Clearing our spaces frees us to experience more of who we truly are. Clearing any thing or thought releases stuck energy and opens the channels to our most spacious self.
Here are five ways to get the energy moving in your home and life. Practice these when you’re feeling down, unproductive, uninspired, or just plain stuck. Try them when you’d like to make a change in your life, attract something or someone new, cultivate greater ease, or just feel calmer, lighter, in the flow.
It doesn’t matter which ones you practice or when. The only thing that matters is consistency. Start at the top and go down the list. Just one minute, once a day, every day.
1. Put away: Take sixty seconds to put away one thing, sort one pile, or round up one area. Push chairs in, turn off lights, make the bed, cap the toothpaste, put the toilet seat down, move the dirty clothes from the floor to the hamper. Expand your practice of putting away every day only if time allows and you feel moved to do so.
2. Sweep: Get yourself a nice broom and sweep a floor, a room, the front steps, or cobwebs that are hard to reach. You can use the practice of sweeping to invoke a fresh start, open a path to a solution, cultivate mindfulness, or calm the noisy mind.
3. Tune in: Take one minute to stop, observe, allow, and feel whatever you are feeling without doing anything to fix, manage, resist, or medicate it. This is a good one to practice when there is something going on in your life that doesn’t add up, make sense, or match your expectations.
4. Wash: In the spirit of this Japanese saying, ‘Let the past drift away in the water,’ wash your hands mindfully to release the strings or attachments of your day and/or to bring in cleansing energy. Wash a dirty dish or two: smell the soap, feel the cleansing warmth of the water on your hands, gently place the clean dishes in the drainer to dry. Slow down. Breathe. Allow.
5. Clear: Declutter a purse, a wallet, a drawer. Throw out a pencil nub, outdated bulletin board flyers, lifeless food from the freezer or refrigerator. Recycle a newspaper, magazine, or store catalogue. Clap, rattle, or ring a bell to clear stuck energies and/or to prepare a space for something new. On a piece of paper make a list of things, or issues that weigh you down, and burn it (or just imagine it burning)-with gratitude. Notice your breathing as you read these words.
Read all of Stephanie’s clearning-your-space at Space Clear
Stephanie Bennett Vogt, MA is the award-winning author of Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are, and the founder of Space Clear, a teaching and consulting practice dedicated to bringing homes and their occupants back into balance. Her latest book A Year to Clear is available on Amazon
