Changing It Up

Published: Wed, 09/10/14

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Fall 2014
  
"There is no getting around the past when everything in the home points to it." -sbv
 

Some of you may have noticed that there was no summer newsletter. That's because I was up to my eyeballs in (clearing) stuff!  

 

Yes, believe it or not, I still have stuff hiding in plain sight.  

 

Like the thousands of slides I've not looked at in years because it means setting up the projector, the screen, the clicker, and the stacking thingee that always gets jammed. 

 

This latest round of clearing comes on the heels of a six-month sabbatical that my husband and I took in Mexico. No sooner had we unpacked our bags than we went on a top-to-bottom tear of reorganizing our entire home.  

 

What prompted this sudden and unexpected musical-chairs makeover became very clear: spending time away from home has a way of changing your perspective. Big time.

  

Things just didn't feel right. Energetically we had expanded, while the house and its contents had not budged an inch.

 

It wasn't just things that needed changing up. Moving things also meant moving on, which, in our case, meant embracing a new chapter as empty-nesters. There is no getting around the past when everything in the home points to it.

 

In the past three months we've been on a roll. We've taken trunkfuls to the Goodwill, moved furniture around, repurposed rooms, updated our technology, and enjoyed some hilarious slide shows.

 

Yes, even the biggest hassles of sewing missing buttons and clicking through countless slides to scan the treasures and bag the rejects has been surprisingly fun and addictive.  

 

You don't need to go full-throttle, go away for six months, or have a life partner to refresh your home. If you're willing to take it on as a journey that you experience instead of a task that you have to complete by a certain deadline, you'll get on a roll too.   

 

If you're curious about how to go about this, my latest article in the Huffington Post describes all the gorey details of what we did, and shows you how you can refresh and renew your home and life by just moving things around. Click here to read it.

 

What is something you can change up today (right now)? You never know what goodies might be revealed when you shift things around. 

 

Have a great fall, everyone. Happy clearing! 

 

Stephanie

  
Photo: "Duplicates, Generic, Unidentifiables" by Stephanie Bennett Vogt 


In This Issue
Changing it Up
Hiding in Plain Sight
It's Just Stuff
Spacious Reads
Coming Up
Online and Ongoing
Contact Us
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Your Spacious Self   
Clear your home, quiet the mind, and restore your spirit with this nourishing guide designed to cultivate the "5 S's" - slow down, simplify, sense, surrender, self-care.   
Read an excerpt 





Clear Your Home,
Clear Your Life

A Year to Clear
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Hiding in Plain Sight
Can't clear it if you don't see it

"Do you love it? Do you use it? Does it have a home?"  

 

My favorite three-part mantra for clearing works like a charm every time.  

 

Unless, of course, you don't see the stuff that you are trying to release (shed, untangle, move, restore, change up). 

 

Yes, see.

 

The stuff is right in front of your nose creating dust bunnies like crazy, but you don't see it. You don't see the things you once loved (past tense), the clothes that once fit, nor the files you feel obligated to save "just in case."

 

Why?  

 

Because "seeing" them would mean feeling them.

 

Feeling the shame, the blame, the shoulds, the overwhelm, the attachment, the fear, the loss - feeling all that emotional and energetic build-up encoded in the stuff that settles in your home and life like a layer of invisible smog.

 

Ouch. Yes, I know. There is more going on than meets the eye (as it were). 

 

So how do we pry our hands off and get our "eyesight" back?

 

It begins with bringing compassionate awareness to the resisting patterns.  

 

If you don't see the dirty dishes that routinely pile up on the kitchen counter, or the rat's-nest of papers on your desk, for example, the task is simple: clear or just move one item and allow yourself to feel whatever gucky emotions arise without analyzing, judging, fixing, or personalizing it. 

 

You see,  it's not about the clutter at all. It's not about the dirty dishes, the piles of laundry that don't get folded, nor the stuff the no one bothers to clear or put away.  

 

It's about your relationship to those issues and things.

 

If you too suffer from clutter myopia and could use a little assist - one baby step at a time - here's a one page tip sheet that I put together for my students and clients that might come in handy: 

 

5 Tips That Will Support Your Clearing Practice 

 

 

Art credit: Artist unknown   
 

It's Just Stuff
Clearing clutter is a spiritual issue

It's not everyday that I see a book or an article by someone who makes the same case as I have for years about clearing as a spiritual issue . So when this piece by Geri Larkin came across my desk, I had to share my favorite bits. Enjoy!

"... We have to let go of our stuff. But we don't, or at least we don't want to. This is a serious spiritual issue, this clinging. We may be able to give up lovers, Facebook friends . . . even our waistlines, but do not, do not, ask us to give up the three photographs taken of us in 1996 when we looked like Kate Moss on a good day...

 

Added up, objects become clutter. Clutter becomes noise. And noise - in all of its forms - blocks spiritual growth, starting with an inability to simply feel happy. 

 

Happiness needs quiet. If we watch, we'll feel its presence when we are meditating, watching the sun set, or maybe rocking the almost sleeping baby. The more noise, the harder it is for happiness to show her face... 

 

... It's just stuff... We can start small...The trick is to simply start."

 

-Excerpted from "Close to the Ground: Just Stuff" by Geri Larkin,

Spirituality & Health

 

 Read full article here  

Art credit:  Michelle H. Filer   
 

Spacious Reads
New book for women by HeatherAsh Amara


Warrior Goddess Training
(with a Foreword by Don Miguel Ruiz) is the latest book by my dear friend and best-selling author and teacher, HeatherAsh Amara. It provides the antidote to the flawed idea that you are not enough.

Direct, honest, and unapologetic,
Amara will show you how to release the layers of expectations to finally see yourself for the authentic, perceptive, perfect woman you really are.

 

If you don't honor yourself with every fiber of your being, if you could use more joyful play and simple presence in your life, then it is time for an inner revolution. Now is the time to claim your Warrior Goddess energy.

 

The world needs your light, now, more than ever! 

 

 
Join the Inner Revolution
Become the woman you were meant to be

Warrior Goddess Training

 

Calling all women...

If you'd like deepen the experience of claiming your power with HeatherAsh Amara and her special guests (including me), I invite you check out this very special three-month program.

Here's what you'll get to play with:
  • Commit to You (October)
  • Align With Life (Nov)
  • Purify Your Vessel (Dec)

 

JOIN US! 

 

 

Online and Ongoing
Clearing made easy
 

  • Clear Your Home, Clear Your Life - 28-day Online Course on DailyOM. Learn more.   
  • A Year to Clear What's Holding You Back! - 365-day Online Course on DailyOM. Learn more
  • Short and sweet - Enjoy Stephanie's daily messages on simplifying, slowing down, and self-care on her on Facebook here.
Photo source: Denise Linn

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