Clear a Path to Your Spacious Self

It begins with awareness

“Clearing our spaces frees us to experience more of who we truly are,” writes Stephanie Bennett Vogt, author of Your Spacious Self: Clear the Clutter and Discover Who You Are.

“It makes no difference if the spaces are the external ones in which we live and work, or the more vast internal ones that we fill up with a noisy, chattering, worrying mind. Clearing any thing or thought opens the channels to that part of us that is always clear, spacious, and not attached – like the blue sky above the clouds that never changes. So how do we release the stuff, reduce the noise, and connect with that which makes our heart’s sing? One minute at a time – with awareness. Awareness…It changes everything.”

Photo credit: pdphoto.org

Clearing is not what you think

“At the heart of it,” writes Vogt, “clearing is not about tackling the unsightly messes, the clothes that don’t fit, the emails that invade your inbox, the to-do lists that get longer by the second.”

“Clearing is not fixing a problem or reaching for a solution. It is what happens in between. It is the space between the problem and the solution where the real juice is, where the real clearing happens. And the only way to release what isn’t working for you is to enter that sometimes scary zone called feeling. Feeling the overwhelm, resistance, attachment, guilt, sadness, worry, despair, shame… Feeling it all – without judging it as good or bad or taking it personally.”

Photo credit: iStockphoto

Clutter is stuck energy

Vogt continues: Moving things from one place to another – clothes to drawer, magazines from the floor to the reading basket, button that needs sewing to do-do pile, bills to desk drawer (or wherever they go in your home), dirty clothes to hamper – moves stuck energy. Sometimes the release of stuck energy doesn’t feel very good (expecially if the thing has been sitting around for a while). Add mindfulness (and subtract self-judgment) and you have just created a clearing practice that is both sustaining and sustainable. The rest of this gallery will show you gentle one-minute practices to move stuck energy in your home and life – for good.

Photo credit: Stephanie Bennett Vogt; www.spaceclear.com

Detach

There are the obvious external clues of clearing success, of course: an emptier bookcase, a new love interest, a job offer. But what about the internal markers? How spacious and detached and present can you be when the next family reunion rolls around? Or a child becomes seriously ill? The next time your button gets pressed or you notice yourself getting lost in emotional drama, take a breath and replace the personalizing “I am...” or “I have...” thoughts with the more neutral declarative: “This is...” For example, “I'm worried” would be “This is worry,” “I have a headache,” would be “This is a headache,” and so on. Notice how easy or hard it is to let go. Notice if this practice helps you become more of an observer of the emotional “weather” instead of the weather.

Photo credit: pdphoto.org