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The Weight of Things
“We were never meant to live life accumulating stuff. We were meant to live simply enjoying the experiences of life, the people of life, and the journey of life – not the things of life.”
~Joshua Becker, author of Clutterfree With Kids
I have a problem and I think I’m not alone. In the process of trying to raise my energy vibration and create positive forward movement in my life I keep running into the same awful truth. I am carrying a LOT of extra weight! No, I don’t just mean weight on my body. I mean emotional weight. I mean financial weight. I mean the weight of things.
Look up from the screen for a moment and gaze around whatever room you are sitting in. How many things, how many objects, do you see? Maybe you didn’t consciously realize that they were there, while you were staring down at the screen.
Now, imagine the same exercise, but differently….imagine looking around the room you are sitting in and seeing only a nice clean side table with a vase on it. Or an empty wall, adorned with one large, beautiful painting and a curtain billowing softly near the window, nothing else. Feels nice, doesn’t it? Do you suddenly feel just a bit more relaxed, more comfortable in your own skin? Less distracted? If so then you have just felt the weight of things or, rather, the putting down of that weight.
For most of us, we have been raised to believe that the pursuit of happiness means the pursuit of things. So much so that we rarely question the truth of it, while going about the IKEA or the Walmart or the shopping mall, or perusing Etsy, Ebay and Amazon. We just need things. Of course, everyone needs things. Sure.
Leaving aside the conflation of need with want, let’s just ask ourselves one question: What do your things really do for you, once you’ve acquired them? If you’re like most of us the answer is, not much.
Stuffitis
Once we acquire something it entertains or serves, perhaps for a few hours, days or weeks and then, eventually, it falls into the background. It gets added to the collection of things. It creates a new base level, upon which the pursuit of the next need is built. It is, in all truth, an illusion. It didn’t make us happy. We didn’t need it after all.
Now, being a pro-shopper myself, I am not casting aspersions here. Only making observations. So let’s look a bit deeper.
As we accumulate things, whether things we use every day, once per season or never, they add up. Drawers fill, bookshelves bulge and cars become rolling storage units. Still, we may rarely get the time to pause and ask ourselves whether this is a lifestyle we are willing to accept. It just is what it is. And, we’re not the only one living this way, so it must just be normal. Right?
Perhaps so. Call it clutter, call it consumerism, call it affluenza. No matter what you term it, the truth is that the majority of us in the industrialized world are suffering from stuffitis! We are living with more and more physical possessions and spending more and more of our waking hours working to pay for it all. The average American has four credit cards in their wallet and not enough time or money for “vacation.” Vacation, the time when we vacate the life we have created in order to head off and briefly live the life that we actually want.
Back to my problem. I live in the biggest house I’ve ever lived in, with one of the smallest loads of stuff that I, personally, have ever possessed and guess what? It’s still too much! My mind is drowning! I’ve begun suffering from anxiety for the first time in my life. I’ve gained weight. My energy is trapped in a cycle of low vibration. My to-do list is full of things I never have the mental or physical space to pursue. My moods are often on a scale between wishy washy and unpredictable. Truly, until I began walking the path of mindful living and deliberate ascension, I never saw a correlation between these things. But, now it is blatant and clear.
Out of Sight Out of Mind?
When you own a thing, aren’t you it’s master? Don’t you have the power over it, to move, use, break or discard it at will? One would think so. But, on the level of energy and manifestation it is not always the case. All manifest things are of equal value to the Universe, to the Creator. Even if you are a being with a higher vibration and a higher consciousness, you will still co-mingle your energy with anything you come into contact with. Add a LOT of things, then that’s a lot of little co-minglings. That’s a lot of energy.
Once you have a plethora of things stacking up, it can begin to feel like a monolith, practically immovable. Add to that the fact that whatever item you take possession of, whether a spoon, a shirt or a car, will never be responsible for you. But, the instant you take ownership, you become responsible for it. You are it’s keeper. You must keep it in your mental catalogue, its whereabouts and its state of repair must be known.
Let’s do a couple of exercises together. Just to illustrate a point.
Exercise #1: Imagine your closet (or bookshelf, or medicine cabinet, or pantry cupboards.) How many items are in that one location, roughly? 50? 100? 200? More?
Exercise #2: Pretend you are sitting in your living room, wrapping Christmas gifts and you need the scissors. Where can you find them? I bet you know right away. Did you picture the drawer they live in? Did you see your hand on the drawer handle? Did you picture your exact pair of scissors, the white one with green handles and daisies all over them? Or the red-handled utility scissors from Staples?
Yep. You had all of that information catalogued in your brain. Just for that ONE item! Multiply that by the number of items mentioned in the first exercise and that’s a whole heck of a lot of mental space! Now add in the rest of your things, your kid’s things, your husband’s things, the things in your office at work and you get to a pretty high level of stress and responsibility before you’ve even woken up to look at your daily to-do list or made that annual glance at your ever-growing bucket list. Always wanted to write a book but haven’t done it? Can you put your finger on a why? I’ll venture a guess: 50% fear of failure and 50% too busy and tired from acquiring and maintaining things! Yup, things. Things and stuff. Stuff stuffs up your mind and saps your energy. Stuff increases your inertia and procrastination by at least 50%. That’s my rough estimate.
So the weight of things is real. It is there, in your brain matter. In your energy. It may be out of sight, in a drawer or a shed, but it is never out of mind. You are storing it. You are waiting for it to be needed, so you can drag it’s card from your catalogue. When necessary your mind will offer up the associated info: location, mental picture of the item, it’s state of repair and what other items may be needed along with it for proper usage. (The extension cord and charger, the matching shoes and belt, etc.)
No wonder modern people complain of lack of time most often, even with all of our faster services, technology and helper gadgets. We are overwhelmed.
Lighten the Load
If you want to raise your vibration, increase your energy and reclaim some of your time and space from the weight of things, where can you start?
Well, for myself, the long and slow push towards relinquishing the hold that things have on me began with the urge to “declutter.” My guru for that stage of my journey was the very funny Don Aslett, a cleaning company owner and author who founded the Museum of Clean, in Pocatello, Idaho. I am the child of one very talented packrat and one mild-mannered hoarder, from a long line on thrifty farmers and resourceful WW2 wives. Trust me when I say that getting rid of things is NOT in my blood. But, Aslett made such funny points in his books and just made it easy to approach my stuff with a keener eye. I took 10 carloads of things to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop.
This was followed by years of world travel, which helped me keep things on the lighter side. But, then came marriage and kids and buying a house. Needless to say, THINGS happened. Lots of things. Baby things, toy things, kitchen things, garden things, tool things, car things, winter things, summer things, parenting book things, school things, work things. Things, things, things!
So, having recently come up for air, and become single again, I asked myself where all my time for blogging and podcasts had gone and why I spend all day cleaning a house that never is and shuffling my kids off to play without me. And, I’ve finally realized that it is a fundamental change that is needed. There is no single round of decluttering that will release you and your energy out from underneath the weight of things. It is the relationship with things, in and of itself, that must be altered.
As a result I have taken a look into minimalism. Not the stark-white-walled-home-with-a-single-aloe-plant-and-a-Poang-chair-in-the-middle type of minimalism but the wow-we-don’t-really-use-most-of-this-anyway type of minimalism, where you begin to understand your relationship to things and how pairing down what you own, along with pairing down what you buy, is not actually a type of lack but, rather, a type of true abundance. I could wax quixotic about this all day, but I won’t. Instead, I will skip the sales pitch and just give you some of the tools and approaches that I am finding useful as I try to go from Clutterbug to Minimalist.
The “Buy It Now” Button
As you go through your things and look for inspiration to do so, you will undoubtedly come across pieces of advice on how to make your decisions about what to keep and what to let go of. Every book on clutter and minimalism has it’s own gem and each one will come in handy in some situations, but not in others. The same is true of this approach. It can be used for almost any item in your house, excepting maybe sentimental and heirloom items. I use it for “collections”, like books, tea cosies, GI Joe figurines or Franklin Mint plates. (Honestly, I only collect one of those things, but you get the picture.) It is very helpful for things that you deliberately purchased, or were gifted, too many of, multiples that were deliberate. It works just as well for things you used to think you needed, like a shoe horn, an ice cream maker or a bacon press.
If you wouldn’t, then out it goes. Thrift it, Gift it, Ebay it or Recycle it.
Here’s how to do it: Pick up the item, peruse all of it’s colours, features and supposed benefits. Then ask yourself, “Would I buy it now?” Picture yourself clicking “But It Now” on Ebay and tapping in your credit card numbers. If you wouldn’t, then out it goes. Thrift it, Gift it, Ebay it or Recycle it. Sounds easy, but it won’t be. At least not for every item. Though it does tend to make the initial step of decision-making easier because asking yourself if you would buy it now is an intellectual process, not generally an emotional one.
After you’ve tried this, then implement the following approach ‘Spark Joy’ on all remaining items. (Do not do this in the opposite order, as some would suggest. I will explain why.)
Spark Joy
By now you have probably heard of the bestselling book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, a Japanese cleaning expert. Even if you are not interested in minimalism, or weren’t until now, you can’t really avoid the book or the trend it has inspired.
She asks people to approach cleaning category by category, throughout their house. You can read more about how she has her clients do it and give it a try yourself. For myself, however, I have decided that this is really a second-level approach to be carried out only after the initial declutter of all my spaces.
She does have one really great tidbit that I am using along with the “Buy Now” Button approach. This is the concept of items adding to the joy in your life.
Pick up an item and ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?” In other words, does it give you a good feeling?
This can be tricky and, owing to a great channeling that I did a few years back with the Lullites, I want to explain it to you a bit deeper, from the energetic level.
Well, then, this is the actual energetic weight…Yes, it sparks joy. But, it doesn’t only spark joy.
When you pick up a thing, or even glance at it, it can bring in all kinds of thoughts, memories and feelings.
You look at the ribbon you won in the track meet, senior year of high school, what do you feel? Pride? Excitement? Joy? Accomplishment? Okay, that is your first reaction. However, is it also followed by other reactions and thought processes? Do you feel guilty because your best friend, who was a faster runner, sprained her ankle and couldn’t run that day? Do you feel sad because your Mom had to work and didn’t make it to the meet? Do you feel depressed because you’ve put on some weight and can’t run like that anymore? Well, then, this is the actual energetic weight of your track ribbon. Yes, it sparks joy. But, it doesn’t only spark joy.
When you look at your books from college, what do you feel? Do you feel intelligent? Lucky? Or do you feel like you wasted your time? Do you feel sad your career has stagnated? Do you feel angry that you are now doing something else with your life? Jealous that your college roommate is now working in Rome? Then, you know the answer. The negative energy outweighs any joy you may initially feel.
This is why I say to use the Spark Joy approach only after you have tried Buy It Now and several other approaches first. A spark is a quick thing, just like buying a new pair of shoes, it wears off and what does it leave in its wake? Yes, your mother’s wedding photos may spark joy, for a second. Is that a reason to keep them framed on the wall forever?
What would you do with all of your mental and physical space if it wasn’t filled with things that only spark joy when you first pick them up or look at them? How often do you open that scrapbook from your spring break in Jamaica, 15 years ago? Often enough that the little joy sparks from back then are worth trading possible bonfires of joy in your present life?
Process through your belongings, questioning the value of keeping each thing in your life. Ask yourself, does this only add value? Does this only bring positive thoughts and feelings? In this way it will be easier to determine how much you are getting from, and giving away to, each physical belonging.
The Benevolent Box
This is a new one that I am trying out to help me scale back the items I hold onto in my life. It is called the Benevolent Box.
So often we keep things because they once sparked joy for us. We once really, really loved or wanted them. It may be something really beautiful, or valuable or useful. But, we have so many things that this thing rarely gets used or appreciated, or perhaps we liked it so much that we bought duplicates of it.
In these cases you may have a hard time convincing yourself to send it off to a nameless, faceless person via the thrift shop. You will have an even harder time convincing yourself to send it to the landfill.
Enter the benevolent box. Take a look at a thing you are having a hard time parting with and ask yourself if it might spark joy for someone you know. Could your local school use that old fiddle for their music program? Maybe your best friend used to always mention how much she loved that t-shirt? Does the lady next door love baking a heck of lot more and would actually use that earthenware pie plate? Add it to the benevolent box and then send it off to that new, happier home.
I use this more and more and it feels great! You are saving your formerly beloved item from oblivion while putting a smile on the face of someone who actually needs it. Win/win!
The 20/20 Vision
I have to thank Josh and Ryan of The Minimalists for this idea, and it is so helpful, especially in garages, basements and junk drawers. Get ready for it…
If you are holding onto something, or many somethings, that are just taking up space for the “someday” usage, or for that “just in case” scenario, try this method of decluttering.
Just ask yourself, is this something that I can replace for less than $20 or in less than 20 minutes?
Spare toothbrush. Painting tarp from the Dollar Store. Empty plant pot. Third pair of slippers. Bottle of NyQuil from 3 years ago.
All of these things can be replaced easily and quickly if you discover, somewhere down the line, that you really needed them. Most likely, you won’t. In five years, Ryan Nicodemus of the Minimalists has had to replace 20/20 items only five times. That’s a cost of maybe $100 in five years. How much do you pay for the square footage to store those things for the same five years? How much do you pay in time searching through stuff and in wasted energy?
If you can easily buy a replacement, let that unused excess go. Bye, bye just in case. Hello, world of opportunities!
Added Bonuses
Decluttering is a winner! Whether or not your are on the road toward total minimalism or just toward increased happiness and freedom.
While I am by no means close to the shining art gallery of a vision that I have for my ideal surroundings, I can already see some benefits. Every time a spend a day, or even just a few hours, sifting through the energy of my stuff and releasing things that no longer serve or inspire, I get a bounce in my step. Life seems a little less daunting, my mind a bit less confused.
Sometimes I even step on the scale the next day to find that I have shed a pound of body weight during the process. Energy is indeed made manifest, if it slows down enough. This goes for our own physical and emotional vibrations as well.
I feel that I am contributing to improvements in my mood and physical health as I release excess belongings. Not just for myself but, also to the benefit of the rest of my family members.
Whether or not you feel inspired right this second to jump up and begin purging unnecessary items from your life, perhaps just take it under consideration. Leave it in your mind in the coming days and ponder it as you go about doing things in your life. You may notice that certain tasks take longer because you are always searching for lost things. Or that you’d rather get a take-out meal than tackle your kitchen. You may find yourself in a check-out line and realize that you are about to spend $100 on just a few small items. You may go to pay your credit card bill and suddenly understand that you could have arranged a borrowing deal with your sister instead of buying that expensive lawnmower that you use just 5 times a year. You may observe that when you visit a waiting room, a museum or a hotel room you feel less stressed, more at peace. This is because these places are usually open and uncluttered, sure, but also because you, personally have no responsibility for the things in that space. You are, for a short time, free.
It is my belief that if we could all lighten our load a bit it would drastically improve our health, our relationships, our creativity, our connectedness and the livability of this place that we call Earth.
If you’d like to explore the concept a bit further before deciding whether decluttering would benefit you, here are few additional resources.
May your path lead you toward bright joy and amazing experiences! And, may the weight of “things” fall easily from your shoulders to put a new bounce in your step.
Articles:
10 Unexpected Costs of Owning Things
Books:
Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More by Doing Less
Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists
The Joy of Less
Podcasts:
The Minimalists
Videos:
Clearing Your Clutter with WellCast
Why It’s So Hard To Get Rid Of Stuff
Beginner’s Guide To Minimalism
Re-scripting Your Future Life
“I’m interested in memory because it’s a filter through which we see our lives, and because it’s foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I’m more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.”
~Kazuo Ishiguro, 20th-Century British novelist
We all have a story. Some of us even have several. Some keep their story to themself. Others relish the retelling of it at any chance. But the truth is that even having a story at all is enough. It is enough to change the direction of our life on a day to day basis. The story makes our connections for us, choses or friends and lovers, leads us to certain jobs and journeys.
There once was a girl who did everything differently. She never lived up to anyone’s expectations and she was always treated as an outcast, a weirdo. Her overly sensitive ways made her an annoyance, or a laughing stock, to nearly everyone that she met and she could do nothing satisfactorily, because she was one of those unfocused, creative types who drop things once they start them and will never achieve any type of success in life.
So, there it is…the story of my life as told by the nagging little pessimist inside my head. It has been my script for decades, a part that I dutifully played and played well. Every relationship in my life, friend or foe, lover or coworker has either begun or ended somewhere along this plot line, which means that the story as told must be true, right? Well, not necessarily.
The mind is a tricky device, kind of like the hall of mirrors at a carnival. Each distorts your vision in a different way and yet each appears so very, very real. The only eyes that we have in this world, and the only mind we have for perceiving, is our own. We can never see or think as another person does, so we can scarcely guess at how they may or may not see us, or the myriad thoughts that may be running through their head at a given moment. This means that each of us is, necessarily, me-centric. It is impossible to be anything else. All that goes on around us must be about us, or caused by us or happening to us. No, need to ask, “is it me?” because of course it is! At least, it is to you.
The Universe, our source, our creator, is a funny thing. It thinks in pictures, creates in energy. It also seeks always to increase, thus is gives you whatever it believes you are asking for. In creation, in the universe, all things are possible. So, in order to deliver you your most desired reality, the source of creation constantly sends to you situations and scenarios that prove to you that your version of reality is right, is correct and true. This is why your story gets reinforced in your life and your reality. But, this also means that you can choose to have your story and your life unfold differently.
Don’t believe that you are at the mercy of your version of reality? Mayhaps you cannot see any evidence of it in your own life. But, I am certain you can see it more readily in the lives of others. (Somehow patterns are much more stark when they are not your own.) Think of that friend who always attracts that kind of guy. Or the cousin who constantly sees themself being victimized by circumstances. Or the neighbour who continually loses their employment in the same exact way every time. It can even be as small as constantly overeating the same food.
Now can you see it?
Think of the last time you … Continue reading →
Flower Remedies: What and Why?
“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.”
~Theodore Roethke, 20th-Century American poet
Some of you may be aware that, as an herbalist, I prefer self-healing to westernized medicine. Of course I do not advocate skipping immediate medical treatment in cases of extreme illness or emergency, but I feel that all intuition and common sense has vacated the local doctor’s office and gone searching for greener pastures.
For acute illness I do often suggest an herbal or vitamin remedy. They may not always taste like a dream but the results can be seen within about 24 hours and the illness or ailment is often sent packing much faster than the over-the-counter, knock-yourself-out-and-forget-about-it, type of remedies that we are all used to taking.
How do herbs heal? They work on a chemical level to correct any imbalances in our various physical systems and also to kick-start those functions whose sluggishness most likely led to the infection, sickness, etc…
Yet, as I have mentioned here on the blog in the past, all things are made up of light and all light is energy. So the purest and most subtle form of healing the human body, or any living thing for that matter, is energy.
There are many forms of energy healing, the most important one being thought. The power of positive thought has been expounded upon ad nauseum lately, but it cannot be over-emphasized.
My own preferred form of energy healing, for it pleasant effects, is the use of flower remedies. (Because energy signatures are universal, the essences are also great for use on animals for their healing.)
Flower remedies, most famously those of Dr. Bach, are a liquid containing the energy signature, or essence, of the flower from one or more plants.
Flower remedies can be made from the flowers of vegetables, trees, herbs, wildflowers and even the decorative garden flowers that we all know and love.
These simple essential healing remedies are made by infusing pure water with … Continue reading →
Your Child is a Guru
“Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love”
~Virgil, Roman poet and mythologist
A little over a year ago I culminated the journey of the Maiden and underwent the rite of passage that delivered me onto the path of motherhood. After 51 hours of labour I became the Mother, gifted with a baby boy who was healthy and bright and filled with magic. As all babies are.
This amazing passage was followed by dazed weeks of cuddling, waking, admiring and crying. Yes, crying. Sometimes I wept for joy and awe, sometimes for anger and confusion. There were so many questions, some related to baby, but many related to me. Okay, how do you get bright yellow poop out of crisp white fabric diapers? And, more importantly, WHEN DO I GET MY LIFE BACK?!?!?!
That was it, in a nutshell. Yep, spot the crafty, travelin’ hippie chick, now feeling saddled to a grindstone with no release in sight. No more writing, no more knitting, no more hiking…my life must be over now. Right?
My pregnancy had been all happy, it had been as “Ohm on a Mountaintop” as I could make it. But that was back when I had some control over my own days. This changed once my new baby was actually out of the womb and into the world. Since his arrival, my Motherhood was fast becoming a bit more of a “Silent Tears in the Bathtub” kind of journey. Not very happy at all.
I really thought this parenting thing would be all fun; kids laughing, everyone cooking together, playing hide-n-seek, decorating Christmas trees and reading bedtime stories. I never imagined a 6-month-old screaming bloody blue murder and tugging on my pant leg with snot streaming down their face while I tried, desperately, to make some darned oatmeal. “Am I am failure?” I would wonder. “Do my more pure, attachment parenting friends have clingy, angry babies too? Why can’t he just be humming in a corner, playing with his Ganesha statue or sit calmly and listen to my chant music? I mean, come on! This isn’t how it works, is it?”
Well that’s the truth of it. Babies are people too. They have personalities. They have moods. They have needs and wants and preferences. And they change as they get older. We are all human. Some days we are giggles and fairy tales, other days we are food throwing and temper tantrums. It is what it is.
Now, I wasn’t so much regretting my decision to have a child. We definitely wanted him in our lives, he had been planned and worked for. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was finding my way on this new and surprisingly more complicated path and not being able to find my own inner peace with all the changes. What I wanted was to make peace with parenthood, to not be afraid of it or overwhelmed by it, to be a better parent than had been passed down in previous generations of my and my husband’s families. But I also wanted to still be “me.” I guess you could say that I wanted to be a good parent to all of us, my son, my husband and myself.
But what to do with the tragic, shell-shocked, overwhelmed feelings that were dominating my days? I couldn’t ignore the truth of what I was feeling.
What I had to do was to go back to my base, which for me is always spiritual awareness. The spirit is always free and empowered and optimistic. So, I practiced quieting myself, over many days, taking a few minutes each day to listen within. And eventually my guides, or guardians, spoke, gently and clearly. They reminded me that I (my spirit) and my son (his spirit) had chosen each other as companions. We had chosen this journey of learning together and we had chosen this time and this place to meet up. And neither one of us existed in a bubble. We were to learn from each other. That meant that I am his parent/protector/teacher and that he is my spiritual teacher as well — my Guru. Our life together was to be the temple, or Ashram, of the Guru and it was therefore a sacred place of dedication and spiritual community.
In light of this message from my guides, I began to … Continue reading →
Voice of Peace, Within You
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
~Buddha
No one person, place or thing in this life is constant perfection. There is ebb and flow, give and take, constant change in all things.
Living in balance with the disappointment that we feel in any one particular moment of our life is the challenge that we all face as walkers on the path toward connection with spirit.
Remembering our true divine nature, even amidst the ravages of the modern world, is the compass that will guide us to a steady stride on a wobbly path. We have all chosen to incarnate NOW, here in THIS body, in THIS life.
The WHY is not a quest, it is a process. Living to our highest capability, with the most open and loving heart that we can, at all times, is the only thing that will bring us to the answer. And the answer WILL come, at the end of a life well-lived.
Only then can we know the true value of the grievances and graces that have been bestowed upon us by our creator/creatrix, the ALL consciousness that is universal love and awareness.
What guides us is our connection to that divinity, a connection which we each possess, every moment of our life. Nothing external, or internal for that matter, can diminish this sacred connection. All that is diminished is our AWARENESS of the divine connection.
How can we maintain this awareness? How can we be divine even in the most harrowing of moments? By consulting our own inner compass. By checking in with that small, honest voice inside of ourself. This is the spirit, the heart, the higher self, whatever you wish to call it.
This voice of truth, of universal love and spirit is always with us, always speaking. The trouble in hearing it lies only in remembering to listen.
This voice does not have … Continue reading →
Combating Spiritual Negativity
“A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation… is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run.”
~ George Matthew Adams, American newspaper columnist
I have heard from several folks who have a variety of issues in their homes and personal lives that they believe to be caused by spirits, negative energies and other people. Here is a short primer on some ways to deal with several of these issues…
GHOSTLY ACTIVITY
Firstly, much ghostly activity is actually negative turbulence that builds up from the people who live in the house. This can come from thoughts, words and actions…such as having arguments with others, feeling depressed, crying a lot or illness. Some houses hold it more than others due to the way light flows in the structure or due to what kind of rock the house is built over.
How to combat this:
1. Get some copper wire and twist several strands of it together while you are thinking about grounding out the negativity in the structure. You want to make four separate pieces of at least 12 inches in length. Then go outside and at the corners of your building, tack or nail one to each corner of the foundation (even if its a brick foundation) and stick the other end of it down into the ground. (If you live in an apartment try putting it behind a bush or a planter or something so as not to weird out the neighbors. However if you cannot hide it, don’t worry, humans in general are unobservant and if you do it after dark they will take no notice of it the next morning. 
Begin in the east and work COUNTER-clockwise until you finish in the south….remember, these are for … Continue reading →
Seeing the World Through Reiki-Coloured Glasses
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
~Martin Luther King Jr., American Clergyman, Activist & Civil Rights Leader
Reiki, a form of energy healing that began in Japan, has changed my life. It’s subtle and loving ways are still transforming my relationship with life and the world, months after my first exposure to it. Many of you probably know that it cleanses and opens chakras and the aura, but it can do so much more. For me it has birthed greater self-awareness, peacefulness and physical health in ways that I would not have imagined. It works with you, who you are inside and in essence, and then offers you (okay kicks you in the bum with…) the opportunity to take greater responsibility for your body, mind and soul. It finds its way into your relationships and thought processes, slowly bringing you more into alignment with the divine source of all things and asking you if you might like to live fully, feeling that divinity every day. My answer is, yes, please!
For several years now, nearly a decade even, I have been having little synchronicities come in to my life that revolve in some way around Reiki. Sometimes it is just someone I know getting a treatment or overhearing someone in a café talking about Reiki, but always the mention of it seems to tweak something in my mind, somethings that says, “You should look into that. You should learn to give Reiki to others.” As this has occurred to me numerous times, I eventually attempted to get a Reiki Level 1 attunement. It was scheduled and fell through. I tried again more than a year later and that time I, myself, had to cancel. Weird. But, though I still wanted to make it happen, it fell to the back of my mind and there got trampled by other things in life.
What I have learned now, looking back on it, is that Reiki gets passed through different lineages and in different ways. You don’t want to get an attunement from just anybody. You want to get it from someone with the right kind of energy and mindset. It is also very important that you be at an open energetic state in your own life, because Reiki attunement realigns things in your own mind and heart…this can be a bumpy ride or an inspiring one, but you will most certainly be changed forever on the other side of it. Sometimes, when we are seeking Reiki, things are just not synched up enough yet. It will happen for you when the time is best.
My “happening” finally occurred in May of this year. It was everything I hoped it would be, surrounded by a magical group of people, healthy food, crystals, music and sunlight. I felt embraced, connected and loved. I was opened and learning occurred. So much joy and ease was in that space. Two lovely, talented ladies each gave me a Level 1 attunement that day and I still feel sisterly love with them and for them ever since. I am so grateful that I waited. That I took this time for me. That it was memorably the first day away from my new son, that my husband and son made sacrifices so it could become my new way. That the ladies made generous offers and traded energies with me. Such an amazing gift and just at the time in my life when I really needed a shift, a rebirth.
I am not saying that the way Reiki was given to me is the way that it can be, or should be, for everyone. My only point here is that what we need and when we need it will unfold in it’s own time. Reiki, as raw universal flow, cannot and simply will not be pushed or forced. That is the nature and beauty of Reiki. You don’t need to direct it or will it onward in order for it to heal…it is health, it is light and will flow to the dark and to the illness of its own accord. Blessings and love, gentleness and light. Period.
For me it came in and … Continue reading →
Fresh Channeling: The Law of Attraction
“A man is what he thinks about all day long.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century Essayist & Poet
This channeling is fresh, from my secondary guide Astra. Astra is ascended and has a unique way of keying into popular topics in order to deliver universal insights that are timely. This one is a little brief but very informational.
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I want to talk to you about the cause and effect of your thought upon your path. I can’t say that this is the “Law of Attraction” per se but is more like the law of opposites. What you think you make that is well known but what folks don’t recognize is the opposite truth that accompanies that: what you don’t think you don’t make. Don’t think about negative things and they will have a harder time manifesting in your life. The same is true for positive things.
Sometimes people say be in “the now” as if thinking about the future is a bad thing, or a waste of time. What is bad about not being in the now is the dwelling on the past. In your place and in your realm of existence the past is not changeable so why dwell on it? Sometimes you must face it and change it’s effects in your mind (if not in reality) in order to progress beyond some of its programming, but in general the past is just that…passed.
Back to the real reason for my visit to you today. The law of opposites is that you must be in the now, experiencing it fully, in order to maintain happiness but in order to make your tomorrow contain what joys you want it to contain you must think about it, you must empower it with positivity to call out to the universe your intent to have that positivity in your life. That which you don’t think about, and don’t empower, doesn’t happen.
It is the manner of your thinking about it that matters most… Don’t think “I want” don’t think “I need” just think “I will”. If you sit around in a brooding and longing fashion thinking about what you don’t have or what is impossible then it is impossible for you to have anything but continued longing, it is a wistfulness, almost like a nostalgia for the future if you get my drift. Nostalgia is a longing for what is lost, wistful longing is basically a longing for a future that you see as lost. Get it?
Instead think that exactly what you want to happen will happen. It is not just about thinking a thing and then it goes out and becomes an intention and the universe just delivers…it is about BELIEVING a thing, about putting the energy behind it that says “Here this is an intention already. Now, it WILL be.” And it is about not negating the thought with dismissal or banishment, “Oh that is basically impossible.” or “Gosh I doubt that will ever happen.” You do not get a beneficial response from the universe by challenging it to a duel. “I bet you can’t make this happen” will not get the universe to respond with “Oh yes I can, watch me.” The universe is highly evolved, far beyond your conceptualization and it is not a ten year old human child.
The universe has a creative life force tendency to ignore negatives, or more particular to turn them into positives but it is also unpredictable in how it applies this tendency. So speak to it in affirmatives, in positives and you are already on its wavelength, thus leaving more energy behind your thought to feed the intention and make it stronger.
I know that all that you can think, you can create. But working in a respectful way towards that universe, towards the life force and towards your own self is the best policy for achieving the best means.
The law of attraction is a only a part of a much larger set of concepts, of principles for creating absolute happiness, absolute spiritual achievement on this plane of existence. By understanding fully the whole of each concept, we as spiritual beings can better understand how best to function in a physical reality. The Kybalion gives you a more complete set of principles and if you wish to know more about how you are indeed a part of the divine whole, give it a read online.
Keep looking forward but keep being NOW, keep connecting to all life and what you desire will come. I guarantee it!
What Value Can You Offer the World?
“What is a cynic?
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”~ Oscar Wilde, 19th-century Irish Writer & Poet
I am so glad that self-development and spiritual-development are becoming more widely accepted topics, and that so many people are embracing the betterment of their lives through connecting with nature and their true souls.
Myself, I’ve been on this path for over a decade, you could say that I have been on it for my whole life, and I have experienced some fantastic changes and magical occurrences along the way.
That being said, I occasionally still find myself falling into the trap that many modern seekers do. The quest for money…the urge to master manifestation and spiritual thinking in order to create material prosperity.
This is not to say that thoughts of this nature mean that we are losing our spiritual achievements or that we are greedy, evil people of any kind. It is simply a true factor of a modern life.
In ancient times, when humans lived in small, manageable communities, staying in the same place for generations, there was more support for the spirit and the spiritual.
Spiritual leaders, the psychically gifted and those with metaphysical knowledge were honored by the community. These special community members acted as advisers, healers and intermediaries between the people and the spiritual realms. In return they were supported with food, clothing, shelter and love.
But those days and those community ties no longer exist for most of us. Thus it follows that we HAVE to be concerned with our own finances and how to get what we need in this world. The challenge is to learn to balance this with our spiritual development and spiritual outlook, without losing our focus and becoming myopically fixed on the “prosperity” issue.
Being a parent now, I am faced with this issue nearly everyday. You put yourself and aside and instead focus everything on the little being you are now trying to raise. Money does not go far, especially when you are trying to choose between providing the best for them in the present moment or saving for their educational and life expenses of the future.
Here I am, in one of the most historic and ecologically beautiful towns in Eastern Canada, fields and trails and ancient waterways all around me, and I am still worrying about paying the phone bill.
So, walking around with these very thoughts in my head yesterday afternoon, a line from a song that I was listen to caught my attention: “When did the light die?”
And at that very moment it occurred to me that with all of the planning and dreaming and … Continue reading →
