Release: Letting Go, Letting God, and Reclaiming YOU

This week on Women in Black, we’re talking about something we are deep in this season: RELEASE — letting go of old mindsets, pressure, stereotypes, expectations, and anything that was only meant to be temporary.

We share what release looks like for us as women, moms, and creators navigating transition while trying to protect our peace. We break down the meaning behind the word, talk about releasing hustle culture and who people said we “should” be, and returning to our true selves. Even Coach Dominique “Dom” Williams pops in to share his take 👀😂.

If you're in a season of letting go, this one will sit right in your spirit.
 Breathe. Release. Step into your new season with your head high.
Then meet us in the comments and let us know what YOU’RE releasing.

Transcript

Names, Roles, And Identity

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Like, who are you? I am Josh. I am Josh. I'm Duty Mom, Jalen mom, Tyler mom, Jace mom. But I'm Josh. Right. So there's a difference. It's so easy to just fall into I'm a mom.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

And then once our kids are out the house, we don't know what to do with our It's that mindset that, oh my goodness, I gotta, I gotta do everything. I have to grind it out. I have to accept that I'm supposed to be doing everything and living to this ridiculous standard that society says that women and people in general should live up to.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Stereotypes again. What a single mom is supposed to look like to people, how a single mom is supposed to grind, how a single mom is supposed to carry the weight by herself.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

I am released from all of the visions or dreams that I had for myself that weren't mine. What I noticed about myself is that I allowed people to tell me what I should do based off my gifts and talent. Hey y'all, let's check in. Girl, how was your day? How was your week?

SPEAKER_03 1:26

It's going. So blessed.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

And highly favored.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Period. It's going. It's going. So somebody had got me upset. Not upset this week, but a little bit like it just kind of caught me off guard, like at one of my previous places that I used to get money.

Weekly Check‑In And Gratitude

SPEAKER_03 1:50

And I told her, if you don't give me a straight answer, I'm gonna talk about you on my podcast. And she said, Go ahead and send me the link. Will you do? And I said Friday, 8 a.m. So this is me talking about you on the podcast. Hi, okay. Keep that in there so she can see that I wasn't playing. Because y'all, y'all ain't right. But God is always bigger. I am so bad at y'all. No, no, I was dead serious. And Ty was like, you serious too. Cause I am.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Don't make Josh bad, okay? Okay. Lock it.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yo, other than that, but that's like a jokey joke. But anyway, the week has been going. The week has been going. What about you?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Um, uh, yeah. Yesterday was hard, girlfriend. It was hard. But I'm good. I'm good today. I mean, I was getting some work done, and you gotta remember how blessed you are. For real. Like, you gotta take a moment of gratitude and be like, okay, I got my mind. I have a roof over my head, I have clothes on my back, my kids don't want for nothing. You have to say all those things sometimes to remember. Just going through a transition period. I'm going through a transition, and yesterday I was transitioning, okay. Uh, but all in all, I'm good. And sometimes you just gotta remember good. And I'm good, yeah. But that don't mean we don't got the moments in yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

I had a moment for real.

Defining Release And Word Breakdown

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Yep. This season, because we're about to jump right into it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

But that clicking and clacking, oh my god. I know you ain't talking about clicking and clacking, Miss Widget over there. Oh my thing, but I try not to, I did, I tried not to. This is one of my um consulting. I saw I told you I had a little fire earlier for one of my clients. I was like, um, and I had to jump online and fix something, something technology related. It got fixed and stuff, but she was just saying thank you. So I'm like, all right, I'll respond with them, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

In the season that I'm in, right? Release is really big for me right now for saying that. So my question to you guys, my question is to you. What what do you feel like you've released? What could you release? And what's your definition of release? Like, what does that mean to you? What does that look like for you? Because it means something different, it looks different for everyone. It's such release is so powerful, like release is just so powerful if we keep going off. But we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

All right, release. Um that's layered because it could mean so many different things. Uh for me, when I think of the term release, I think of letting go. I think of um ease. Okay. So, and I wonder with that to throw the phone out the window. Oh goodness, but I wonder like like the dictionary definition. What what does re and least and you know that part of ease like come together? What does it say? Like, what does it mean? Me, right? Yeah, look it up. Yeah, because that prefix and that root word, it it gotta mean something. If I had to say I would be like re-living ease or something. But lease, lease is something short term. It is so yeah, we need a definition.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Mm-hmm. I gotcha. So a literal breakdown, re plus lease. You can break it, you can break it symbolically into parts to give a really deep meaning. It means re means again, re means back, and re means return. Spiritually, it can represent restoration, renewal, or

Letting Go Of Hustle Culture

SPEAKER_03 6:41

returning to your true self. Not permanently. Symbolically, a lease can represent a season, a relationship, a chapter, a burden, an emotion, and a mindset you were holding. The symbolic meaning of release together is to return and let go of what was temporary.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

God was speaking to me in my heart about it, but that gave it all of the color and meaning. So, okay, let's go from there. Because that was a lot to unpack.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

That's a lot. So you mentioned season. We mentioned re meaning return, that least part. Hmm. Well, I'm letting go of certain, and this season, I'm releasing certain mindsets that I had. That's definitely one. Um, the grind hustle mindset out the window. Ain't for me. Certain visions or dreams that I had for myself that weren't mine. Not for me. Um, because I think what I noticed about myself is that I allowed people to tell me what I should do based off my gifts and talents.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

And I accepted it because gifts and talents. And I felt like, honestly, like in a Bible, when you think of the gifts, then I can't remember the exact passage, but a number of a different number of gifts was given to each. Was it the wise man? I'm not sure. Don't quote me. All right, back up. So a number of gifts were given to these individuals, and the person with one gift buried it. No, the person with three, I'm messing that up.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

It's okay. It's alright.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Yeah, we're not buried.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

But this is it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

But this is where my mindset goes, right? It's like, okay, do I bury my gift or do I put it out there because my gift isn't for me, is to share, right? And so I was struggling with that when people will notice a gift that I have and say, Oh, you should, we had a similar conversation earlier. But they'll say, Oh, you should do this or you should do that. And it's not that I shouldn't do it, but maybe not the way that the normative, you know, uh perspective in society. Like I love to write, right? I love to write, I love to sing, I love to dance, I love all these different things. But I do feel that God allowed for me to do certain things in different seasons.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

And so uh, like when I think about just doing it all, like women who do it all, yeah, you don't gotta do it all at once. You don't have to like release that mindset that, oh my goodness, I gotta, I gotta do everything. I have to grind

Motherhood Without Losing Yourself

SPEAKER_02 9:50

it out. I have to accept that I'm supposed to be doing everything and living to this standard, this this ridiculous standard that society says that women and people in general should live up to.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Yeah. Yeah, because who did that?

SPEAKER_02 10:06

I don't know who did it, but y'all could take it back. Because I'm sending it to the philosophical sending that one to the pits of hell. And so my season of release looks like me owning who I am, um, getting back to the root of what I want, where I am in my life. Um and truly just embracing, you know, the life I want. I'm embracing the life I want. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

That's that's good. That's good. Release for me is um free, freedom, which they didn't mention, but basically summing it up, like release for me looks like freedom, right? Um stereotypes again, what a single mom is supposed to look like to people, how a single mom is supposed to grind, how a single mom is supposed to carry the weight by herself. I am released from all of that. You hear me? Like, I'm gonna get to this bag, I'm gonna get to my education, I'm releasing myself from pausing my own life and not living just to watch my kids live. I'm releasing that because I've seen so many older women, and I'm not knocking anybody because you do what works for you, right? But I've seen so many women just not take care of themselves, fall victim of being a mom. Like, who are you? I am Josh. I am Josh. I'm duty mom, Jalen Mom, I'm Tyler Mom, Jace mom, but I'm Josh. Right. So there's a difference, and I've seen people fall victim. It's so easy to just fall into I'm a mom. And then once our kids are out the house, we don't know what to do with ourselves. I know some grown older women that are out here looking a hot mess right now because they did just that, they lost a house, a hot mess because you just out here doing stuff and it's embarrassing. You know what I mean? Because you didn't know any better, you put your life on hold for your kids, you didn't live with your kids. Me and my boys are living together, right? So I'm released from those kind of stereotypes that well, you're a mom, you can't do this.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Who said I ain't gonna lie, I think I this is what happened to me

Challenging Single Mom Stereotypes

SPEAKER_02 12:30

because I was 100% released when Tristan was Tristan, you go out on the road with me. He was at my shows, he was at my everything, and my mom was my momager, she was right there, my sister right there sitting on her lap. You know what I'm saying? Like that didn't hold me. That didn't hold me. I think what um, but sometimes I think other some people in that situation also get judged um when they are living their life. So I hope I want people to kind of pull like you know that whole facade down, like let's break it down. Yeah, and we can't tell people how to live, so to speak, you know what I'm saying? Because you live the way that works for you, like you said, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Because I'll I people like who at home with the baby? Don't worry about it. And my one friend always says, Don't ask me about nobody you don't see me with. Because Britt take care of them kids. So she's like, Don't you see them with me? Don't ask me about them. Like, don't ask me about nobody you don't see me with. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Hey.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

No. Okay, I'm releasing this. I'm releasing this that just walked in. Do you really want to be in our podcast?

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Because we record it right now. We we talk about what we released in in this season.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

About what what's it mean to okay?

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah, might as well. Come on, husband. Take your badge off before you come over here, please.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

We don't need people knowing where you everybody don't know you.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

We got subscribers now.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Yeah, we do. Okay, what does release look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Oh, I'm getting questioned all the time.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

You are here.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Just project your voice because you ain't getting my microphone.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Um thank you, Auntie Josh. What does release look like for me? Question? Y'all come back to me on that one.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

All right, let's you want to hear what we learned about release?

SPEAKER_00 14:31

What'd y'all learn?

SPEAKER_02 14:32

So I you know me. I start trying to break down words. So Josh was looked it up, and you could go into what is it? Let's see if we have um, what is it called? Like telepathy.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Two different words.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Can you read my body? Do you know what I might have said? Telekinesis. Telekinesis is a moving object, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

According to that definition, that's probably not.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

But what would you say? What you would think?

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Releases for me, it's simple. It's letting go.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

You know, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

I'm I'm letting I'm letting go. That's super generic. But it actually means it's not just me letting go. That's not the focus of it. Carrying me to where I want to be.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

I'm out. You said it a lot better. And we're releasing you. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yeah. Well, that was our our our guest, our first guest, Coach Daddy Boo Boo Dumb. That's him. That is him. But yeah, so release. Yeah, letting freedom freedom. It's like setting my release is setting me free

Family Drop‑In And Comic Relief

SPEAKER_03 16:00

from a lot of things. And it's just not me. Let's back it up. Let's clarify. Am I saying that I don't make sacrifices for my kids and stuff in that instance as a mom? No, that's not what I'm saying. So don't get under those comments, like, well, we all as a mom, we all momming out here. How you mom, how I mom, how she mom, differently because we're doing what works for us. But I'm releasing any stereotype of what momhood is supposed to look like. Right. Like, I'm releasing the point of you gotta wait till your kids to grow up to enjoy life. No, I'm not fair. Like, right, that's not fair. Right. Like, my mom shouldn't have been this old just going to a winery a couple years ago. She should have been going to wineries and enjoying that stuff. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Like, I need to take my mom out.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Seriously. So that's why again, my mom's mom wasn't the best. So she didn't know any better anyway. So that's why I include her in a lot. But I'm not waiting for nobody to grow up to live. And that's just what it is.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Yeah, and I I think I believe hearing what you said and and resonating with me that I need to bring my mom out, um, different generations, right? Um, I think my mom losing her mom early in life, she just wanted to make sure we were okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Yeah, and and that's a part of it. That's a big part of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Like so, what do we in that, right? Because everybody may have different um realities. So, in that, how can you still not lose you? Like, and I think that's at the end of the day, we're trying to figure out however you parent, however, you mom, how do you also make sure that you don't lose you?

SPEAKER_03 17:52

I got something I'll help you because I'm about to let's let's let's put that for another podcast. Yeah, yeah, like maintaining who we are.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Yeah, but don't worry, cuz my self-care journal, listen, because if you don't get anything else, I don't care.

Practical Self‑Care In Small Moments

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Five minutes of self-care. I don't care if you gotta walk out on a deck and just let the sun hit your face, need to get your seasonal call. This ain't even nothing crazy though. But I just came to mind like sometimes it's as little as I'm gonna make me a drink for this season that I just make every morning to make me feel good. I love the aromas, I love that. Oh, let me make me a peppermint coffee. And when I want to feel like I need a hug, I'm gonna drink my peppermint coffee. You know, I can get a little extra, so we can keep moving along. But I'm just saying, don't forget about you.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Yeah, so freedom is that for me, and freedom is also letting go. Releasing is my freedom of letting go, being set free, like emotionally, I'm in a season of release, gratefulness, and release. So I'm also in a season, every season of God don't make no mistakes. So if I gotta release relationships, if I gotta release myself from old habits, like Boo Boo said, I'm gonna do that because I don't have no other choice but to let God do his thing. Right. And if when you honestly surrender, release, you feel so good, like letting go. And I'm telling you, listen, I don't care who you gotta release yourself from and what you gotta release yourself from, do it. Do it, like it might hurt, it might make you feel away, it might be hard because a lot of it comes with consistency and discipline.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Do it, delete his number out your phone. That's what's

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Somebody that's hard, but do it.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Do it. Okay. Doing nothing but holding you back. They are subtracting. Do it. If those emotions and those burdens that you're carrying are not adding to your life, they're subtracting. Release. Breathe. Release.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

So what we're leaving them with? I think we left them with release. I honestly. Like it's okay to let people, things, situations, and environments go. Yes. For your better good. Release all of that. Walk into your new season with your head held high. Understanding that you're adopting a new mindset. We don't care what nobody else got to say. But we need to check in in the comments and be like, besties, like this is what it is, then check in because sometimes when you change, yeah, you lose a lot of people. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

No, for real.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

So

Surrender, Boundaries, And Letting People Go

SPEAKER_02 21:00

just know that you gained us.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Bring it in. Bring it in. And let us know what y'all out here releasing. Because the things that I've been releasing, like, are not just physical. They're spiritual. And the more I'm talking to like co-workers and just random people, you see that a lot of people out here releasing. And we in the season of Lego. Just being free. So let us know what y'all be releasing and how. How are you going about that? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So until next time, release, buy me a coffee. Buy Des of coffee. Buy me a bottle of water. I ain't forget. I hope y'all ain't forget. I'm still trying to lose this weight. Buy Des some coffee. She likes coffee. Give me some tea. Or some water. No sugar. No honey. No nothing.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

I alternate my coffees and teas. So definitely the other. I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Okay. Bye, guys.