By Rachel Hupp | March 10, 2026 | Inner Spring Cleaning Series

Hello and welcome to Radiantly Rooted with Rachel.

Now, last week’s episode, we practiced that three-minute reset, and I hope that you’ve been using it to find those little pockets of peace throughout your day.

But I want to be honest with you. Even when we know how to ground ourselves, there’s still this loud nagging voice that often stops us from doing it, right?

It’s that voice. You may know it too. It says:

• “If I let go, everything’s going to fall apart.”
• “If I don’t do it, it’s not going to get done right.”
• Or maybe more subtly: “If I’m not productive, I’m not worthy.”

So today we’re going to reframe that guilt and we’re going to talk about why unclenching is actually your greatest act of strength.

This is Part 4 of my 5-part series: Inner Spring Cleaning for High-Achieving Women.

You can watch on YouTube, listen on your favorite podcast platform, or keep reading below. You can also watch the entire Spring Cleaning series playlist here.

Liberation in the ALIGN Framework

Now in my signature ALIGN framework for transformation, after awareness comes liberation. And this is all about mindfully shedding the old beliefs that don’t serve you anymore. Like the idea that you have to be the strong one 24/7.

(If you want to learn more about the ALIGN framework for building self-trust, check out that post.)

When Grounding Becomes Bracing

Now, in my own life, this has looked like realizing how often I think that I’m being grounded and responsible, when really I realize I’m just bracing.

Like when my schedule feels full, or money feels uncertain in business, I notice that I start gripping everything tighter. Can you relate?

You:

• Over-plan
• Overwork
• Try to control every single detail so that nothing falls apart

And then my body tells on me. My jaw gets tight, my shoulders get tense, and my breath gets shallow. And that’s my reminder: Ah, this isn’t grounding. I’m back in survival mode, trying to be the strong one who holds everything together.

Now, if you remember, we talked about the strong one identity in episode two of this five-part series. It’s that constant need to handle it.

Aparigraha: The Art of Non-Grasping

And so this brings us to a beautiful concept in yoga called Aparigraha. And this one hits home for so many of the women that I work with.

It’s non-attachment or non-grasping, but in real life, we can apply it in a much more human way than that.

It is about learning to loosen our grip on:

• Outcomes or expectations
• Stories about how things should go
• Identities that we’ve outgrown by now
• Those responsibilities that we were never meant to carry in the first place

Not because you don’t care, but because you trust yourself enough to handle whatever comes up.

What Liberation Looks Like

Now liberation, for me, it’s been practicing loosening that grip:

• Taking a breath
• Going for a walk
• Trusting that things don’t fall apart just because I let go a little

Letting go is not a failure. It’s actually the only way to reclaim the space that you’ve been craving. It’s how we go from just surviving our life and actually living it with open hands.

We build our self-trust muscle when we practice loosening our grip through aparigraha, because we learn that we’re not going to fall apart if we let go. Things around us aren’t going to fall apart if we let go.

How to Practice Letting Go

So if you have been working through the Spring Reset Guide that I’ve been sharing with you, I want to invite you to look at step two, and that is Release With Compassion. It’s on page five.

And if you haven’t grabbed it yet, don’t worry. I’ll link it below and you can still find it at rachelhupp.com/spring.

The Key Question

And I want to invite you to look at the question on page six:

“What would it feel like to let this go gently?”

I want to invite you to sit with that for a moment. You don’t have to do it perfectly. You just need to be willing to see what it would feel like to stop bracing quite so much.

And so I want to ask you: What are you gripping so tightly right now in your life that it’s making your hands ache?

Drop a comment below if you are ready to learn how to live with more open hands.

From Spring Cleaning to Radiantly Rooted

Naming what you want to release is the start. But next week we’re going to talk about what it looks like to actually build a life around this feeling.

And I’m going to show you how to move from just surviving your schedule to creating a ritual and routine that actually supports you.

And this is where we move from spring cleaning to radiantly rooted.

So I’ll see you in the final video of this five-part series.

Continue the Series

This is Part 4 of the Inner Spring Cleaning series. Catch up on:

• Part 1: Why You’re Overwhelmed (It’s Not What You Think)
• Part 2: Feeling Fried? 3 Energy Leaks Draining Your Day
• Part 3: 3-Minute Grounding Practice for Busy Days

Watch the entire series: Inner Spring Cleaning YouTube Playlist

Bonus Resource: Download the Spring Reset Guide to practice releasing with compassion.

Rachel