Shed: When Growth Means Letting Go

Shed is the 2nd card I’ve created for my 21 card affirmation deck - follow along as I create all 21. Stay tuned for the kickstarter campaign to get this deck created in the future!

It's mid-August here in the Pacific Northwest, and I can feel autumn gathering in the shadows. The bracken ferns in the forest are already starting their slow fade, old fronds browning at the edges while new growth pushes through. There's something deeply satisfying about this time of year—nature's reminder that release is not only natural but necessary for what comes next.

My second affirmation card, "Shed," arrived at the perfect moment. Not just because of the season, but because I'm in my own season of letting go.

Remembering We Are Nature

I was accepted into a clinical mental health counseling program right before discovering I was pregnant. Life had other plans, but that passion for understanding how we heal has found its way into this deck in ways I never expected.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I've always felt most grounded when I remember we're not separate from nature—we ARE nature. We're animals with evolved minds reacting naturally to a world we weren't designed for. Our anxiety, our overwhelm, our resistance to change—these aren't personal failures. They're natural responses to unnatural conditions.

But the wisdom we need? It's been here all along, in the wild intelligence that surrounds us.

What I'm Releasing

My son is almost a year old now, and the patterns that worked when he was a newborn—the survival mode, the minimal expectations, the complete restructuring of my creative life—no longer fit who we're becoming. Like the garter snake in this card, I'm learning that shedding isn't comfortable, but it's necessary for growth.

I'm also releasing something more insidious: the self-deprecation that's been my default for too long. The voice that says success looks a certain way, that questions whether my work matters because it doesn't fit conventional metrics. It's an old skin that's grown too tight, and I'm remembering that in nature, there's no such thing as failure—only cycles of growth, release, and renewal.

The Wisdom of Shedding

This garter snake doesn't overthink whether it's ready to shed its skin. It simply knows when something no longer fits and releases it. The bracken ferns surrounding it do the same—old fronds dying back as new ones unfurl, showing us that release creates room for what's coming next.

Garter Snake: The garter snake sheds its skin as it grows—a reminder that letting go is natural and necessary for expansion.

Bracken Fern: Old fronds die back as new ones unfurl, showing that release creates room for renewal.

After years of therapy and trauma work, I've realized that many of the messages I needed were already here in my own ecosystem. These plants and animals have been showing us how to navigate growth, release, and renewal all along. We just have become somewhat out of touch with the natural world we are very much meant to be a part of.

Building the Deck

Creating these cards has become my own form of medicine—each one a bridge between the clinical understanding I was drawn to study and the wild wisdom I was raised among. There's something powerful about grounding affirmations not in empty positivity, but in the actual biology of how living things adapt and thrive.

I'm creating one card each week, building toward a full deck of 21 cards that will become something you can actually hold—a complete toolkit for navigating growth through nature's wisdom. When I'm about three-quarters done, I'll be launching this collection through Kickstarter. Each card follows the same format: a nature-based affirmation drawn from Pacific Northwest plants and animals, their ecological wisdom, and a gentle action prompt that you can actually use.

The cards work together like chapters in a story—or like seasons in a year. "Begin" taught us about starting before we feel ready, drawing from the beaver's patient dam-building and fireweed's ability to pioneer disturbed ground. "Shed" invites us to release what no longer serves, following the garter snake's natural growth cycles. Sometimes you need to begin. Sometimes you need to let go. Often, you need both.

Shed Affirmation Card

What do you need to release in order to grow?

How to Use This Card

Set up your own releasing ritual:

• Place the card where you'll see it during this season of change

• Add objects that represent what you're ready to release

• Include something from nature that's naturally shedding or changing—fallen leaves, snake skin if you find it, dried flowers

• Write what you're releasing on paper, then safely burn or bury it

The action prompt suggests writing what you need to let go of, then tearing, crumbling, burning, or burying it. There's something powerful about making the internal external—giving your release a physical form and ceremony, remembering we're part of systems much older and wiser than our anxious minds.

Following the Journey

If this resonates with you—if wellness culture oftrn misses the mark for you and you're hungry for something rooted in the wild intelligence around us—join my email list. You'll get behind-the-scenes glimpses of each card as I create them, the stories from my own ecosystem that inspire them, and first access to the Kickstarter when it goes live.

This deck is for the people who find beauty in decay and growth, who understand that real healing isn't about transcending our animal selves but remembering we're part of something much larger. It's for those who know that sometimes the most profound wisdom comes from the forest floor, not the self-help shelf.

I don't know if this deck will succeed in any measurable way—but I'm shedding the need to know that before I continue. Like the bracken fern, I'm trusting that making space creates possibility, and that the patterns we need are already here in the ecosystem we belong to.

What are you ready to release as we move toward autumn?

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This is the second card in my upcoming 21-card affirmation deck—a collection that explores how Pacific Northwest nature teaches us to navigate growth, change, and healing. Join my email list for behind-the-scenes updates and first access to the Kickstarter launch.