep-seated work, conditions will remain the same. Hope this helps.