Cleaning up as Self Care

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Here’s a question:  When’s the last time you did a deep down clean out of all the "stuff" in your life?  How clean is your car? your home? your refrigerator? 

I am not the neatest person, and I don't have a problem with a little dirt in my life.  So I've been really surprised to find myself feeling called to clean up and clean out my home lately.  

I have vacuumed my house, and wiped out the fridge more in the last four weeks than I ever did in any month in the last five years.  

More exciting than that, I have been going through years of accumulated stuff and releasing it back out into the wild.  Some of it goes to my sister. Some to recycling, some to the trash.  All of it is leaving my house and every time it does I breathe a little bit easier.

The really really weird part about all of this is that as someone who is housework averse.... I’m LOVING it!

No part of it feels like a chore.  I truly love it.

The inspiration to clean up and clear out feels like a strong spiritual calling - the same way sitting for my sit spot or being on the mat for asana practice feel.  It is a calling that I can't resist.  I've learned through yoga and coaching that when these callings come, it is best to follow them.  And that if you do, they usually have something to teach you. 

In the last few weeks I’ve come to realize:

Cleaning up & Letting go of what you don’t need anymore are tremendous acts of Self-Care.

When you let go of what you don’t need it clears out space for what is trying to come to you.  It removes physical and mental clutter.  It even makes white space, empty space, which is space for potential - and I don’t know a single person who doesn’t crave a little more time and space.  Finally,  clearing away makes an opportunity to create beauty with what remains.  

What better way to express gratitude for the many blessings of your life than by creating experiences of Beauty.

Of Course,  Mother Nature is way ahead of me in this realization.  Listening to her own inner timing, she is in a huge cleaning up and clearing out cycle. It's Autumn here and she is creating the most beautiful colors before she quietly drops everything to have time and space to rest.  She’ll pick up again in the spring with new energy and vitality.  

We can learn to do the same: To follow the inner callings of the heart, the timing of our true nature.  We can learn to drop what is not working anymore, let go of what isn't serving us.  And to create beauty with what remains so that we can bring more vitality and energy into every day of our lives. 

Contemplations

What about you? what are you ready to let go of? Is there a physical belonging that has completed it’s service for you... an out dated way of thinking or of seeing yourself that doesn’t seem to work anymore. .... or even an old grudge that is taking up precious mental space that could be used for more joy?

I invite you to practice letting go of just one tiny thing to see what happens.  I’m betting you feel a little bit better -- and that is Self- Care.