Rewiring the RAS: The Science of Energetic Shedding and Embodiment

We've just entered the Lunar New Year of the Fire horse and the energy is about movement, flow, speed. So whatever your energy is, it will amplify it. 

However you might still be feeling the remnants of 2025 Wood Snake. The shedding of the old before you embrace the new. 

These last few weeks have been intense, shedding the last of everything that doesn't serve. And if I am to be honest, it sucked. For a moment, it left me completely raw and broken. 

That was the energy of the Wood Snake. Shedding. Releasing. Stripping you down to the core. 

It tests you energetically, emotionally and mentally, releasing old habits and patterns from your consciousness. 

This is when most people believe they are healed because they had removed the hold it had on them. They start to recognise that they have a pattern and set to integrate the lesson.

They can conceptualise the lesson, but they are not embodying it - living it. 

They are talking the talk, and not walking the walk. 

Yes you may have changed your pattern and let go of a belief, but it can show up in the most obscure ways. 

I mean… have you really learnt the lesson of letting go when you have hoarded years and years of stuff that you don't need?

By hoarding old stuff, you're more holding on than letting go.

That's something that I can relate to. 

A trait that I had inherited from my parents is to keep “stuff” because it might be useful later. It's one part not liking to be wasteful and one part holding on for sentiments sake. 

And because sentiment is so meaningful to me, I do find it hard to let go of stuff. 

I can easily let go of dated beliefs and old wounds, but letting go of physical “stuff” is where it trips me up. 

No matter how much I release energetically and emotionally, my subconscious is still programming my body to hold on. Cue the constant battle of releasing and holding. 

What I've realised is… embodiment of the lesson is when the body feels the release physically. The act of walking the lesson.

To do this, we rewire the Reticular Activating System (RAS) in our brain - the system that is important for recognising patterns. 

It subconsciously looks for familiar patterns and programs the body to follow these patterns because it's “safe”. This pattern had worked in the past to keep the body safe, so why change the path?

It's because the Fire Horse demands it. If you don't flow with the fire, it will burn you to the ground. Follow it and it will light your path.

If you (like me) value sentiment, it may be hard to let go of the gifts you were given, the clothes that you've purchased or even the pile of toys that sit untouched.

Your mind will convince you to hold onto it just a little bit longer. 

This is when it gets tricky. You are consciously ready to let go, yet your subconscious is holding on in an act of “survival” as the tried and true path.

But to truly embody the art of letting go, you need to release it at all levels - soul, mind and body.

Letting go needs to be felt at all levels.

Healing needs to be felt at all levels.

Bringing the wounds up to a conscious level allows you space to reset a new belief and pattern at the subconscious level. 

So break free from the hold that the subconscious has on you. Build small, new habits to anchor those beliefs into your reality.

Start with action on the mental level: Take a different way to work. Stop and consider other possibilities when making decisions. Take in the small moments and feel the joy that is in nature. Take a moment in your busy life to just breathe deeply into the bottom of your lungs.

Then focus on the physical level: Start exercising and moving your body. Dance and sing to your favourite songs. If you don’t already, reconnect with old friends and share your stories. Run and chase your children around at the park. Physically shake all the stress away. 

And when you’re ready, do the hard stuff - bring the lesson from the mental and physical to the material: Regift your old clothes and toys to those in need. Set the boundary to the person who is draining your energy (respectfully of course). Be brave and speak the truth of your feelings and secrets that you’ve filed away in the deepest corners of your mind. 

Take courage to fully embody the lesson. 

When you step into actioning the lesson, you are not only integrating the lesson, but you are teaching your RAS a new survival system. 

One where it is safe to fully let go.

One where you are clearing out the old, to welcome more space for new abundance.

That's why you may still be feeling the shedding skin of the Wood Snake. This space of limbo is to get you ready for the speed and abundance of the Fire Horse.

Let the lesson be felt spiritually, mentally, physically and materially. Clear the path and let the fire light the way.

That's where deep healing lives.