Spring is almost here, and it's the perfect time to shake off the heavier energies of winter and bring in lighter energies of a higher frequency. One wonderful way to do this is to clean and clear out your personal space.
It’s amazing how much we are impacted by our environment! We live in an interconnected world and the energy of our surroundings/stuff influences our energy, thoughts and mood. So if dust or clutter has collected in the corners of your home, it's time to clean and clear it out!
I recently did some deep decluttering and was astounded at how much lighter, more optimistic and free I felt after. I try to be pretty good about clearing my space regularly, but in the past, I have often lost steam and gotten stuck at the paper/memorabilia I've collected over the years.
When I transitioned from teaching to doing my healing work full-time, I stored some boxes of files, books and other resources in my basement, and although I had released some of the things in the past, I still had five boxes full. This time, I was determined to power through them once and for all!
With some focus and effort, I was able to give away and recycle 95% of the things that remained from my graduate studies and teaching days. The release has been awesome! It has enhanced my creativity and allowed me to think more clearly and more expansively. I am dreaming even bigger with respect to my future projects and plans...both personal and professional.
The thought of going through one's belongings and letting go of what no longer serves can feel daunting because most of us have accumulated lots of stuff, so here are some ideas and tips to help you:
Do an inventory of your space and see what areas feel good to you and which ones need some attention.
Decide what needs to be done in each area and think about how you'd like it to look/feel after you take care of the decluttering and cleaning.
Break down the job into smaller bits. You can break your overall mission down by room or type of task (pruning wardrobe, clearing paper clutter, dusting, etc.)
Schedule time for each of the smaller bits and commit to taking care of each by writing it down in your calendar/planner. You know yourself best, so decide if you work best powering through the whole thing in big chunks of time or tackling it in smaller chunks.
Then, just DO IT! No excuses, no planning something else in that allotted time, no giving up! Stay focused and committed to your mission. Visualize what it will feel like to enjoy a clean, beautiful space free of clutter to keep you motivated.
The process of cleaning and clearing out our mess can be challenging because the stuff carries energies that we have not wanted to deal with to this point. But mustering up the courage to do so is well worth the discomfort!
To make the process more manageable, it may be a good idea to get support. A wonderful resource I love is Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Also, you may want to enlist the help of a professional organizer. You can check out the National Association of Professional Organizers to find someone who is a good fit for your project. Here’s a link to NAPO and also to the NAPO San Diego chapter.
Cleaning and clearing one's personal space has huge benefits! What makes it even more powerful is doing an energetic clearing of your space after you're finished with the physical decluttering and cleaning. In the next blog post, I will walk you though an easy and very effective energy clearing process of your space, so stay tuned, and let me know if you have any questions/comments in the meantime.
If you have any friends or family who you think would enjoy/appreciate this post, please share it with them. Big hugs and blessings to you all. :)