Week 4 Theme: Day 22: Stuck Energy

Day 22: Stuck Energy
   
Clutter is not just the stuff that spills out of drawers. It is any thing, or thought, that makes us feel off center and rattles our cage.

It is the limiting beliefs that cloud who we are.

It is stuck energy.

The theme this week is "Moving Stuck Energy."

I have been stuck this whole time of this course, at least in terms of actually doing clearing work.

I had been in a clearing process, coached by another space clearer. What I had created was this Sacred Home Keeping practice. Last Spring Equinox I declared that to have my home in the way I wanted it, by the Winter Solstice, it would take me 3 hours, 3X a week. I was playing with the gestational number 9. When I first declared it, my specific 1st task was to switch functions of 2 rooms--our bedroom and my studio (which I had let pile up that I couldn't walk through). I accomplished that task in the timeframe I said. I had created a future fulfilled and worked backwards to create my intentions & tasks & calendared it in. It really gave me a surge. I went in and out of keeping to my commitment after that. I did not complete the home as expected by December. While I did what I needed to do about being complete about that, I have to say I have found old patterns creeping up. For those of you familiar with moon phases and their impact, we are just coming out of the Capricorn New Moon (and into Aquarius moon) it's beeen a good time to make intentions for the new year. Capricorn provides structure and new moons are new beginnings. I have intentions that I plan to place this evening on an altar of abundance in the Feng shui tradition to allow my desires to manifest . Going for the highest good if how I want my life to be. The Universe/God, whatever your belief is pulling for us to clear our spaces so we have the best life possible. We are the ones we've been waiting for. This link may be helpful http://lisa-michaels.com/capricorn-new-moon-2016/

I just had an insight, though today as I looked at the initials, SHK, which stands for Sacred Home Keeping on my list, that has been going on my "to do" list about every day. This originally was a practice I created and was sacred and was magic and gave joy, as well as upleveled the house, was going downhill or out of existence.

As I looked over the initials SHK, what started to come to me was that this was short-hand for  Shekinah. The following  is what I found. In addition, there are her partner goddesses who fill out the acronym I created--Hestia, goddess of the Hearth and Kali, the Dark Mother the Destroyer.

I am in wow awe! Can't wait to work with you Shekinah, Hestia and Kali.

Days 18, 19, 20, 21 Check In � Cultivating Awareness

In the end, I think I like wearing my cats the most.

Even my husband finds the cat's pajamas.

This guy is pretty cuddly to wear on my lap.

 Days 18, 19, 20, 21 Check In � Cultivating Awareness

This week we used our second skin (our clothing) as a tool to help us shed some more light (and possibly even some outfits that we don't use or love).

What were some of your discoveries this week?

It might be helpful to remember that the focus is not about the clothes that don't fit or feel good. It is not about the stuff spilling out of the closet, nor is it about having a pristine one. It is not about the problem or the desired outcome.

It is how you relate to the experience - with no attachment. It is in the space between the problem and the solution where all the goodies are.

How did you relate to the experience?

I fell out a bit on really getting into this practice and doing it daily. Partly because I had pretty much done this exercise before. As I might have shared before, I have been on the clearing journey for awhile (as some of you probably have as well) Where the real issue is, is that all my clothes,  are mostly lying on the floor in a pile. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that and I know this is a forum where we get to let it all hang out.  I have made many attempts to sort them and then quit. The good part of this is that I have been losing weight, so some of these clothes may be too baggy. So I should be rejoicing! ..... Right? I could create a staging area of trying on, if I want, the clothes, and gratefully keep or store away. And part of the issue also is because I've done so much rearranging, and reassigning of rooms,  that I need to create my clothing area as workable. Maybe that's fun project to do today.

After all the exercises with touching my clothes, and considering if I want to keep them, and what qualities I want to feel in wearing them, I am aware of how much I appreciate our cats, Catness and Shalna; they don't have to worry about clothes. And the feel of their fur, their warmth, grace and ease, purrs and all, tells me how I want to feel in my clothes.

I'm starting to turn into a cat, starting with my feet.

Day 17 A-wear-ness process

Day 17 A-wear-ness process

Well, I made it to Day 17 as Stephanie says is the lesson you actually do something. 

As I held my green zip up pullover soft green sweater, I felt nostalgia, I felt its softness. I don't want to get rid of it until I look at the tag and see it's made of polyester. (!!) Right now I'm getting tired because I just started this 750 words online journaling thing that was suggested. I have already gone through my clothes. I am tired. I am tired. I am resisting. It is the end of a long busy day. So the green sweater is just okay, it doesn't spark a lot of joy, as the question asked in the exercise. So what else is "just okay" about my life, I ask myself. I also tell myself, I've sorted through my clothes already using this process. I am aware of tedium and the need to sleep. 

Day 16: A-Wear

Day 16: A-Wear

"Raise your (virtual) hand if you are wearing something today that you don't love, doesn't fit or feel good?

Yes, including underwear.

What just went through your mind just now?

Is it possible to allow the squirmy-ness - of judgment, guilt, embarrassment, shame - to simply arise without doing anything to fix or manage it?"


My clothes fit well and are comfortable. I love this lavender sweater which is also getting a little big as I lose weight. 

I love my new handcrafted felt shoes. 

 I am aware of my hair being messy and my head feeling slight uncomfortable pressures. It occurs to me that brushing it might make me feel better. :)

What goes through my mind now is I have most of my clothes lying on the floor from attempting a sort over the past almost MONTH! I pick it up and start again, then I stop. I have not carved out the space and adequate time to do this. That my clothes are currently comfy is maybe because I've set aside clothes I don't love or need (or are have become too big!) in the Goodwill bag.... which is sitting near the door downstairs! :[

The parental voice in my head says, "Why does it take you so long? You have a serious problem not getting to finishing what you started. You spent money on programs to help you get organized, and look what you do! You're regressing! You grew up cleaning house in our farm family of 13 kids. Why don't you do what you know how to do! YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER!"

The child self resists more and more going off into her digital world as the adult self festers and tries not to be so overbearing. But the adult really wants the child to grow up and have a good life because she has so much potential.

Will they talk, will they work together?

While I hand journal (in a lovely handmade journal!)I have entered my journalings into a blog I created where I like to keep all my writings together in one place and post photos or images. I invite you to look if that is helpful and might find yourself in it and/or contribute comments. http://enliveningenvironmentseverywhere.blogspot.com/2016/01/day-16-wear.html. In editing the photo (of me in my comfy felt shoes, I would normally cut out the clutter you see here, but for these purposes I leave it--the loose papers and undealt with boxes on my shelf....in the spirit of not fixing anything, and just letting it all hang out and not try to "look good". :)

I'm curious if others are blogging in this way and/or what digital systems of journaling you may use.

Day 15: Three Rs of Clearing

 Day 15: Three Rs of Clearing

"If I had to summarize in three words the essence of the clearing path as I've experienced it, it would be these: raise, release, reveal."-Your Spacious Self

"Clearing raises awareness. Clearing releases attachments. Clearing reveals a spacious part that has been there all along.
Any questions?
The theme for this week is "Cultivating Awareness."

I'm drawing a blank. Maybe because I have gotten out of my daily routine of clearing. I am already aware how my clutter stops me. I wonder if I'm spending more time reading all these comments, over doing the actual work of clearing. I have been in maintenance mode, rather than wiping out whole areas and being rigorous in ridding my space of cluttering things. I mentioned previously I've created cocoons of space I can step into, like my studio and my kitchen. And in my intentional clearing processes, over the past few years, I remember the radical transformation and magic from clearing. I realize how much I let myself get distracted and then I beat myself up. When am I going to get it?? Ahhh! Old habits and going unconscious return. As I am about to turn in for the evening, I hope for releasing my attachments to how I'm doing, surrendering to rest and the sun coming up for another day.

Day 14: Check In � Inviting Awareness

 Day 14: Check In � Inviting Awareness

"The focus this week was to begin the process of shifting out of "doing" mode into "being" (more of a witness) mode.
When we slowly "drip" compassionate awareness into any resisting pattern, or contraction, we create a tiny peephole of space that wasn't there before. This peephole becomes larger over time and opens up to a universe full of possibilities beyond our wildest imaginings.
What is your peephole revealing? What changes are you aware of after this second week?"

As I become aware, I become gut honest with myself--all my reoccurring patterns, as well as to see my progress. I become aware of my senses and my reactions, how I judge and clam up. And in noticing this, I develop compassion for myself and lightheartedness; gratefulness as well.

I haven't done a lot of clearing away. I have eased up a bit on judging myself for not having made more progress as I touch in on the forces that keep me stuck. What I am aware of are these containers of space where I exist. I feel more contentment in my kitchen and in my studio. I've shifted the way I handle the things that make up the space.

I am actually getting a peephole into developing my new life path and services I offer.

Day 13, Feel it all

Day 13, Feel it all

"The best way to release what isn't working for you is to enter that sometimes scary zone called feeling.
Feeling the overwhelm, resistance, attachment, guilt, despair, shame�
Feeling it all without judging it as good or bad, or taking it personally.
What are you feeling right this second? Is it possible to take one step back and observe what you're feeling?"

I'm feeling gratitude for my cats, my familiars. Catness likes to sit as my loyal guardian as I sit at my desk writing. Shalna likes to cuddle in bed with us.

As I take one step back and observe, I am aware of having created containers of place and time in my journey of space clearing and organization over the past few years. They are like protective auras or cocoons surrounding meas I focus on the task or practice at hand.

I am aware of the list I made today which is looking at what I resist and facing it directly. Period.

Then I become aware of my chattering mind that wants to divert my attention to something to google that came up in my mind. So what comes up is being distracted by minutia. Right now, the smell of bacon that my husband just fixed reminds me that I haven't had my green drink yet.

Back in the saddle having had my green drink. Right now, I'm about to meet my walking partner.

All these thoughts. Maybe I'll post at the end of the evening what I got.

Coming back later in the day today.

I created more areas of workability in my kitchen and my studio.

I had the opportunity to face directly what I am resisting. It came up in the sensation of pain flaring up in my right hip, a common occurrence for me.  I have also developed over the years a unique movement-massage therapy approach that irons out this problem. I have helped people and myself over the years with this. I have stalled from going the next step in putting this out there in a class. By intentionally creating a clear space in my studio, it provided a safe space for me to let go.

Day 12: Look Up

Day 12: Look Up
"Look up from this screen for a moment and scan the room you're in. What is one thing of beauty that calls your attention?"






The light shining on the East wall (shining on shoe racks I've been indecisive about) leads me to where it's coming from...
 --to the window of the door that shows me the sun about to set on this first day of the new year.

I am drawn to go for a walk as the sun sinks below a horizon turning a subtle salmon color.

 As I walk, I feel the tingling of the first feelings of winter's late arrival, a kind of refreshing slap in the face I welcome, a secure sense of the rightness of the four seasons that I've been used to, living in the Midwest. Thankful that the wonkiness of not-quite-winter has yielded to the briskness of this gift of a fresh start--for sharp focus to create, fulfill and dive deep this winter. On the horizon are new levels of clearing away and what it reveals. I welcome this new rhythm, this new pace, this new realm.

Day 11: What is Awareness?

"Awareness, as it relates to clearing in this course, is the ability to tune into and observe an experience with the five primary senses (smell, taste, touch, hearing, sight) and the sixth sense of inner knowing - in present time.

Feeling and witnessing a task or a stressful situation in the present moment does a magical thing: it releases stuck energy, quiets the mind, helps us detach more easily, and creates openings that weren't there before."


Today's lesson is an invitation rather than a "to do" to get out and practice it! Looking at clearing my space as an invitation rather than a dreaded obligation or a sense of overwhelm and then avoidance. Because it is in looking at the dread or overwhelm or avoidance, I get to tune into my senses as well.

Right now, as I notice that reaction, I smell the lovely lavender lingering on me somewhere, I taste the slight and pleasant aftertaste of a green smoothie I just had, I'm touching this cold keyboard on a cool overcast damp day, I hear the chimes in the wind, and I see before me my altar I created on my deep windowsill, sparkling subtly, realizing that I created this altar a few weeks ago as a way to clarify my intentions for the coming year.

I then can start to relate with gratitude for the home that shelters me and all of its contents and ask myself, why wouldn't I want to care for it and clear away the clutter. It has provided me with so much. Or, what if I took on being curious about my piles? Hah! Look at that curious little sculpture of willy nilly papers mixed in with some whatnot! How can I reassemble this? Hmmmmm. When I can look at my home space as an emerging sculpture that also functions for my life, I can get real creative and make it fun.

So on this last day of the year, I'm inspired to honor my space and it's contents, thank it and sweep away what's in the way and create clear pathways for the new year to come in. Then by tomorrow in the new year, I will set my intentions that I have been crafting and place them on by Abundance gua to give a charge to the year!

Day 10: Nothing to Do

Okay, this may be a spoiler for some of you if you have not reached Day 10. Or it may give those who want to get ahead on the days a glimpse into what's coming up (for better or worse!)

What is key for me in this exercise is that awareness is everything. It naturally causes a shift. No forcing, just observing. This is the source of causing deep change.

Day 10: Nothing to Do

What are you feeling right this second? Nothing to do but notice and allow all sensations to arise - without doing anything to fix or change them.

Are you aware of any sensations moving through your body?

Earlier when I did this exercise, I felt jaggedness, unevenness and chatter in my head. So I did yoga (and I was critical of the yoga teachers style on the video!) and still as I came back to this exercise here, I now feel even keel energy. Then a fluctuation into warm tears of gratitude for my family.

Your hands: are they hot? Cold? Prickly? Tingly?

My usually warm hands are a little cool on this overcast day, after days of rain and clouds. I am remembering burning my fingertips last night on a hot pan because I wasn't being aware and in the moment. So I realize I have trauma in my hands and why they are cooler than usual. As I bring all this into awareness, my hands start to warm up.

How's your breathing? Is it shallow, or deep? Is it tight or relaxed?

When I tune into my breath, it seems I am barely breathing. So then the little voice starts to judge and says BREATHE! I don't like that nazi voice telling me what to do! But when I notice that is how I perceive it, then I choose to take a deep breath like it is the most glorious gift I could receive!

Day 9 Clearing is not what you think.

Day 9 Clearing is not what you think.

The dialogue here is very rich. I also hear some confusion, frustration and impatience to get on with it,  going on among some of the new participants especially. Consider that it may be part of the design of this clearing program to allow to surface whatever is there for us anyway around decluttering.

These questions get me to see how I'm being in the matter, how I relate to my accumulation and disorder. If I go about fixing and anxiously or begrudgingly clearing my space, it brings on more disgust and shame, then avoidance, and then I'm back to where I started. It's kind of like getting caught  in the same old habits of abuse in a dysfunctional family or relationship.


I have been in the clearing process for a few years. For me, it's about having compassion and changing the context. My intent is to make my living space sacred in the way I tend to it, as if it were an actual living being, coming from gratefulness for the shelter over my head and the things that make my life function with ease and joy. It's about looking at the old habits, acknowledging them before moving on and establishing new ones. Stephanie, the founder, talks about this on her website. She gets down to our amygdalas and how we unconsciously go into fight, flight or freeze. How can we relate to our living space and their contents in way such that we are not doing battle with it? I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to relate to my space as a battleground!

If anyone wants a quick fix, Marie Kondo's Tidying Up book is one way to go. She'll whip you into shape if that's what you prefer. I suggest going to the website of the originator of this process we're in. www.spaceclear.com with Stephanie Bennett Vogt for more of a background or to get into more action, get tips, etc. But I assure you, she will have you looking more deeply than that. That's why I chose this.

And of course, if you're not happy, you can get your money back! I encourage you to just be with it. Are you using your journal to hash out your frustration and reading the helpful comments in this discussion?  I can bet you will discover something that will open a door for you to get "in action" in a new way.

Day 8: Awareness Changes Everything

Awareness is everything--from that, everything flows and the necessary actions become self-evident. In my awareness, I can see my self-sabotage and reoccurring patterns. Like being aware of debris on my path I walk or on the road I travel. When I see it, I can choose to swerve or altar my step, move it out of the way or choose and/or carve a new path. I find this course is about altering patterns at a deep lasting level so it is the a slow drip method that can create long-lasting results.

Yesterday I wrote about my loss of connection to my local community. In being aware of that and feeling into that, honoring with compassion however I was about that, I found later how much I really am connected. Had our big family Christmas gathering and cherished each interaction I have in the amazing family of which I am part in a new way. The moral of the story is, we are surrounded by abundant love, it is a matter of looking and being grateful, then more of the same shows up.

Right now as we go back to somewhat normal time, interholiday, I am aware of getting out of the loop of actual clearing and releasing, letting go. Creating abundance of clearing and thankfulness of the stuff so I can release it and send it to its appropriate place.

I want to start with this video from Stephanie Bennett Vogt, the originator of this course we are all in.

http://ayeartoclear.com/reduce/

Day 7: Check In � Departing

What is beginning to bubble up as you contemplate a yearlong journey of clearing?
Have you been aware of any revealing dreams, shifts, synchronicities, or ah-has since you signed up for this course?

This has established a rhythm of writing. The aha is that even though I have far to go in making my home harmonious and functionable the way I would like, I have come a long way and my life has been simultaneously unfolding. What is bubbling up is my awareness of being on a cusp of something about to emerge. Things closing, ending—the year 2015, various trainings and group processes; also my 1851 childhood home, where 5 generations of our family have now lived is being dismantled reverently piece by piece.

I also notice how I have built connections with people far and wide especially over the past year but also the past several years in the trainings and groups in which I've participated. I am present today to how something is lacking at the local level for me and my husband, a lack of intimacy and sharing that I have experienced not as present as with those I have established connection with in places farther than me. I am aware of the way people meet and/or stay in touch and build their lives through the cyberworld. My interactions have been through this cyber/phone way more frequently than the actual physical presence contact. I never dreamed this was coming 20 years ago! After tending a somewhat local venue last night, where we didn't actually know anyone and it was a disappointing event anyway, I am left feeling like a foreigner in my local area of my childhood and ancestral roots to which I have returned to 20+ years ago. Where is the balance? My husband and I have been living rather hermit-like the past several years as we deal with feeling our home is not up to entertaining others. (Previously, as an example of ecological building design and energy use, we were often open to the public for learning but we burnt out from the existence of going back and forth between living hermit-like and then being publicly known.)

Today we have my big family Christmas gathering--my 12 siblings and families and grandchildren. I choose to cherish the stability and steadfastness of my family of origin during this time, especially as our homeplace dismantles.

My niece has been posting pictures of the dismantling process of our family homeplace. I am remembering the new light shining through lined up in the doorways and windows on a picture taken near winter solstice. Generous sun pouring through the pinhole. Getting glimpses on on a pinpoint of light.

Day 6 – Can you imagine a life where there is no friction or resistance? What would it feel like?

If there were no friction or resistance, I would not be existing on earth plane. The tendency to resist will always be there; it is a matter of how I choose to respond and disappear or transform the energy of it. Maybe if I continually redefine the context of resistance, maybe one day I would wake up and say “Wow! I haven't been resisting for a month now!”

If there were no resistance, I would pick up my clearing process I have been doing at varying intensities in the past few years, as if it were a fun exhilarating daily practice, something I look forward to. I would jump out of bed and get started on it right away early in the day because I love to experience the tranformation.

With gratitude, curiosity and delight, I would regularly be looking at my bank account/s, planning and balancing my money and my life, creating space for more abundance and generosity, all wisely managed.

I would be grateful for my home and its contents, consciously place things where I can easily find them to use next time. For items that don't fit where they are or are no longer useful, I would thankfully move them in the direction of their final destination with love and compassion, yet firm resolve.

And finally, the big one, our attached greenhouse will be completely dismantled and reconstructed with grace and ease and be the missing link that transforms our home and our lives.

Being cluttered and disorganized, and victimized by my feelings and thoughts of shame, confusion and overwhelm would eventually dissolve as I simultaneously uncover my true life purpose which is found in the process of honoring myself in this moment by moment and daily practice of clearing space. One of the aspects of it seems to be about writing (Thanks Barbara Dean for confirming something I've known in the back of my mind.) Any need to declutter and be organized would become an instantaneous practice that takes less time.

Day 5 New You

Day 5 New You. Sometimes I deny the new self that is emerging because I see how much there is not accomplished of what I set out to "do". The critic comes in and tells me I'm lazy, I spend to much money on my self-development and what do I have to show for it? "Bad girl, you deserve lumps of coal in your Christmas stockings! You've been a lazy bum!" says some critical inner parental voice.

Like this morning, I look at my smartphone before getting out of bed, which I've been "trying to discipline" myself to avoid. I open yet another email from Daily Om (now I'm on their email list and get all this other great juicy personal development stuff to addict myself to!) I take the brain quiz, realize I have to get my lazy ass out of bed and weigh myself and to my surprise I have lost a few pounds and have gone below my current goal! Even during this holiday eating time and not doing as much exercise. I am at the lowest weight I've been in probably 15 years!

This reminded me of how many amazing accomplishments I have had in many areas of life this past year which are worth celebrating, all by adopting small practices in my daily life for my health and home environment and other areas. I think of Maya Angelou's quote (or is it Marianne Williamson or Nelson Mendela) that our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. I experience it as a dance between the dark and the light within me. Giving and receiving, the darkness and the light are one big infinity loop ∞. I choose to stand in and bask today in this gratitude and greatness, which ironically is very humbling. Today, I will play with this on this Christmas Day.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Day 4. What is Clutter?

Day 4. What is clutter? How does clutter show up in my life?

Clutter is my life, my achilles heal. It is the thing that can hold me back from fully living and I can let it cause shame and confusion like a dominating monster taking over my physical space, my cyber space and my head space. Yet until I face it head on with an open heart, put on my armor of compassion, acceptance and playfulness, I am able to embrace it as my palette for creation and discovery.

There seems to be 2 types of clutter I deal with, those which are the articles I interact with on a daily basis that go willy nilly in random landing places that I later have to dig through and find, digital doodads vying for my attention, and the other category are artifacts of the past, accumulating like flotsam and jetsam in some corner or box or covered up by old quilts taking up space or floating in cyberworld.

I call it Being on an Archeological Dig through the Treasure (or is it Treacherous) Chest of My Life. Every day, I get to create newly my context as this crafty monster (which is an opinion about it all that really resides inside my head!) is always finding ways to defeat me, distract me or say it's useless.

Today on this Christmas Eve Day, the sun shining brightly, I will make merry, go for an initiating walk, come home, put on Christmas music, make beautiful smells occur with essential oils and honor the space, creating harmony out of chaos, open to the cheer of the season when sometimes I'd just rather jeer. I'm getting the imaga of the transformation of the Grinch, write now. ;}

I have come to accept that my relationship to clutter is like a sacred wound, as Rumi says “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” I am learning to invite this journey as exhilarating. Just in the writing of this I have entered a new space. Gosh, I'm finding my unintended puns and typos that I'll just let be, like achilles heal (heel) and imaga (image) and write (right) now.

Earth Day when we focus on our Environment!

Today is the official Earth Day, when we are focusing on our Environment.  One definition of  Environment is "the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded". In caring for our environment, doesn't  it make sense to start with what is right there in front of you?  

Do you ever look around you and have constant reminders of a project not finished (or started), or finding yourself wishing for more more harmonious or comfortable surroundings, or that you have yet procrastinated in letting go of something in your space. And around and around goes the vicious cycle.

Enlivening Environments Everywhere is process and support for moving you in action to create the environment and state of being you desire and then noticing how your world begins to shift. Here is the basic process:

1. List 5 things you want to shift or move in your environment.
2. What state of being or outcomes do you want to create that would be satisfying? 
3. What actions come to mind that move your forward?
4. Set your timer for an hour and go to it.
5. Then come back here and post what you did and what opened up for you.
6. And come back in a day or two or week if something else opened up in your life.

NOTE: Through the end of April, anyone who participates in this game of Enlivening your Environment through the blog will receive $10 off any Massage or Bodywork session by yours truly, Mary Meyer, LMT to experience enlivenment in the environment of your health and well-being! 812-212-9673 www.facebook.com/pages/Massage-Bodywork-of-Oldenburg

Why Enliven Environments & do it in Partnership?

So why have I created this blog, this invitation to Enliven Environments Everywhere Everyday?

What's important for me is to live in a harmonious way with Planet Earth, down to the very way I live everyday. This has been so important to me that I met a man who believed the same way and we co-created a green-friendly (strawbale)  home that is off-the-grid using solar power. For 10 years, we had open houses in our home as a model of living lightly on the land, and others have been inspired by our unique lifestyle. We have lived in this home for 16 years.

In addition, I have been a Feng Shui Practitioner and Massage Therapist, the first dealing with environmental harmony in the home and the second about creating harmony in the tissues of your body.

Do you ever notice there is a direct correlation between being in surroundings where projects are undone and being blocked from having as fulfilling of a life as possible. When I identify my conversations in the back of my mind that stop me, I can then create an empowering affirmation. Then from there, I can then move things around, get to projects, and other areas of my life open up.

What I identified as the missing ingredient was creating partnerships with others. Otherwise, we can talk ourselves out of things. These partnerships create a kind of accountability. This is based on the  setting up a NITT practice (see previous posts for what a NITT is) in our own environments simultaneously, then check back and see what opens up in our spaces & in our state of being. For me what has opened up is more vitality, aliveness, or... suddenly I have a new massage client calling or something gets worked out in a relationship. I have the motivation to complete things with ease.

I know harmony in our environments is a concern of many people. We want to move things in a positive direction in our lives, but either consciously or unconsciously have something in our environment holding us back.

Take a look around you.

• What inner conversations comes up about anything you see around you, pleasant or unpleasant?
• What state of being or outcomes do you want to create that would be satisfying?
• List 5 things you want to shift or move in your environment
• Set your timer for an hour and go to it.
• Then come back here and post what you did and what opened up for you.
• And come back in a day or two or week if something else opened up in your life.

NITT...The basic practice for WEEEE - We Enliven Environments Everywhere Everyday Now is NITT (Now Is The Time) as the main practice which consists of working in partnerships in a given time getting to that which you’ve been putting off that involves a check-in process that keeps us in the game to get results. Here are the basic steps...

1. Contact a partner to create or me. (this can be done at any point in the process.)
2. Look around your environment.
3. What jumps out as something to get to that you've been intending to take care of but haven't
4. What is the conversation/s around that?
5. Reach out with your hands as if it were just a gigantic mirage and move the whole mirage over to the side and notice
   
• What is now there in the space?
  
• What is the new possibility?
  
• What do you see as coming to you in your life?
  
• How will your space look in an hour?
• It can be fun to say, if it comes to you, that you are being something that captures the overall theme of what you're doing, ie. taking care of whatever is on the floor--Today, I am a Floorist!)
  
6. List 5-10 one-word descriptors of the things/actions to take care of.
7. Set your timer for one hour
8. Go to it!
9. Contact your partner or report on the blog what got accomplished.

 Ready, get set.....

We Enliven Environments Everywhere--Everyday!

I invite you into WEEEE!  Transforming and recreating our environments in which we live & work  as graceful, functional, alive!  The spaces we occupy are a  self expression of the lifestyles we choose and are simultaneously a sanctuary, a gathering place, and space for harmoniously being about the practices of daily living that we create. Those choosing to participate have find themselves being at peace with what is so and new sources of income, community, vitality, self-expression and productivity open miraculously. 


Want to play?