Letting Clothing Go with Gratitude and Love

My post Feng Shui Your Wardrobe for Clutter Rescue has resonated with many, myself included, to take action and create space in the clothing closet.  

No matter how few or how many things you edit from your wardrobe I always invite people to say "Thank You" to the items that you are letting go of and to do so with "Love". 

If you are passing the clothes along as a donation or to someone you know; its good practise to infuse the articles with the good energy of Gratitude.  You valued their worth when it was in your closet, so send it on its way to someone else with that good feeling.

If you have any reservations about what you are decluttering do not let it leave until you can do so with love and thanks.  Otherwise the energy may linger as regret and not the vibeage you want to store in your freshly cleared out space.

Dress Stress:

Someone had recently let go of an outfit they had custom made for a very special occasion. 

Despite the beautiful memories of that event where she wore the dress; it also evoked the NOT so beautiful memories of her dealings with the seamstress. Even with the dress no longer in her wardrobe, she would be reminded, especially when looking back at photographs, of how she felt about the designer.

I suggested that she think of the dress and hold it in her mind; then focus on the JOY she felt while wearing the dress for the celebration; letting the Good feelings about the dress grow greater and stronger while letting the drama of the dressmaker experience go.  This may take some practise, however it will time and energy well invested.  

Simply Put:

• Inhale the Joy of the celebration;
• Exhale the dressmaker;
• Inhale the Joy;
• Exhale the drama
• Repeat
• Repeat
• Repeat

Repeat until you can feel that you have released the dressmaker as you have the dress.

The beautiful memories from that occasion will continue to grow in value; while holding space for the designer experience does not serve you or honor your memories overall.  

What's in your closet that you would benefit from releasing with Gratitude and Love?  

Knowledge and Self Cultivation = Reflection

Knowledge and Self Cultivation is the area that you would want to enhance if you are about to embark on learning or doing something new.  An area which would support any self-growth or self enrichment focus.  It is also the ideal area for cultivating peace.

If you have ever taken a yoga class perhaps you have come across the pose "Tadasana" or Mountain Pose.

Credit:  Living Yoga blog

I would describe the basics of the practise of Tadasana as the action of reaching through your feet into the earth, stabilizing the body; while simultaneously extending your head to the clouds, embodying the essence of a literal mountain.  

Mountains are majestic, they are wise and mysterious.  

If one were to travel up a mountain you would certainly enjoy the vantage point of looking at where you came from and be in a good position to see where you are going.

Knowledge and Self Cultivation is about Self.  What we have learnt in our lives, what we wish to learn and what we have learnt inherently about ourselves through all of our experiences.  

I feel the best representation of this area is Reflection.  I believe that we benefit from seeing where we have been in order to give us perspective on where we are going.  The good times, bad times, easy and hard times.  The whole package.

Reflecting on our lives is not about judging what we didn't do, didn't achieve, or how crap this or that situation was.  Reflection gives us the opportunity to view all those instances and observe what we were taught.  They are the ingredients of who you are in the present.

Each and every experience in your life has had value in creating who you are today.

Reflection is an opportunity to look for the value in those experiences with perspective.  

• Looking back versus going back.

Reflection can be celebratory.

• The "I" did, "I" tried, "I" learned, "I" survived, "I" overcame. Give yourself credit. 

Seeing your past as the base and building of your mountain and going upward and onward to the clouds.

The saying that "hindsight is 20/20" expresses that it is easy to see the value or the lesson of an event after the fact.  What this can also do is provide you an opportunity to see what you are holding onto from your past that may no longer serve you in the present or will serve you in the future.

The potential lies in the viewing the lingering feelings from an observer's standpoint, rather than judgement.  

Ask yourself what it would feel like if you no longer held heavy feelings about someone or something in your past?

How would it feel to move forward into your future without some of the excess emotional weight of the past?  

How would that affect your the stability of your Center or your Core?

I invite you to ponder and feel this, if you so choose let one thing or something go.

You may also like:  The Feng Shui Bagua Map

The Feng Shui Bagua Map

The Feng Shui Bagua is an essential tool in associating areas of your physical space with the 9 areas or guas on the map.

Depending on the style of Feng Shui which you are interested in; the process of Bagua application may be different, however the areas on the map would not be dissimilar to the image above.  Therefore you may find that you enter your home through the Knowledge and Self Cultivation gua or that your bedroom is located in the Wealth and prosperity area.

This map could be laid over your entire property; it would be applied to your home overall, as well it can be mapped specifically on one or every room individually.  

The Bagua encompasses all the areas of our lives:

• Knowledge and Self Cultivation
• Health and Family
• Wealth and Prosperity
• Fame and Reputation
• Love and Relationships
• Children and Creativity
• Helpful People and Travel
• Career

These eight compartments, surround the Center, the common denominator or the glue that holds it all together.  The interconnectedness of the outside squares is possible because of the Center square, it is my opinion that the Center is YOU.

I personally use the Bagua Map as not only a tool which relates to our physical space, but as a tool which I value when looking at what is going on in my life, my thoughts, my feelings, my experience overall.  As well I can apply it to the things which I wish to bring into  my life, things I'm working on or towards manifesting.

The Five Elements series of posts I did (Metal, Earth, Water, Wood, Fire) beginning with the pop quiz, may have given you another perspective in which to look at creating balance, and potentially how your living rooms may or may not mirror that.  

This series of posts is my interpretation of Bagua map as it applies in Feng Shui; followed by how it can be an instrument aiding us in observing the balances and imbalances, to create connectedness and perspectives in our lives.  How our "go forward from the center: our thoughts, attitudes and feelings" have a direct impact on moving forward. 

Just like for your home, a Feng Shui consultant may invite you to move furniture, add elements, or subtract clutter in order to get the energy moving in your space; de-cluttering our minds is equally as important.  

My intention is to share with you my approach in Creating Space in life with my Creating Space Bagua.

With Grateful Ch'i...

Couples Therapy: My Relationship with Procrastination

It took a long time of struggling with the push and pull dynamics of the relationship to finally ask myself:

• How had I allowed myself to be bullied for so long?  
• When had I given up so much power over myself?  
• And how could I release this hold on me?  

Being caught in this vortex was not serving my purpose. 

The need for change was imminent.  

Or was it?

It seemed futile to look for balance in a relationship, such as this, when the common ground felt as stable as quicksand.  I needed to step onto the sidelines of the blame game and determine what my role was in all of it.  Along with my new found conviction to make a change, I set off armed with fresh eyes, an open heart and a clean slate to begin anew.

Determined, I moved forward, seemingly unaware of the subtlety of the seduction, the light and easy suggestions, the whispered ideas luring me to come out and play.  The gentle urgings, the innocent voice, the promise of “it will only take a moment; you'll be back on point right away.”  

The mastermind I was dealing with worked easily and effortlessly to derail my intentions.  

The initial moment was drawn out with the cajoling of, “Just one more minute, what’s one more minute?…You can make up the time later.”  

Those are not the demands of a bully, they are simple requests or so I led myself to believe.  Once the realization came I was furious.  It wasn't just a moment, it wasn't just another minute, I had been duped yet again by the exponential growth of a single moment into the whole loss of a day.

I berated myself, I belittled myself, I was angry at myself for being led. Angry at the apparent ease I had succumbed to distraction.  

Where were my fresh eyes, my open heart? 

I looked at my clean slate with disdain, now smudgy with taunts of distracted success by procrastination.  Chaos ensued.

Chaos had become a common ingredient in my life and it reigned in my world more times than not. In turn I welcomed chaos as I began to notice and accept that I thrived within its outer appearance of frantic disorder.  

That feeling of being more grounded as I stood amid the eye of the storm, more productive, more decisive, more clear and more successful to get my tasks done.  I began to relish in my many accomplishments handled and realized that I create chaos for my greater good.  Then it hit me.  

If chaos was a direct descendant of procrastination how could I love one and not the other?

I had found my piece in this dysfunctional relationship and now I could make my peace.

Procrastination had firmly established a place in my life, and for years I had rejected its value.  I had adopted the attitude that we could not work together, either I was on top or on the bottom, no balance. 

I was attempting to keep track of wins and losses and each time I checked the scoreboard I was always behind.  My feeling like a victim in the relationship only served to feed procrastination’s power over me.  The imminent change I needed to make was not one of overpowering my opponent, rather to embrace the challenges procrastination presented me.

I wanted procrastination to do the work to change.

I wanted procrastination to leave me alone so I could relinquish the guilt I felt when I listened to the whispers.

I wanted procrastination to respect my productivity rather than seducing me away from it.

I wanted peace! And procrastination was not giving it to me.

Making peace with something is akin to forgiveness.  The process is to accept what is in its natural state, not being in agreement, condoning it or in opposition to it, but to find neutral ground from which to move forward from.  

Procrastination had been doing its job, and doing it well without fail.  It always led me to chaos which I admittedly embraced yet I continued to resist the journey with procrastination to get there.

The relationship looks and feels different now that I have accepted procrastination for what it is.  

In my opinion, it is a momentary meandering off the path, or coloring outside of the lines as a means to an end.  I have chosen to view procrastination as a gift to myself and gently allow myself to wander for moments at its request.  

I have given myself permission to get to the end result without fear of veering off my predetermined path and know that procrastination allows me a bit more time for mulling or creating before the destination is reached.  At times getting there may be chaotic and other times not, that works for me too.

Procrastination and I are cultivating that comfortable relationship known best by old friends rather than adversaries, most of the time.  

How do you face procrastination?

This is my favorite way of approaching things that have the putting it off vibe...