home
Revitalize Your Life With A Spiritual Spring Clean
The spring season is upon us and with it comes a fresh energy of renewal and rebirth.
Very often at this time of year people do a “spring cleaning” of their homes and workspaces, and for good reason. On a spiritual level, we have been moved by the powerful influence of this vibrant seasonal energy since the beginning of time.
As the light of the sun returns and the air begins to warm, we feel on a deep level the cycle of rebirth and the return of fertility to the earth that sustains us, just as our ancestors did through the ages. It inspires us to make room in our lives for this invigorating energy of renewal.
The ancients held the spring in high regard, attributing significant spiritual and symbolic meanings to the season. Although beliefs varied across different cultures, they mostly centered around themes of renewal, fertility, rebirth, and celebration.
In Ancient Egypt, for example, spring was closely associated with the annual flooding of the Nile, which brought fertile silt to the fields. The Egyptians celebrated the festival of Sham el-Nessim, marking the beginning of spring, which was believed to bring rejuvenation and health.
The Inner Truth Of External Clutter
We are almost a month into the new year, the time when most people begin to flounder in their resolutions. For me, resolutions are like empty promises, so my only resolution every New Year is to not make any resolutions.
Instead, I try to simply live my life with a few consistent rules. I have found that staying true to these personal and lifestyle guidelines eliminates the need for major resolutions each New Year.
Clutter is a big one for me. I make it a point to clean out the clutter in my life on a regular basis, whether it is physical, material, emotional, or spiritual.
Material clutter is the easiest to deal with because it is tangible and visible. It is hard to ignore a pair of shoes that you never wear anymore and have to move around in your closet over and over again.
It is also hard to ignore all those old clothes from another era that you have held on to in the hope that one day they will come back in style. Equally difficult to deal with are those old spice jars and other pantry items past their expiration date that you should have thrown away years ago!
These small lifestyle annoyances may seem insignificant on the surface until you consider that material clutter goes hand in hand with mental, emotional and spiritual clutter. The way we live, the way we manage our environment, and the way we organize our outer existence are a reflection of our inner being. The resulting clutter then becomes a recurring pattern that leads to more clutter, chaos, and dysfunction in our lives.
Let Us Celebrate The Season With Charity And Kindness
The holidays are a bittersweet time of year for me. While I am blessed to be surrounded by my loved ones during these days, I am also reminded of all the loneliness and suffering that many people around the world experience.
The holidays should be more than just a time of joy and celebration. It should also be a time to examine our privilege and count our blessings.
I came to this realization many years ago as a young woman living in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Coming from a loving, sheltered family, I made the shocking discovery that the holidays were not joyous for everyone.
It happened while I was walking through the Boston Common one evening with a friend. The Common in downtown Boston is the oldest urban park in the United States. It is traditionally always beautifully decorated for the holidays and there is a long-standing tradition of an annual Christmas lighting ceremony that dates back to 1917.
It all began on December 6, 1917, when the Halifax Explosion, the largest non-nuclear explosion in history, destroyed much of the city. Boston officials learned of the disaster by telegraph and quickly organized and dispatched a relief train to help the survivors.
Work-Life Balance For The Single Parent
Single parents face many daily challenges and can easily feel overwhelmed. This is especially difficult when juggling childcare, household responsibilities, and your career or business.
It is undoubtedly important to maintain a healthy work-life balance in your life, but it is easier said than done. How does one balance work, family, life, and love as a single parent in the busy world we live in?
Here are some simple strategies for single parents to achieve a better work-life balance.
Work-Life Boundaries. The first important step is to set boundaries between your work and home life. I find that this is often a key element that is missing in the lives of many of my clients.Without clear boundaries between work and home, it is very difficult to be fully present and focused on one or the other at any given time. Without defined boundaries, the single parent is constantly straddling two worlds.
Creating work-life boundaries simply means not mixing business with pleasure. You designate specific times and activities for work and specific times and activities for spending time with your children. This means no thinking about work, no work-related texting, no checking email, and no taking phone calls outside of your designated work time.
Transform Your Life With Mindfulness
In the midst of our fast-paced daily lives, marked by never-ending to-do lists and the constant barrage of modern distractions, it’s all too common to feel overwhelmed and stressed.
Finding moments of peace can be challenging, but there’s a ray of hope in the form of mindfulness. This ancient practice offers a haven of calm amidst the storm of our chaotic lives.
Mindfulness, the art of being fully present in the moment without judgment, is a profound spiritual practice for cultivating self-awareness. It encourages us to pay attention not only to our external environment, but also to our internal world of thoughts and emotions.
By incorporating mindfulness into our daily routine, we unlock a wealth of benefits that lead to greater fulfillment and happiness. And it doesn’t take much of a time commitment. It’s simply a matter of adopting a new perspective and appreciating the importance of each moment.
Mindfulness isn’t just a practice; it’s a habit and a way of life that leads to a calmer, more fulfilling existence. The following strategies are simple ways to incorporate mindfulness into your lifestyle and make it a permanent part of your daily routine. By embracing some or all of these practices, you can transform everyday activities into opportunities for self-discovery, self-improvement, and a deeper connection to the world around you.
Turn Your Home Into A Sacred Space
How many times have you needed a timeout, or place of refuge to clear your mind? Seeking peace and balance is vital, with all of the breakdowns and breakthroughs occurring in our personal lives, and the world today. This is why making your home a scared space is essential to your energetic well-being and mental health.
For me, an energetically healthy home is a reflection of who I am spiritually and what I believe. We all have a unique story that is to be expressed in our immediate environment, thus making it holy and sacred.
When you infuse your home or a room with your divine essence, you are creating Heaven on Earth and raising the vibration of the world.
You don’t need to invest a lot of money since simplicity is key.
Declutter
From past experience, the best place to start is by removing all the clutter in your living space that is no longer wanted or needed. Sell it, donate it, or simply toss it, depending on the condition, value and sentiment. This is a fundamental principle in the ancient Chinese tradition of Feng Shui to live in greater harmony with your environment.
By cleansing and purifying the energy in your living environment, you wipe the metaphysical slate clean and allow new inspiration, people and ideas to manifest. Sometimes we become stuck in a recurring cycle or pattern of doing things, until we remove an element, or find another perspective.
Protect Yourself From Negative Energy Attachments
A neighbor once asked me to smudge her home and bless it, because she felt there was a lot of negative energy there. She could just ‘feel it.’ People lived below her that she could hear arguing until late hours in the night, using foul language. They would chain smoke too, to the extent that it would rise up through the floorboards. It made her feel sick and caused her to have migraine headaches. Apart from that there were also some old ‘cobwebs’ of trapped negative energy that she wanted me to some and clean out.
She had been dealing with the ups and downs of depression for as long I’ve known her. She is one of the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet, let alone have as a neighbor. She is very kind and always there if you need her. She would be very social at times, inviting friends from church over and entertaining friends regularly, for several weeks, and then she would suddenly feel overwhelmed by the chaos and drama of the people around her, feel drained and depressed, and withdraw from everyone. Then you would not see her for weeks, sometimes months.
I told her I felt that she needed to protect herself energetically and shared with her ways that she can do this. I explained to her that sometimes, when we engage with people, we can pick up some of their negative energies. Even if they are seemingly good people, who go to church and so on, it doesn’t necessarily mean that these people are free from negative energies, or worse, unwanted spirit attachments.