The other day, I was driving in my car by myself when the song, “Let it Go” from the Disney movie, Frozen, came on the radio.  Yes, I of course, belted it out at the top of my lungs like I was Idina Menzel (and fell painstakingly short).  But something else happened as I screeched sang “Let it go!  Let it go!  Turn away and slam the door!”…

I realized how apropos the lyrics were to my life (and my “new” attitude towards it).

See, I have always been a bit of a perfectionist since I was a little girl.  I think there has been some research that ties that in with having a childhood where there’s a lot of conflict at home.  But regardless of where it came from, it gets pretty annoying.

If I have one little flaw on my face like a blemish or dark circles under my eyes, I feel like that’s what everyone is fixating on when they talk to me.  If I have one hair out of place in a photograph, I have the overwhelming urge to enact a superpower that allows me to reach into the picture and fix it (there should TOTALLY be a superpower like that).  I worry about what I say to people, how I act, how I laugh, how I walk, pretty much everything under the sun.

And boy, does it get tiring.

So there I am… in the car, listening to Elsa (a.k.a. Idina) sing “let it go“, “the past is in the past“, “the fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all“, and my personal favorite… “the perfect girl is gone!”

Um… yes!  Sign me up for that!

I had already been doing a lot of work on getting emotionally healthy in the past year or so, basically learning how to do just that – let go of old emotions, traumas and beliefs (and I mean let go of them physically… did you know your body can literally hold on to emotions even if you thought you had “worked through” them mentally?  It can!).

But this was just the “oomph” I needed to really kick it into gear!

Since so often anxiety, worry, depression and just overall worn-outness (a new word I just came up with) come from being a perfectionist, I say it’s high time to let that perfect girl be gone!

Sure, we can’t all go wave our arms around and build a beautiful castle made of ice to go hide in.  But we CAN decide to “let it go” and be the person we were made to be – flaws and all.

So next time I hear that song come on in the car, I will roll down the window, belt it out and remember to let it go like Elsa.  Even if it is in the dead of winter.

Because after all… the cold never bothered me anyway.  (I had to.)