Why Leveling Up Requires Letting Go

In this episode, I talk about why leveling up in life often requires letting go of the things that no longer align with who you're becoming. Since March on The Dry Diaries is all about rewriting your story, this conversation dives into the uncomfortable but necessary part of growth... outgrowing people, environments, and patterns that once felt familiar. I share personal experiences and the emotional side of change, and why letting go is often the first step to creating the next chapter of your life.

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Where am I holding on out of familiarity instead of alignment?

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Transcript

Chapter Two And March Theme

unknown 0:06

This is the Dry Diaries with your author, Alex Dry.

Leveling Up Means Exits

Outgrowing Friends And Spaces

Inner Work And Signs To Release

Embrace The Process And Close

Alex 0:17

Hey guys, welcome back to another entry of the Dry Diaries. It's your author, Alex Stry. And today, this is the first official introduction of the second chapter. Each month, I'm going to do a different theme and integrate a little bit more solo entries into the podcast. If you listened to the last episode with Becca, we talked all about betting on yourself, trusting your own path, set the tone for chapter two. For the month of March, it's going to be all about reinventing yourself and stepping into the best version of yourself or who you want to become. This is something that I've been personally going through for the last year or so and continuing to go through. I feel like you're constantly reinventing yourself. Side note, I get asked so many questions about different conspiracies, health hacks, or what full moon is coming up. So I'm going to be doing a bonus entry every month, and it's going to include full moons coming up, things that you can do around it, what the full moon represents, and then also deep dive into different conspiracy topics. In a past life, I probably would have been like an FBI or CIA because I love investigating. Today we're going to talk about why leveling up requires letting go. Nobody really talks about that part of leveling up. That is hard. Leveling up isn't just upgrades, it's exits. It's just having this glow-up moment. It's saying goodbye to things that aren't the best for you for your next chapter. Sometimes the hardest part about becoming who you want to be is letting go of the things that once felt normal. But as you continue to grow and heal, the places that once felt familiar, fun, and safe will start to slowly feel boring. You struggle with is something wrong with me? Realizing you don't want the same things anymore, and noticing you don't fit in where you used to fit. Maybe going out every weekend used to be fun for you. And now you're finding yourself being like, no, I'd rather stay at home, have postmates, and watch a movie on the couch. I think that your friends or society wants to tell you, like, oh, you're being lame, you're not being fun anymore, and realizing that no, maybe I'm just trying to protect my peace or those environments aren't for me, and choosing to spend your time elsewhere. And you're not crazy feeling that because I've definitely been there, still there. And when you level up, the first thing that often changes is the people around you. You start seeing friendships built on convenience instead of connection or relationships where you constantly feel like you have to explain yourself. When you're seeing those things, you have to realize not everyone is meant to come into this next chapter with you, and that's okay. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be the person, it can just be an environment. You return to places that used to feel normal, and if they feel draining, often the truth is you've just outgrown those spaces. It's not just this six-month process, then you come out healed and whole. And reinvention is stepping into who you want to become. That may include new patterns, new routines, new friendships, new relationships. To I think I had to let go of a lot the past year, and I'm still continuing to release. So whenever you start taking the steps and you feel like your life is expanding, you may start to feel sad, lonely, guilty, or even a little bit crazy. I would say that my biggest thing lately is the phase I'm in. I've never felt so misunderstood. And I had to realize that these people are misunderstanding me or they don't understand where I'm at because they can't relate, or they're not going through my journey. So of course they're not gonna understand. But also, if those people aren't taking the time to understand you, then those people aren't meant for you, anyways. Less available for chaos. I remember there was this moment recently. I was out somewhere with a group of people, and I just sat back and I was like, I don't fit in here. And I think that was like the first time in my life. I was like, I don't fit in somewhere. Not because I think I'm too good or it's not fun, because it's definitely fun. I felt drained when I left and I couldn't pretend to be having fun. I had to step back and be like, okay, why do I feel this way? What do I need to let go of? Is it the environment? Is it the people? Is it something that I'm holding within myself? That was an aha moment for me. I think it's hard to let go of people whenever you're going through these changes. You don't want people to be mad at you. You don't want people to judge you. Oftentimes I've found that people are gonna say, oh, you've changed or you think that you're too good. Honestly, if there are people in your life that are saying this to you, I think that communicating, hey, I'm actually just trying to pursue this goal. And so it may require me to put more boundaries in place of like where I go, what I do, how long I stay. If someone continues to push or speak negatively, maybe they aren't respecting your growth and your process. Those people aren't supposed to level up with you. Some of my best friends, when I've gone through this healing journey, I love to talk about conspiracies. And a lot of people are like, oh, you're so woo. You're going through this healing journey, you're doing Reiki, you're doing this, you're doing that. Different things that I have used and continue to use to heal are great for me personally because they help me connect more to myself, but also to God. Those people that thought it was woo of everything that I'm doing, and they didn't respect where I'm trying to go and what I'm trying to pursue. I just had to walk away from and let go of. Yeah, it fucking sucks. I lost a lot of friends, I felt really lonely. There's times I felt really sad. One of the biggest things for me is letting go of certain patterns that don't reflect the goals and who I'm trying to become or who I desire to become. And so that meant I had to do inner work and eliminate the negative self-talk, procrastination, people pleasing. I had to realize that I'm not trying to let go of a person that I used to be completely. I'm trying to release certain habits that inhibited me from becoming who I want to be. That brings me into okay, whenever I'm going through this reinvention phase, healing phase, I basically have to change completely who I am. I have to get rid of my old self, step into my new self, start over, start a new life, which isn't true. I think that the version of you that got here isn't always the version that moves forward, but at your core, you're still the same. You're healing things and creating boundaries, not tolerating things you used to tolerate, or healing things within yourself that stopped you from stepping into business ventures, certain rooms, relationships. I think letting go of the identity that once protected you is a part of the growth. I want to talk about some signs that tell you it's time to let go. If you're on the brink and you're like, okay, I've been doing the work, I'm frustrated, I don't know where I am in this part of my journey. I want to achieve this goal or start this business or be in a relationship, but I feel like all the work I'm putting into isn't working, then you probably are in the in-between phase where you need to let stuff go because that's where I was. I felt, what am I doing? I'm trying to be a better person. This sucks. I'm having to reflect and do some deep diving into my childhood, which wasn't fun. Things that I may have regretted that caused emotion that I was storing within my body. And going back into those situations brought up past trauma and things that I didn't want to relive. But going through that, I was able to realize, yeah, those things happen. I acknowledged those feelings, and now I can do the work to heal. And I'm still a work in progress. The release that I had whenever I started to do that inner work was crazy. It was nights of crying, self-reflection, feeling amazing, being on a high. I still continue to feel all those things. If you're being held back and you feel like you're going through this journey and you're like, why the fuck isn't this working? Then it's probably time to let some things go to step into that next phase. Signs are irritation and exhaustion after seeing certain people, or feeling like you're performing instead of being yourself. Those are signs that something within you is shifting and you're moving into that next phase. You don't go out anymore because they got an old version of you, they had access to everything before. And now you're creating boundaries to step into whatever you're desiring. You're gonna get a lot of people talking shit, honestly. I had experienced that. There's things that have happened throughout this healing journey when I really started taking it seriously, and I really let it affect me. There was plenty of situations where I was like, am I crazy? Am I in the wrong? Why is this being negatively looked at? I'm trying to become a better person, but becoming a better person now makes me a bad person to some people. I had to realize they don't understand what I'm doing, who I'm trying to become. You're either with me or not. You either support it or you don't. And if you don't, then respectfully, like you shouldn't be in my life. But letting go doesn't have to be dramatic. It doesn't have to be this, like, oh, I'm cutting every single person off in my life. Like sometimes it's just really boils down to protecting your energy and choosing things, people, environments that align with the work that you're doing and who you're becoming. Going to the club used to be fun. Still is every once in a while. I love a good night out. Don't get me wrong. But I'm trying to consciously work on going to places that align with things that I'm actually passionate about. But all that to say, if you're listening to this, then you're probably interested or in the midst of trying to become the best version of yourself or doing some sort of healing. Yeah, there are going to be really hard times. But once you are out of that detox phase, there's not really one certain moment where you're like, oh, I have to release all this stuff and let it go. Throughout your reinvention, or as you continue to work on yourself or better yourself, which is a day-by-day process, you are going to have moments where you will feel crazy or misaligned in certain environments. But I have come to realize that when I'm starting to feel that way, I'm moving further along on my healing journey and I'm stepping in and becoming closer and closer. Embrace the process, keep going. That's really the advice I have. If you're outgrowing something right now, it doesn't mean you're ungrateful. It honestly just means you're expanding. This episode was all about letting go. So that's why it was just a release detox episode. I'm really excited for how to regulate your nervous system. And then I have my friend Justice coming on the pod. So yeah. Guys, this is my first entry where I got super vulnerable. So bear with me. That concludes this entry of the Giad Diaries. I'll see you next week. Bye.