Is Your Home Keeping your Ego Happy?

One of the keys to moving through times of transition and making the most of them is to create inner spaciousness.

This is what Eckhart Tolle writes about - removing the clutter from your life, whether physical, mental or emotional - anything that stops you being fully present in each moment.

Clutter and chaos will keep your head very busy - and that means your ego will feel right at home. And your ego’s job it to stop you creating space for inspiration and change.

Do you have a room of your own? A room you can’t wait to come home to? A room that nurtures your soul and inspires you to dream?

Over the years, many of my clients have created such a room for themselves.

One client had a home office that felt stagnant and uninspiring. She was ready for a change in her life so she set about removing everything from the room. She cleaned and cleared the energy there and took some time to choose perfect color. For some time she didn’t move anything back in - it felt so good to just sit in that room and feel the spaciousness. Going to that extreme allowed her to really drink in the new energy and be very deliberate about what she allowed back in.

From that space her new business was born. Gone is her ‘temporary’ fill-in office work. Now she’s following her passion.

It’s amazing what happens when your environment is working with you, not against you. Suddenly all those blocks are gone and you start attracting opportunites and people to support you. By creating space to breathe you are then able to notice the synchronicity that’s all around.

When you are surrounded by clutter you feel bogged down, lethargic and definitely uninspired.

Tips for creating a space that inspires you
Read the rest of this entry »

Quilts by Karen

Continuing Creative Tuesdays, Karen Harlan is another member of the Clutter Busting Coaching Circle who’s up to creative things.  This is what she said about her art.

About 35 years ago, as a newlywed, I was in a new community and signed up for a quilt class to, obviously, learn how to make a quilt and to make new friends. In the class I made a Log Cabin block and a crazy quilt block (both of which I still have and still love). I was very excited about the possibility of making more blocks except other things in life quickly took precedence. Then, about two years ago, I saw an advertisement for a beginning sampler quilt class, decided it was a good time to join, and after the first class, I was hooked . . . again!

I love shopping for fabric . . . there are so many beautiful fabrics from which to choose. Plus you can never have too much fabric. And I love being at the sewing machine putting the pieces together. There is a feeling of peacefulness when I’m sewing. And I would much rather be playing with fabrics than doing housework or cooking! Of course, it is always exciting when the work is completed. Read the rest of this entry »

How Green are YOUR habits?

Here’s our regular Saturday detoxing, decluttering, greening feature.

 Check this out! 

United States came in last in the National Geographic Green Habits survey!

Brazil and India tie for the highest Greendex score for “environmentally sustainable consumption.” They are followed by consumers in China, Mexico, Hungary and Russia.

If you’re in Canada, don’t feel too smug.  Canada was right next to US with the second worst environmental habits. 

You can read the report here.

 And if you want to find out exactly how YOUR personal green habits compare with your country’s results, there’s a great survey you can take.  Get your score and you’ll also pick up some tips to improve it.  Take the survey here.

What will YOU do?

What’s your guilty little secret?

Do you have an addiction?

Could be food, checking emails, watching TV, or perhaps shopping? Not to mention even more harmful things.

An addiction is anything you use to avoid feeling your feelings.

It seems our whole society is getting busier and busier and everyday we becomes more wired - in more ways than one. And that means being less connected to ourselves and Spirit. Being open to inspiration and who we really are becomes an even greater challenge.

This is how we sabotage ourselves and build up a resistance to what we say we want.

For example: want to eat more healthily and lose weight? Sounds pretty easy, right? Just use a bit of will-power and it’ll be done.

It doesn’t quite work like that. This is why diets don’t work. If you’re carrying around extra pounds it most likely means you’re taking in more food than you’re using up. Which means you’re eating when you’re not hungry - to avoid feelings. Food has become an addiction.

Food has been an addiction for me ever since I can remember. In the early 80’s I joined compulsive eating groups in London and broke the binge/diet cycle. But still, most of the time I ate I was not actually hungry.

After leading a teleseminar, whenever things got sticky, whenever I wanted a break, when I didn’t know what to do with something, when I was in the midst of writing my newsletter….. before I knew it I’d be in the kitchen putting something into my mouth.

And in recent times, even though I had released my extra pounds and I now loved my body for the first time ever, there was still this little addiction issue niggling at me and I had no idea how to get myself unhooked from it. I could no longer aviod my guilty little secret: I was addicted to food and I was using that to sabotage myself.

I’ve come a long way from that place and for the first time in my memory I am mostly only eating when hungry - and it feels great. So freeing.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned that may help you too:
Read the rest of this entry »

Henna Tattoos by Katy

Katy DeBra is another member of the Clutter Busting Coaching Circle who’s creativity has caught my eye.  I wanted to share what she’s up to as it’s quite different.

This is what she says about it:

For the last 4 years I’ve been doing henna tattoos, glitter tattoos and facepainting. I started out looking for additional part-time work to supplement my decorative painting business. I had taken to combing ads on CraigsList and the internet for anything that looked interesting and found someone who got me started through CraigsList. I work for her primarily (www.catconner.com) and am now starting to book some of my own events. About 10 years ago in New York City, I worked for an event entertainment business as a producer and office manager, so I was already familiar with the business in general. Cat gave me some materials to try out. I took to it like a fish to water. The paints were easy to work with, and henna designs are like how I’ve doodled my whole life. Biggest difference is that people move a lot compared to walls, so I had to work much more quickly. Being a former dancer, I love wearing costumes and the performance aspect of it also. 

Mainly, I work at events: parties of all kinds, baby showers, corporate events, store openings, etc. Occasionally, I do them privately, and henna for my friend’s bellydance troupe. I’ve tried renting booths at fairs, but that hasn’t been lucrative at all. 

The significance is in the eye of the person getting the tattoo. Many times they are for fun and entertainment. Some people like the idea of being marked or try out permanent tattoo designs. If a person has a wish that it be more symbolic, I put that intention into doing it. For a tattoo that symbolizes good health, for example, I send a wish and intention to support that person as I do it. For a baby shower, I did a lotus flower henna design on the mom-to-be’s belly as a symbol of peace, harmony and perfection. She visualized the image of the lotus flower opening while she was in protracted labor. Not the original intent, but so wonderful that it helped her at that time. 

I do them because I love and enjoy them, and as a way to make art that truly connects with people. They love to pick out designs and colors or come up with their own idea. It has also become an important part of my business–about 1/3 of it. I love making a living doing what I love, and I love doing many different things. When I do them on myself, it is a luxurious act of self-care. I just started doing henna on the palm of my hand in that vein. Since I do so much with my hands, I didn’t want to not be able to use one while it dried. Now I see it as an opportunity to relax and rest and appreciate all they do for me.  Read the rest of this entry »

Desperately seeking Susan or Fred or Jane or……..

One of the reasons it’s hard to let go of stuff is that we’re conditioned to want more.  That’s how our consumer society functions.  I read this week that two thirds of the economy of the United States is dependant on consumer purchases.  No wonder at all turns you’re encouraged to want more.

And to get you to want more, you’re told it will do all kinds of things for you.  You’ll look good, keep up with the neighbors, gain security or respect etc.

It’s easy to come to see ’stuff’ as being part of your identity.

Trouble is, all this stuff keeps you distracted from the real you.  It keeps you stuck in the past, and stops you being present in your life.  Which means it’s hard to feel passionate or inspired about anything very much.

Take a look at this photo - if this was your garage how would you feel?

Would you perhaps feel a tad overwhelmed?  Would you perhaps compensate with another addiction to stop feeling what you’re feeling - perhaps watching TV or eating or even more shopping?

While you’re looking for more purpose, for a greater sense of self, know that it’s been there all along, just hidden beneath an identification with things. 

So, what is keeping you distracted from your magnificent SELF? 

What’s one thing you can disconnect from today?  Perhaps something you’ll let go of? 

Perhaps a garage full of stuff?  Perhaps a habit like eating for reasons other than hunger?  Perhaps some mind numbing television?

 One thing’s for sure - looking for your self in things or eating or television or anything else you do unconsciously means you’re looking in all the wrong places!

Transitions Part 2: Lifting the veil

No sooner than I had started talking about transitions and being between the worlds, than I heard Eckhart Tolle refer to being between the ego and consciousness as being between the worlds. Same thing really.

I feel like I’ve been living A New Earth for the last 9 weeks as I followed along with Oprah’s world wide web experience. One week to go! And I have a feeling this is just the start as I integrate this material.

We humans often feel hugely uncomfortable when we find ourselves in that unknown place between letting go of the past (and the ego) and watching for the new to make itself known.

And resisting this just delays our journey.

Being in this space between the worlds is an incredibly fertile time - and one worth making the most of. This gift does not come along every day.

When I was 21, I spent 9-months hitch-hiking around South America with my brother who was a couple of years younger. This was unheard of for a couple of New Zealand kids in those days. The only thing we knew was that we’d spend approximately 6 weeks in each country. So off we went - starting in Panama and ending up in Chile. The six weeks in each country part I suspect was so we could give our parents and grandparents some idea of which Post Offices to send letters to.

This was an adventure. There was no way we could come back unchanged. We followed our instincts, met up with other travelers for varying lengths of time, wandered off into the unknown at every turn, had amazing experiences and some others we never told our parents about. We had no idea what was next - our Spanish was minimal and we had the time of our lives - all on $2 a day each, including ‘hotels’.

Compare this with taking a package tour where you know exactly where you’ll be at every moment - if it’s Monday it must be France, right? You could be anywhere - every hotel looks the same. Everything is predetermined. You come back pretty much the same person you left home as. No unknowns or space for the challenges that are the stuff of personal growth and deepening relationships.

OK, I know this works for some people and there is nothing wrong with making this choice. It’s just a different way of being.

But, its similar to the inevitable places of transition that are the stuff of life. Between the worlds, it’s easy to resist the not knowing. It’s easy to wish for the package tour version of life - how tempting it is to go seek out a psychic. ‘If only I knew what was next’ plays over and over in your head. That place of nothingness is one uncomfortable place to sit. It’s easy to lose the sense of adventure about your life.

Having been immersed in A New Earth experience this last few weeks I became aware I had gone from not only resisting the unknown, but on to resisting my resistance. And of course my ego was having a field day. Shouldn’t I be ‘doing’ something? Read the rest of this entry »

SoulCollage : a tool for transformation

There’s no telling what’s going to appear when you declutter and detoxify your life.

One of the things that’s come to me recently is SoulCollage.  It’s become a very powerful part of my life, and something I’m very passionate about.  Combining my love of all things visual, my passion for journaling and my enthusiasm for self discovery, I’ve been exploring this aspect of my creativity for a few weeks now.

SoulCollage is a process created by Seena Frost as a way to honor and explore different aspects of ourselves.  My favorite way of creating soulcollage cards is to intuitively select images that feel they go together. Sometimes this is fairly fast, sometimes the images sit together for a few days - I keep walking past them and moving them around till they feel ‘right’ and at some point it’s as if the images speak to me and say ‘that’s it - glue me down, I’m done’.

Then comes another exciting part - journaling and having the different parts of the completed image speak to me and tell me what they have to give me. 

Already I can see this is a deeply transformative process - and I love it.  While deeply personal, within the SoulCollage community we do get to share our cards with each other and often others’ questions and comments add to the depth of my understanding of that aspect of myself.

I can see these cards could be used as Feng Shui enhancements and Law of Attraction tools as well.  This process has also become part of my daily self-care.  The more we do what lights us up, the more we connect with who we really are.

And I love it that these cards can be used for readings - perhaps I’ll be using my Runes less.  Set an intention or ask a question and discover what the cards tell me.   It’s fascinating.

Anyone else out there doing SoulCollage or something similar?

Transition: Navigating the Still Waters Between the Worlds

Change whether by choice or circumstance can be both exciting and scary.

Perhaps you set a powerful intention for yourself, you made space in your life for that to happen and you found yourself letting go of something that no longer worked for you. It could be a change in your relationship(s), it could be a career change, a change in where you’re living or maybe a change in the way you’re being.

And now you feel like you’re between the worlds - in that disconcerting place of nothingness before the new arrives. You’re in the process of letting go of the old, and perhaps feeling some fear about what this means. You could be feeling empty, confused and perhaps even fearful. However long this time of not knowing takes - it feels like too long.

It helps to remind yourself that this is what’s supposed to happen. Just as when you plant a seed, there is a time where it looks like nothing is happening. Then in its own good time, you see something new emerge.

William Bridges in his book Transitions talks about the three stages of life change. They are: ending, neutral zone and a new beginning. And without the neutral zone there is no real change. The neutral zone is where you reinvent yourself and and it’s usually this part of the change process that throws you off your stride. But one way or another this transition time is an essential part of transformation.

And this is where Eckhart Tolle’s words about being in the now are so powerful. Your ego will no doubt start screaming. Whether you’re letting go of the old or navigating the unknown waters of what comes before the new, your ego will have a lot to say and can create a major distraction and make you doubt the wisdom going for more in your life.

Here are some suggestions to help navigate this transition period.

Read the rest of this entry »

Walking the labyrinth - at home

 I’ve been inspired by the creativity emerging from members of the Clutter Busting Coaching Circle.  I asked Teresa Gagne to share her labyrinths with you.  It’s wonderful to hear she’s found a demand for these to be used as healing tools - no need to get out and physically walk the labyrinth - that might not be possible for many.   She has a blog coming - check back here very soon for a link to it.

Teresa says: Inspiration for these labyrinths came from the large labyrinths made by my good friend, Oriol Dancer. “Going to the centre” while walking these labyrinths, with no chance of getting “lost” was a comforting and meditative experience. I had thought of making finger labyrinths and the nudge came when a gallery owner requested some. Recently a sleep disorder clinic and a special education teacher have asked for labyrinths as well. Being of service by making a relaxing, healing, de-stressing meditative tool is one of the pleasures of working with clay.

These classic Cretan seven circuit finger labyrinths are made with stoneware clay and glazes that “break” over the ridges. I roll out a thick stab of clay and press it into a cellulose-clay mold that I made. While I’m putting the “finishing touches” on them, I try them out - which is my favorite part. To prevent warping, the labyrinths are dried slowly between two boards. They are fired once to transform the clay into ceramic and then the labyrinths are dipped into a glaze and fired to over 1200 degrees Celsius.

Clay is a powerful tool for me. It grounds me, helps me find my centre and connects me to the Earth as well as to countless generations of potters. Clay is malleable, responsive and reusable. These liberating qualities encourage spontaneity and experimentation. With a playful approach, I embrace a “try it and see” attitude. The profound sense of freedom when I work “with” the material is invigorating. I engage in the process, channel the flow of creativity and experience a deep sense of satisfaction.

The joy and satisfaction I receive from my work is many-faceted. Ceramic vessels have been made for ritual, function and ceremony throughout history. I am honoured to carry on this ancient tradition. During the process and through to the result, I learn about my craft and about myself. I am grateful to be doing what I love.

Being a member of the Clutter Busting Coaching Circle has supported my spontaneity. Along with Vicky’s encouragement and gentle nudging, seeing what the other members are doing in their lives and art practice continues to be inspiring and supportive.