Thursday, February 24, 2011

down to bare essentials

The clutter-clearing and cleaning waves have been hitting me and my home for the past weeks. The last couple of waves are happening right now and after this I believe life will truly unfold and flow in a new way.

My sister and I have also started on a health and fitness regimen - nothing too fancy but it makes us more conscious of how we take care of ourselves. No diets, but more activities that are not necessarily strict exercise sets. In fact, the key is not to do exercise, but to do more deliberate movements. Exercise sounds boring and routine and it's like you don't have much of a choice. What we have set out for ourselves is a series of activities, including household chores, done in a more mindful and physically enhancing manner. For instance, while scrubbing the walls I make sure I give each arm a good turn instead of favoring my weaker left arm. We also do a lot of walking.

The other day I cleaned out my Prosperity Bagua - the upper left corner of my home. I am not a very strict Feng Shui follower but I do believe in setting up the right energies and mindsets. And a clean and clear home never hurt anyone. From there I am now working counter clockwise around the house, cleaning and clearing as I go. Disinfecting, scrubbing, wiping, vacuuming, re-arranging, disposing, sweeping, polishing. All my kitchen cabinets now have reduced their contents in half. (Do not be over-impressed - I live in a 350 square feet studio. Hahaha.)

But the next step is not to refill those spaces but to live with them. And instead of adding things, the more worthwhile objective is to upgrade things, but only as high as they can be useful. No need to upgrade to items with more bells and whistles than I can actually use.

I can feel the house breathing easier with each wave of cleaning and clearing, energies flowing more freely, new happy things finding spaces in my life.