Embracing Peace and Joy: The Power of Letting Go

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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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, we could, we could fly.
Welcome to this new season ofthe have a Cup of Chahani
podcast.
So I want to title this newseason that I'm embarking on
with I'm growing, so this isgoing to be the season of growth
and that's what I'm going toshare with you throughout the

(00:20):
season.
So I thank you for coming overhere and sitting with me, and I
hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
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 fittingfor this time of year, but also
something that I recently wentthrough and that's going to be
the fitting for this time ofyear, but also something that I

(00:46):
recently went through and that'sgoing to be the theme for
December, okay, to kind of likeprep us for this new year, which
I feel is very symbolic of newbeginnings and of new starts,
right, and then just feelingfresh and new and going after

(01:08):
things that we want to andletting go of those things that
no longer serve us.
So the theme for December isthe 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

(01:29):
time to reflect on what we'reholding on to.
That is just, it's not servingus, it's holding us back, it's
keeping us stagnant or in aplace where we don't want to be

(01:50):
be.
And whether it's control,grudges or perfectionism,
letting go can open doors tounexpected 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 whohas a hard time letting go.
It is not easy.

(02:11):
So if you're like me and you'relike, but I don't want to let
go, whether you're saying it outloud or your actions are saying
that, I feel you, I feel you.
So I want you to grab your cupof a coffee I have mine with me
here because it's early in themorning or tea, or really

(02:32):
whatever, your water bottle,whatever brings you comfort, and
let's have this conversationabout letting go and what has
been the most transformativeexperience this year for me of
letting go.
Right, I want to share thatwith you.
And it's going to get likesuper vulnerable, a little messy

(02:55):
in here no names, as always,because you know I'm not about
that life but saying that areyou ready?
That Are you ready?
Of course you are.
I mean, why else would you behere sitting with me?
Let's go All right.
This year, this year, I faced alot of challenges in this last

(03:22):
assignment, which I'm closingthe chapter on here in a few
days.
Not going to lie, it tested myresilience.
It really did, in ways that Iwas not expecting it.
Oh, my goodness, just when Ithought it was going downhill.

(03:42):
Now all I need to do is closethe loop on certain things.
Just when I thought like theroad was going to get easy
because I was humping all thistime, it instead got harder, the
incline got steeper and I hadto figuratively, symbolically
put my head down and then justkeep moving forward.
And I had to figure out who Icould count on, what I really

(04:06):
needed to focus on and, mostimportantly, what I needed to
let go of to stay sane and staybeing me.
Because, at the end of the day,I have held on to this promise
that I made to myself, and Ibarely held on to that this year
, to be honest with you.

(04:27):
But the promise I made myselfwas to not let the burden of
leading to make me a cynic or tomake me bitter.
And I read something onInstagram, a meme that say Soy
como el cafecito Alguna vez esdulce, alguna vez es con pan,

(04:53):
pero nunca amargo.
And that means like, I'm likecoffee, and if you know
Dominican coffee, it's verysweet.
So the meme goes.
I'm translating it in Englishfor you and that is I'm like
coffee.
It's very sweet.
So the meme goes.
I'm translating it in Englishfor you and that is I'm like
coffee.
A tiny coffee.
I am sweet, sometimes I go withbread, but I am never bitter

(05:19):
Sounds so much better in Spanish, but nevertheless it just means
, no matter what life throws atyou, I will continue to be me,
and for me that is beingoptimistic, that is being a
can-do-er, a person that getsafter things, that I believe

(05:40):
very little in impossibilitiesand I believe very little in
impossibilities and I believe alot in possibilities.
At the heart of Joani, that'swho I am and I know that I know
myself very well.
But I also know that being inthis environment and being a
leader, being a woman leader, animmigrant leader, latina leader
it's just like it's a toll thatit takes to not just to get

(06:05):
here but to stay here.
I said it in a reflection thismorning from reading the book
Latino Land.
It's like every day I have toprove myself, I have to prove
that I belong, that I do have aplace on that table.
There's a chair there for meand I deserve to sit there.

(06:27):
Every day it's almost like thisinternal battle to fight
against prejudice, againstpeople, internal thoughts of
what they perceive me to be, andevery day I have to combat that
, every day to prove them wrongand it's exhausting.
But I knew that beforehand,before taking this promotion and

(06:49):
taking this role, that that'swhat awaits me.
But I'm not one to back downfrom a challenge.
That's not me.
And I'm not one to use excuseseither.
That's not me.
So I accepted the challenge andI went in knowingly.
I just didn't know the extentof it and even thinking about it
like I'm getting very emotionalover it because the toll is

(07:12):
hard, but I know that it's worthit in the end.
I know that there's somebodythat listened, that there's
somebody that was looking, thatwas inspired, and that makes it
worth it.
I'll be honest, letting godidn't come naturally to me For
as long as I can remember.

(07:33):
Anger feeds me, it makes mestrong, it makes me break
through barriers and walkthrough fires so I can get to
the other end and reach anobjective or a goal or a dream.
But that comes with its own setof problems, because I found
myself just being filled withresentment and frustration and I

(07:58):
noticed, because I journaled,that's one of my habits that
I've maintained, that kind oflike keeps me sane and, as I
like to say, they're like mylife-saving habits.
So I was able to assess fairlyquickly that these emotions were
dragging me down and it justwasn't about the assignment

(08:20):
itself and the hurdles of theassignment.
It was about just not allowingthose feelings to seep into my
personal life, into my familytime.
And I realized pretty quicklythat if I didn't let go I would
be ruining moments I cherish themost, moments with my family,

(08:44):
moments that I need on my own torecharge, and I deserve that.
You know, I deserve thosemoments.
What I didn't deserve was thisfrustration seeping through my
personal time.
I didn't deserve that.
So I knew I had to do somethingabout that and, like I said,
like you hear me say, whathelped me to let go of that

(09:08):
resentment and those frustrationwas that journaling habit.
That's one of my life-savinghabits, along with working out,
and I lean into that hardcore alot.
When I go through my journal nowI see that I had like two,
three, one day five entriesbecause I was so filled with

(09:32):
emotions that I needed to let gowith thoughts, with
frustrations, with this internalmonologue that was just going
on and on and on about all thebad things that were around me,
that was happening to me andthings of that nature, and I
needed to drop those in a place,because if I didn't, I already

(09:53):
know myself.
They'll just continue to goaround in my mind.
And that's what happened whenthose emotions just became too
heavy.
I'd sit down with my digitalnotebook and write everything
out when I was driving or justunable to type on my phone.
I will record these thoughts, Iwill record myself.

(10:16):
But whichever way I wasexercising these emotions, these
very heavy emotions andthoughts, and putting it into my
journal, whether the digitaljournal on the app or through
recording, which I would thenlike plug into my digital
journal.
But journaling helped me toidentify why I was feeling that

(10:38):
way, because one of the thingsthat happens with my journaling
is that I do a weekly review onSundays, right?
So it's this thing that is kindof like it hashes through my
entries and then it just tellsme look, these were the mentions
that you made, these were youremotions.
And I go back and read myentries and I'm like, oh my

(11:00):
goodness, it was like arollercoaster of emotions and I
will see a pattern, how I wouldidentify something.
Get down and then I will see,like this resurgence of
resilience and hope comingthrough, you know, either at the
end of that day or the verynext day, and then I will finish

(11:21):
up that week feeling hopefulyet again.
And I was so proud of myselfwhen I saw that because, while I
was accepting identifying thesecounterproductive, very heavy
emotions and frustrations andinternal monologue that was
going on, at the end, after eachof those emotions were

(11:45):
identified, I was able to findalso the silver lining, the
light at the end of the tunnel.
And I think I was able to dothat because I was naming those
feelings and I was understandingwhere those feelings were
coming from, so they became lessscary, less overwhelming.

(12:08):
It wasn't like this mysticalthing of oh no, the world is
against me and things of thatnature.
I could identify it throughjournaling.
This happened, I thought thisand I felt this.
So when I identify those threethings in my journal, it's like
the sun came out and then itshined a light and whatever was

(12:31):
hiding in the shadows was nolonger hiding in the shadows,
was no longer intimidating me,and I understood what was there.
I understood the emotions thatwere there and therefore I could
start releasing them.
And here's what I learned andyou heard me say this in the
introduction is that holding onto those negative emotions was

(12:56):
robbing me.
It was robbing me of my peace,it was robbing me of my joy.
It was robbing me of my abilityto be fully present with my
family and my family.
It's so important to me, andonce I realized that, it became
clear that I had to let it go.

(13:16):
It became clear that I had tolet it go.
You know as much as it wasfilling me up and helping me to
take one step after the other.
Just the fact that it wasrobbing me out of that quality
time with my family and the jobthat I am sometimes that's not a
lot, so I have to make it countthe time that I get, but

(13:40):
letting go isn't a one-timething.
I know about all of this.
I got certified to understandthese kinds of things, so it's
nothing that I just learned.
However, it is something that Ihad to practice, and that's
what this is.
This is a practice.

(14:01):
Journaling helped me create aplan to stay emotionally
balanced, especially when Iencounter triggers in my
day-to-day life, and when theemotions were still very raw and
so recent right that I meanthey weren't scars, they were
open wounds.
I gave myself the time andspace to process them fully.

(14:25):
You heard me say before I givemyself crying breaks, I give
myself space, alone, time Iexhaust 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

(14:47):
for me.
Practice to have this habitthat I do every day, sometimes
three or four times a day,helped me to let go, even when I
felt as if letting go willleave me empty, will leave me

(15:10):
raw, will leave me vulnerable tomore attack.
The practice helped me to easeinto that and I think the
biggest aha moment becausethat's what this podcast is all
about, right Is every oopsbecomes aha.

(15:30):
So the biggest aha moment for mewas understanding that letting
go wasn't about ignoring theproblem or ignoring my feelings
or pretending as if they don'texist.
It was about acknowledging them, processing them and then

(15:54):
choosing not to allow them tocontrol me.
I have the controls here.
I have the controls of myemotion, of what I continue to
live rent-free in my heart, inmy soul and in my mind.
I have control over that andthat was my biggest aha moment.

(16:19):
So when I found out that Icould control that, that meant
that I can control letting it go, that I can control thinking
about it and utilizing thatenergy for something that is
good for me.
Or when it's convenient to me,like when I need to lift really

(16:42):
heavy, I can tap into thatmemory and get the anger that I
need to lift those weights.
You see what I'm saying.
So that's what that taught methat I have control over that,
that doesn't have control overme, and you know what it worked.
Letting go, knowing that I havethat control, brought me peace

(17:05):
in ways I did not expect, and Ifound myself being more present.
I found myself being morejoyful, more connected with my
family.
I wasn't stuck in my headreplaying old frustrations.
I was in the moment, in thatmoment that I deserve to have.

(17:27):
And as we close out the year, Iwant to invite each and every
one of you to take a moment andreflect what's one thing you're
holding on to that you can'tjust let go of today.
Maybe it's a grudge,perfectionistic tendency, maybe
it's just a little frustrationthat's been nagging at you.

(17:48):
Grab a notebook, a journal orrecord your thoughts and let
yourself exercise that out ofyourself.
You might be surprised by whatcomes up and by how much lighter
you feel afterwards.
That's the best.
That's the best feeling.

(18:11):
And vasitos, thank you so muchfor joining me today.
I really appreciate y'all.
Like I don't want to getemotional 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 awesomeDecember, a peaceful and joyful
December.
And remember I have newepisodes every Wednesday, so

(18:36):
subscribe and share this episodewith someone who you think may
need a little reminderthemselves to let go and until
next time, take care of yourself, stay grounded, don't forget
that and let go of what nolonger serves you.
You got this Bye.
Thank you so much for listening.

(18:59):
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 somebodyyou love, but most importantly,
come back.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
See you next time.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Bye.