Home Clutter
Many homes are overstuffed, and even the ones that are not have way more than what they need to work and run efficiently. Working with people and their home clutter, I realized the biggest issue was where to start. All the stuff is so overwhelming, it is just easier to shut the door and walk away, but forget- we can’t. The clutter is always somewhere in our minds, like an annoying fly buzzing around saying ‘deal with me, deal with me.’ When we work with our home clutter, we are not just working on the obvious, which is our stuff, but also our beliefs, thoughts, feelings and behaviors, especially as it relates to our past and future. The home is merely a reflection on what is happening in the soul.

Clearing our homes of unwanted clutter is a great place to begin to clear the unwanted energies everywhere else. It can be a simple process once we decide we are ready to deal with it. Look at it as therapy- as you unearth and remove or transform each artifact you are also doing the same with a thought that no longer serves you. I won’t spend a lot of time here, but is there a space in your home right now that is troubling you? When you think about it do you get tense? If so, make a date on your calendar; carve out some time to deal with the clutter. Just by doing this simple act you begin to open the door to say to the clutter- ‘hey, I see you. I know you are here, and I accept you.” This act alone makes the clutter not seem so overwhelming. Once you have the date, your unconscious mind will begin to prepare you for the unearthing process.

Once you begin to unearth, keep a journal with you, keeping track of insights and discoveries along the way. Our stuff says a lot about who we are, where we have been, and even where we wish to go. As you go through your stuff, allow your inner compass to be your guide, checking in energetically with each thing. What resonates? What doesn’t? What serves you now? What can’t? Anything of question let it go. You will feel better when it is done, a space, which was not present in your mind and in your home, now is. In that space infinite possibilities await you and your home.

Body Clutter
“Massage, along with fresh air, good food, baths, music, rest and visits with friends is
key to treating disease.” ~Hippocrates

I am a former massage therapist and there was a saying in the massage world that the ‘issues are in the tissues.’ The most common discomfort from those I would see was neck and shoulder pain. Much of this is caused from the way we hold our bodies because of the way we view the world around us. We are not sure of the world. We don’t trust it. We are not sure of ourselves. We don’t trust us. We also don’t understand our own bodies and how they work. In all of this mistrust, we miss the knowledge that everything within us and around us has a rhythmic flow; therefore we don’t have to ‘control’ or think
about any of it. It is just there, doing what it does.

Because of this mistrust of the world, our bodies and ourselves, we hold ourselves tightly. We have lost the flexibility we once had when we were young and did trust. Now we are stiff and solid, when truly we are loose and fluid. We also are not active many of us are sitting for hours at computers, and then go home and sit on the couch to watch television. Our lives have become so serious, and we put ourselves under a great deal of pressure. We have lost our inner lightness, and this makes its way into our tissues.
When we hold ourselves tightly we stop breathing naturally and deeply. Instead we are breathing shallowly, our breath moving up to our chest.

I know for myself, I notice this all too often. My glutes are tight, as if I am trying to stop the flow of my life by tightening up my butt checks. When they are tight, I cut off the supply of energy to my belly, and my breath then moves up into my chest, instead of staying in the belly where it belongs. This causes my shoulders to move up to my ears, and my neck becomes stiff. When I notice this, I bring my attention to my breath, moving it deeper down into my belly. I also believe our bodies pay a price because of our busy and active minds. We are rarely in the moment. If we are hanging out with future thoughts we will notice our head is pushing forward, as if we are trying to get to next place, because in our minds we are. The constant pushing and stress creates tension in our muscles and when this happens they begin to spasm, and over time these spasms create knots. If we have knots, which most of us do, this means our muscles are always on and working. Isn’t this sad? For most of us, our muscles rarely, if ever get a break.

Massage or other forms of bodywork can help alleviate the constant pressure and tension. By receiving work on a regular basis our bodies will be taught another way to behave. They will be given the opportunity to go back to their natural state, which is to rest when we are at rest and to work when we are actually working, and not just sitting and thinking about all the work we have to do. Over time, after giving our bodies this relaxing opportunity through bodywork, they will tell us when it is time to just be. Warm baths, breathing techniques, exercise and eating well will also serve the purpose of clearing the clutter that accumulates regularly in our bodies.

Some thoughts on eating well
There is a lot of information present about what we should and should not eat- a lot of it right and worthy. However, meaning nothing but stress and confusion if we don’t know what is right for our own bodies. As with the clutter in our house, when we investigate food- we must check within- does it resonate or not. Will this food help us or not. When I began writing this book, I gave up sweets. Before this I noticed myself during a three-month period eat more sugar than I have ever seen myself eat. I never judged it. I jut watched it, almost being intrigued by my consumption. I watched an episode of Oprah where Dr. Oz was talking to smokers. As I listened to them I knew I was no different in my addiction to sweets. Dr. Oz told them to pick a quit date, and I did the same with sweets. I asked myself what would be a good date, and the voice said March 10, and I wrote it on my calendar. In doing so my mind was preparing itself to quit and on March 9, instead of hoarding my ‘last’ piece of dessert, I didn’t even want any. It is two months and I still have not had sweets.

I have been vigilant that I do not get into the place of willpower, where I make it some Olympic event- oh, look at me- how strong I am. I can give up sweets. Instead, especially when I crave something intensely, I get real. For instance, at a friend’s house were ‘ooey-gooey’ chocolate caramel bars. I really wanted one, and told myself if it meant that much than I would, but I realized I would not be able to have just one, and even if I did have just one, I would think about having another one for the rest of the day. The mental distraction wasn’t worth it to me, so I chose consciously not to have one, and the craving soon passed.

There must be deeper reasons why we give up things in order to really give them up. Deeper reasons can be health. For myself, as I get older and notice my hormones, I want balance. Another reason is energy. I wanted to use my energy on more meaningful pursuits instead of using it to assimilate and process foods I know aren’t good for me. During this time of no sweets, I realized their meaning in my life. My life had become dull and bitter. Eating sugar was something I could look forward to and could literally help sweeten up my life, but what I began to notice by not eating sugar is life is much sweeter without it. I remember going to a restaurant and ordering iced tea. I asked for sweetener, but the server forgot. I didn’t bother to ask for it, and drank it without it. I realized it was okay, and actually for the first time I tasted the tea and not the sugar. Could it be sugar was a barrier between the experience of life and myself? I want to experience life in its fullest, barest expression- without all the fixings.

Emotional Clutter
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.” ~Rumi

Many of our problems stem from our resistance and fear of emotions. We don’t allow feelings through us. We often don’t like them around us. We resist them when they come like they are bad, forbidden fruits. In our current culture there is little to no space for feelings. They are in our way. In our highly industrialized western minds they are not necessary. They take up space and are a waste of time. Because of this we spend a lot of time and energy denying that we are feeling, breathing beings with expansive and beautiful souls.

But deny them, we might; feelings are a part of us. We are not however what we feel, but we must acknowledge what we do feel. A friend of mine just said, that feelings are God’s doorbells. They are indicators of where we are energetically in our journey to becoming, an invitation to go deeper within ourselves. Feelings are within, often deep within and when they surface it is our opportunity to seize them and after awhile get to know them, opening up to them and before we know it no longer resisting them, and just allowing them.

One way I have found to work with my feelings is journaling. There is a process to journaling that I have discovered. It begins with a problem or something that is bothering me. I often have a need to see it, and get it out of my system, so pen and paper call my name. As I write what I am experiencing, I begin to get in touch with another part of me, which wants relief from the intensity of the emotions. Once I tap into that part, I begin to receive insights and inspiration that bring light and wisdom, and soon
there is resolution to what is was I began with.

What is your reoccurring emotional theme? Do you have the courage to look at it and ask what it may be telling you about yourself, your life, what you need, and what you no longer need? Try this for yourself. When something is bothering you, begin to write it down, even if it seems boring and meaningless. Then begin to trust through this process there is a part of you that does want relief, and this part of you can facilitate the awakening of this issue for you so you can move beyond it. Allow the process to unfold onto the page for you.

Some More Thoughts about Feelings
The emotions are one place where we can really get stuck, especially for women. Recently, I found this true for myself. I noticed no matter how much work I did within myself I would get stuck in an all too familiar emotional space, especially during my premenstrual period. This became clear while I read Echkart Tolle’s book, A New Earth, where he talks about attachments, and mentioned emotions. He didn’t say anything in depth about them, at least that I remember, but the light bulb went on and I knew I had attached myself to being an emotional being.

In fact, I would often say to people, especially my husband, who I have deemed as being emotionless: “ I am an emotional person, and I am glad I am. I have emotions and I am keeping them. It is much better than walking around not feeling anything (like you).” As you can see being an emotional being held a lot of pride for me, and with Eckhart’s statement I was able to see how attached I really was to my emotional existence. I would say it was my existence. I would wake up every morning and scan my emotional well, and say to myself: ‘Okay, how am I feeling- well not that great, which means the day won’t be so great. I just don’t feel enthused or inspired, therefore the day will suck. How will I ever make it through the day.’

My whole day, my entire existence was dependent upon how I felt at any given moment. If I did not feel good, then that moment sucked. If I did feel good, well then I would try and hang onto it, thinking finally I have arrived at some great place and I will not leave- ever. Well, needless to say I always left. This is when I realized the challenge, not just for myself but also for many women. Could this be why we have yet to hear of a fully enlightened woman? Let’ see we have Jesus, The Buddha, and I am sure countless others- all men, but where are the women? Probably stuck in some emotion. (I am being a little funny here).

Part of my pride about my emotional existence was also my fear if I gave up being emotional it would mean I wouldn’t care, and a large part of what I like about myself is my ability to feel and empathize with others. Why on earth would I want to let this go? What I found, through the process of letting go of my emotional existence, is I have not lost that part of myself at all. I just don’t think it is me anymore. As Eckhart says, I am the witness, or the awareness that sees the emotions. I am not the emotion itself. I also like the way I have heard Buddhists speak of the emotions- they are like clouds passing along the blue sky. We are the sky and the emotions are the clouds. To grasp onto each cloud as it passes is suffering- or what they call samsara.

Be aware of what emotion you get stuck in. Is it possible this reincarnated emotion serves or feeds you in some way? Gives you existence? Identity? Could this emotion be God’s doorbell, asking you to go deeper? What is more important that you be at peace- or that you feel alive through an emotion that is not serving you? Delve deeper and be willing to let go of the formless clouds and be the sky that you are.

Mind Clutter
We can say that all of the clutter we have already talked about begins here- in the mind. We are constantly dealing with a slew of thought forms emanating at us from all over, often lower levels of consciousness, many times from our own family and friends. I have heard it said we have dominion over so many things, yet we do not in our own minds, which means we have it nowhere. The Buddhists call mental chaos the “monkey mind.” Much of what we will be discovering on our journey together will be our belief patterns and thought structures, which take up space and bring disorder and disharmony.

Meditation is a way to begin the mental de-cluttering process. Through the discipline a space is created between the thought and the behavior. This space offers awareness and insight so we can change our mental patterns and structures, therefore how we behave.

Relationship Clutter
Many of us have relationships we no longer need, or ones we don’t understand and need to take to the next level of being. I could write an entire book, and probably will on my own relationship with my husband about this. This relationship has gone through so many deaths and rebirths, it exhausts me just to think about it, but they were all necessary in order for us move to the next level of consciousness. In fact we are in a shift right now and who knows if together we will last. When our relationships need a shift and we resist they begin to feel like dead weight and they literally do weigh on us, and whether we know it or not take up a lot of soul space, and a lot of energy.

Take an inventory of your relationships. When you think of them, is there one that causes a gripping or a pulling sensation in your gut? Do you grit your teeth and become anxious and hostile? Is there someone in your life you have difficulty being with? Would it help to write a letter to this person and tell them how you feel? Maybe you don’t need to send it, but just write and see what this relationship’s meaning is for you? Maybe you do need to let it go. Sometimes no matter how much we want a relationship to work, it just doesn’t. Or maybe the relationship just needs new eyes to look upon it. Is forgiveness an option for these new eyes to appear? Acceptance?

I have found letter writing to be very helpful. When we begin to pay attention to the relationships in your life, they will automatically take on new meaning and often they will do what they are going to do. Every transformation I have made I have always lost relationships, but is it a loss? We can honor what we had, thank it and move on. It might actually feel like a relief.

Investigate now the relationships in your life. Be honest, knowing that new life may be waiting for you, if you just make a shift. Your energy may be needed elsewhere.

Societal Clutter
This is the clutter, which is ‘out there’ and easily, often unconsciously so, takes up space in our lives. We are vulnerable to this type of clutter because of the loss of connection to our inner compass- the gauge inside of us that says- don’t listen to this turn it off. It is not useful. We are also vulnerable to this because we have given our power away to the energy out there. Our lack of personal responsibility has created the magic pill mindset, which says someone else has our cure and the cure will be instantaneous with little or no effort on our part. I realized this when I was teaching a clutter class, and a woman showed up early. She was talking to me about her frustration with the clutter in one of her rooms. She said she came to the class hoping to find the magic pill.

Is it any wonder why we fall victim to this way of thinking? There are pills that seem to take away any ache, pain, disease, almost miraculously. There are experts ‘out there’ from the woman who can tell you what to wear, to the guy who can design your room, to the doctor who can tell you what is wrong with your psyche and has a 5-step plan to cure it. We have the Internet, books, and magazine articles that tell us what to do, what to eat, where to go, what to wear, what’s in, and what isn’t- all perfectly displayed in short little sound bites, but how long can we chew on them? Not long, I am afraid.

I am not here to disregard any of those sound bites, however. They do serve a purpose, but only to those who are willing to allow that little morsel to penetrate their interior, where it can expand and become a valuable insight that may just shift their perception and create the change they seek.

So many messages ‘out there’ are about fear- fear of something we cannot control but want to. This fear distracts our eyes from looking within- the only place where we do have ‘control.’ We cannot continue to believe the ‘truths’ the media and our leaders or even our friends and families and religions tell us. All of this is outside of us. This isn’t to say there aren’t truths out there, but we need to know what our truths are and we need to live by those truths. Knowing who we are and where we stand is the only protection we have from the onslaught of societal clutter that is being thrown at us day after day
after day.

The other day I heard a horrible story about something that happened to a little girl. I could not listen without literally getting sick to my stomach and crying. The little girls’ energy, and what I imagine she must have gone through, stayed with me for quite some time. There was a time however when things like this didn’t affect me so much, and why- because I was desensitized to it. I heard so much bad news, it started not to penetrate and like one too many antibiotics, it stopped having an effect. Do we really want to be desensitized to other people’s suffering?

The one cure to societal overload is turn off the television. Just turn it off. You will discover how much of you will come back when you do. You will fill up your time with your own interests instead of the interests of others on T.V. When you give yourself space away from the television, when you do come back to it, you will not be able to ingest certain things and you will be at choice about what you watch. The responsible you reappears and certain images will no longer resonate and you will have
energy for what does matter in your life.

Families and Electronics
I notice a sad scene much too often in our home. My husband comes home from work after being in front of a computer all day and gets on his personal computer. He has his phone next to him with the earpiece attached to his ear. I am on my computer writing or checking email. My oldest daughter is text messaging her friends while listening to her ipod and the television might be on. My youngest daughter asks us all if we want to go outside and play. She is the only one who is not attached electronically.

The simple cure to this electronic dysfunction is to go outside into nature. My little Lilli would rather be outside connecting with worms, dirt and trees than gadgets and gizmos. I live in Minnesota and we often have long, cold winters. This last winter was the longest. In fact as I sit here right now it is April 28, and there are snow flurries and it is 30 some degrees, with a low in the 20’s tonight. I spent nearly all winter- 6 long months in the house. I finally got out about a week ago. When I walked in the woods, I was moved to tears. Nature feels like home. I stood by a creek and realized this is how we move- like the effortless stream. Nature shares her lessons with us so effortlessly, yet we have become a culture of gadgets and gizmos, who move electronically. Would it be crazy to think we will begin to turn into Spock on Star Trek? We already have the earpieces attached to us for our phones, which make us look like droids. This thought terrifies me.

Get out in nature for the cure, where the natural world works and not the mechanical. Remember it is you- it is how you flow. Maybe you will be inspired to do something harmonious while you are out there. Recently both my daughters took garbage bags with them on our walk. They picked up bottles, cans, and cigarette butts, everything they could fit in their bags and when we got home they recycled what they could. While they were picking up trash I had this brief image of some foreign species coming to our planet, looking at the destruction after we had all disappeared. The earth is our home, and needs to be treated as such. Remember we are souls, not machines. We need to become more familiar with the part inside of us that is our real and true essence for if we don’t we will continue to get lost in the chaos and confusion of our world. Know as the saying goes, that yes, you are in this world, but you are not of it. And yes, humanity in many aspects is in trouble, as is our planet, but our spiritual essence never can be.

What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to? What are you doing? Where is your energy going? How are you contributing to the overall societal clutter? Check in and know. Watch a stream and see it flow.

Soul Clutter
All of this clutter is stored in our souls. They are full, but are they satisfied? I once heard sages do not accumulate anything. Let’s begin the process of becoming a sage, and accumulate no more. Let’s keep the space inside of us free and clear of all the things that do not belong. This book holds the intention of helping you discover what your soul clutter is, and how by investigating and accepting you can begin to transform, heal and clear, and your life will begin to change, and you will become as Jesus said, “poor in spirit.”

The soul leads us to experiences and people who will wake us up so we can feel and pay attention, making connection so we can heal and remove what holds us back from who we truly are. Our soul is our friend. Our soul knows. We must trust where it leads. It always leads to our higher good.