Letting go: The real test of self-worth

Let it go—the earrings, the saris, the makeup, the clothes you kept in the closet for years if not decades “just in case.” Let go of the things you once believed you might need someday.

For so long, we keep things around as placeholders for “maybe one day.” We keep buying, collecting, and holding onto objects as if they can someday fill the emptiness inside. Maybe a bigger apartment, maybe a husband, maybe pets, makeup, beauty pageants, or expensive things. The belief whispers: maybe this will finally make me feel whole.

But what you come to realize is that the things you were trying to buy could never give you what you were really searching for. That void within you is not something money, people, or possessions can ever fill.

Because the truth is, what you’ve always been looking for has been inside of you all along.

No matter how expensive the dress, how perfect the lipstick, how large the house, or how warm the companionship—none of it can substitute for the inner connection, love, and self-worth that only you can give yourself. Money cannot buy authenticity. It cannot buy gratitude. It cannot buy the peace of being at home with yourself.

When you use money to chase something it can never actually purchase, you end up buying “nothing.” And in that process, you also dishonor the energy of money itself. Because money is not meant to fill voids—it is meant to serve your soul’s desires, not mask your soul’s wounds.

This journey, then, is not about earrings, clothes, or apartments. It’s about connection. How deeply are you connected to yourself? How much do you love yourself? How much do you value yourself—not for what you own, but for who you are?

The tests of life arrive one by one. First, it’s your job—you lose it and are forced to ask: Am I still worthy without this title? Then it’s relationships—you believe they define your value, until they fall apart, and you are left to ask: Do I still see my worth without another person affirming it? Then comes money itself—you may lose it, spend it, or find yourself without as much as before. And the question rises again: Do I still see my value without the security of money?

Each time, the layers of ego fall away. Each time, you are invited to remember that your worth has never been external. It has always lived within you.

Right now, I am being asked to downsize my life. I thought I had already let go of so many things, but as I prepare to release more—clothes, furniture, even pets—I am shocked at how hard it is. The truth is, we don’t realize our attachment until we are forced to let go. And then the question becomes clear: Do I still see my worth when all of this is gone?

That is the real test, isn’t it?

Even as I let go of the things I once held close, I remind myself: I was not meant to anchor my worth in objects or people. I was meant to live free of attachment. To discover peace and contentment within myself, no matter what is—or isn’t—around me.

Can I be like the Buddha—seeing my inherent value, having nothing outside of me? Can I sit in that stillness, knowing I am already whole?

That is the test.And that is the invitation.