“When you free up the stuck energy in your home, you dramatically change the feeling of stuckness in your life, and new opportunities can come your way.”
 – Karen Kingston

For the past week, I’ve been in what my husband calls a cleaning frenzy. I call it Spring cleaning in January. The crazy thing is, I’ve been following my bliss. It all started in meditation last week.

In that meditation I saw myself clearing off a dirty dish-filled kitchen counter by sweeping my hand across and knocking everything off. I felt fine about doing it this way, seeing the dirty dishes as energy dissolving into the air. Along with this visual I felt the energetic benefit that I would experience from decluttering and cleaning my home.

Cleaning is sacred, spiritual practice. As we clear and clean away the ego debris of daily living, we raise the vibration in our homes and our inner being, freeing up energy, aligning ourselves and making space for God in our lives.

After that meditation, I walked around the house and realized how heavy it felt. I could feel the clutter and accumulation weighing me down energetically and emotionally.  It made me tired just thinking about all the cleaning and decluttering I had put off. That's when I realized that I had been feeling tired for days.

I thought back to how, in the evening, I want my kitchen cleared of dirty dishes before I go to bed. It is rare that I leave the dishes unwashed. When I get up the next morning, ready to start the day fresh, and walk out to see the kitchen filled with the debris of yesterday’s living, it feels like the plug is pulled on my energy. It drains right out of me as I look at the clutter and work to be done that should have been done the day before.

“Your home is the outer expression of your inner environment.”
- Shoshana Ortalia Aurora Rogers
 
The same is true of other areas in the house in need of clearing and cleaning. All these areas are the outer reflections of stuck energy in our lives. Places where the energy that should support our daily living is dammed up, stagnating and unable to flow. 

Several days ago, Peter and I received a wonderful gift from our daughter and son-in-law. In beautiful synchronicity, they had our car professionally deep cleaned and polished, inside and out. It really needed it because our much loved and fed grandchildren had been riding and snacking in it for many months. Driving the car home from the car wash I reveled in the clean look, the clean smell, the shine inside and out. Our car sparkled!

Arriving home that evening, I began dinner preparations and thought no more about the car. A short time later I realized that I felt really cheerful, upbeat and energized, noticeably more than usual. Driving in that sparkling, clean car had lifted my energy significantly.

I hadn’t realized how much driving around in our usual clutter and dirt was affecting my attitude and my energy.  

How much more does living in the accumulated clutter and dirt of daily living affect us in our homes?

“The stagnant energy that accumulates around clutter causes you to feel tired, but when you start clearing it, this frees up stuck energy in your home and also energizes you.”
 – Karen Kingston

Over the next few days, feeling inspired by that experience with our clean car, I went into cleaning mode. It felt great. I scheduled carpet cleaners to deep clean all our carpets.  I deep cleaned our bathroom, reorganizing and decluttering as I went, as well as our floors. In preparation for the arrival of the carpet cleaners, Peter and I moved everything off the carpets, shifting large amounts of stagnant energy as we did so.

The house feels different now, lighter. It feels like springtime, when the windows are thrown open and warm and fragrant breezes waft through the house, this despite the fact that it is January and the outside temp is in the single digits. The energy has lifted and most significantly for me, my energy right along with it. I experience this emotionally as happiness, physically as increased energy, and spiritually as renewed creative inspiration. I can feel my energy opening up and expanding outward.

Perhaps you too have been experiencing the winter doldrums, feeling tired and low on energy. If so, move stuff around in your home, rearrange, organize something, clean something out. You’ll be amazed at how starting small can lead to big results energetically and emotionally. Check out today’s Spiritual Toolbox for some ideas to get you started.

“It’s the excitement in the simple things that tells you what simple things are actually connected to the bigger things that excite you. And will actually get you there in what may seem to be a round-about manner, but by following the excitement is actually the shortest, fastest, straightest path.”
-Bashar, channeled by Darryl Anka

You can choose to feel good even when you are doing something that might normally feel onerous. It’s a matter of what you are paying attention to and how you are focusing your attention.

Recently, inspired by an upcoming get together here at the house, I’ve been doing an hour of puttering each day which has resulted in the house getting cleaned.

Despite the fact that cleaning is one of my least favorite things to do, I have enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed the process and I’ve enjoyed the results. I’ve even woken up each morning and looked forward to my hour of puttering each day.

What? Looked forward to cleaning? How does that work?

I’ve found there is a big emotional difference between the idea of puttering and the idea of cleaning. It is a change of perception and therefore attitude.

When I’m “cleaning,” (cue air quotes and frowny face) I have a specific job in mind that I feel I have to get done. It might be vacuuming the downstairs. It might be washing the windows. Whatever it is, it is something that has been bothering me. I’ve resisted doing it and now I want to get through it and get it done so I can move on to whatever it is I really want to be doing that day.

My thought process is generally negative, “Look at that dirty floor! I’ve let it go too long. I’ve got to vacuum today.  I might as well just get it over with.” It feels punitive and I get it done as fast as possible.  

On the other hand, when I’m “puttering” (cue happy, smiley face), I give myself an hour to putter. I invest myself fully during that hour, mentally and emotionally. I don’t allow myself to think about what comes later in the day. I am fully present with whatever I am doing.

This week, the focus of my puttering has been cleaning the public areas of our home, because we’ll be entertaining this weekend. That’s the only focus I’ve had. I’ve drifted from vacuuming, to washing the counters, to hanging a picture, to washing windows, to cleaning cabinet doors, to touch up painting.

Surprisingly, I’ve done more than I would normally do for getting ready for a party, just because it was enjoyable.

The cleaning has happened organically, one activity flowing into the next, and my feelings about it are very different from my usual feelings about cleaning. I’ve enjoyed the process and I’m enjoying the results.  

During that week, when I had the time and energy, I added onto the hour and tackled another area. In this case the garage. I loaded up a car-full of cardboard boxes for recycling. Mind you, these boxes have been stacking up in the garage since winter.

I drove to the recycling dumpsters in town and spent a surprisingly satisfying quarter-hour unloading cardboard and breaking down boxes. The dumpsters were located at the back of the parking lot of our local community center, bordered by woods. The temperature was perfect. A lovely breeze cooled my face as I worked. Every so often I stopped to listen to bird song and appreciate the fact that I was there completing a job I’d been intending to do for months.

You might well ask, “What is the matter with this woman that she is blissing out at the dumpsters?”

Given a job to do, wouldn’t you rather enjoy the process rather than have to force yourself through it?

What’s the difference? The difference is in slowing down, focusing on the process more than the product.

My thought process goes like this, “I’m going to invest this hour doing whatever catches my attention and needs doing. When I’m done with that, I’ll do the next thing that catches my attention.” There is no rushing to get it all done. There’s time to take a deep breath, look out the window and listen to the birds sing as I work. I’ll often put on flowing music which adds to my sense of relaxation and flow. At the end of the hour I am done for that day if I choose.

I generally get a lot more done than when I assign myself specific jobs that I feel I have to get through.

So, what’s the take away here?

Bashar talks about bliss as a sense of excitement. I believe that bliss looks like any number of positive, life-affirming emotions. Bliss is a combination of happiness, contentment, attraction, excitement, satisfaction, well-being and more.

Bliss may be what you experience as you reach the summit of a mountain after an exhausting climb. Bliss may be what you feel as you hold your sleeping grandchild. Bliss may be what you feel as you pursue your avocation or vocation. Bliss may even be what you feel as you flatten cardboard boxes with the breeze on your face and bird song in your ear.
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Bliss comes in small packages as well as large, life-purpose size packages.
We can, through our choice of attitude, choose bliss, even in the small things.