New Beginnings Begin with Letting Go

Abhi Jain

Lead Functional Consultant

LinkedIn

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She was always the strong one—until a quiet question from an old colleague revealed her hidden exhaustion and taught her that real strength sometimes begins with letting go.

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She had always been known as the strong one.

When things fell apart, she was the one who stayed standing. When responsibility shifted, it somehow landed on her shoulders — and she accepted it without question.

Over time, being strong stopped feeling like an act and began to feel like her only shape.

There was a phase when she didn’t even notice how much she was carrying. Life moved quickly. Days filled themselves. And strength, practiced often enough, felt automatic.

Until one evening, when she ran into Geeta, her first colleague. They had both started their careers as management trainees.

They sat across from each other, speaking about ordinary things — work, people, time passing.

At some point, the conversation slowed. The Geeta studied her face for a moment longer than usual.

“You look tired,”

she said.

Not casually.

Not in passing.

The words landed softly, but they stayed.

She smiled, out of habit. But something about being seen — really seen — loosened a knot she hadn’t known was there.

She tried to brush it off, tried to keep the tone light. It didn’t work.

For the first time in years, she stopped holding everything together.

Later, alone, she realised it wasn’t the question that had undone her. It was the pause after it. The space where she no longer had to explain, perform, or be strong.

That was when she understood she had been carrying the past with her — not because she wanted to, but because she never learned how to set it down.

Letting go didn’t arrive as a decision. It arrived as permission.

Permission to ask.

Permission to rest.

Permission to not be the one who always holds.

The days that followed didn’t change much on the outside. Life still asked things of her. Responsibility didn’t disappear.

But something inside shifted.. 

She began to notice when the weight felt unnecessary. She began, slowly, to share it.

And in doing so, she discovered that strength didn’t leave her when she stopped carrying everything alone.

It simply changed form.

And that, quietly, was her new beginning.