“Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” – Vincent Van Gogh
 
It is essential, especially now, when so much negativity is flying around, to focus on what is positive in our lives. Let’s take a good look at that by asking, what inspires you today? What is sparking your energy?
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It feels wonderful to be in that place where inspiration is flowing, sparking your energy. As Spring is making her spectacular entrance, royally clothed in pink and white magnolia blossoms, roseate crabapple, palest apple and bright red bud, the ground is dotted with sunny, yellow daffodils and clusters of grape hyacinths, and bright green leaves are poking noses out from their winter beds, Mother Nature inspires us and sparks our energies to join in the dance of creation.

Feeling inspired the other day, I set up my front planters with fresh soil and planted them with ivy wintered over in my garage/green house. Then I tucked in some fresh-faced purple and yellow pansies. I did the same with the front window boxes. It feels so good to mix around in the dirt, (it’s rather like cooking) nurturing new plants into their homes. It connects me with my yard and with the flow of energy that is Mother Nature.  Now I find excuses to stand outside the front of the house so I can enjoy the new display.

Next, I’m on to the planters on our back patio. Today I’ll be picking up vegetable seedlings to plant in them from a local farm.

Paddling around in the dirt, mixing in nutrients, clearing out debris, gentling in new plants and tending established plants, eases me right into my heart. I feel focused and in the flow.

When I finish one project, I enjoy the results right away. Then I look around and the next project steps up and says, “Me next!” So, I’m inspired to keep going, doing the next thing.

It doesn’t have to be gardening. Any project that gets your juices flowing can be the same. It feels like channeling life energy, because that is exactly what it is.

I believe that as Creators, individual sparks of God, channeling life energy is what we came here to do, experiencing our creative life force in action. We do this whether we are conscious of it or not. It just happens, we can’t help but be the Creators we are. It can be a positive experience or a negative one. When we experience it positively, when we love as we create, it is blissful.

The positive experience looks like intuitive inspiration that sparks your energy and gets you moving on manifesting the inspired idea. It feels exciting. You feel enthusiastic about the idea. You love it. You want to do it. You find yourself daydreaming about it, what it looks like, how it would feel to manifest it, what life would be like if you created it.

That first intuitive inspiration, is like a newly planted seed. If it is given what it needs to grow, it will sprout, seek the sun and manifest into your life. But if it is uprooted by negative thoughts of, “I can’t do that. I’m not worthy of that. That’s too scary. I don’t have enough money for that.” It will be like the tiny seedling, uprooted and left to wither and die in the sun. It cannot thrive in that environment.

Intuitive inspiration needs gentle tending and nurturing like the new seedling it is. Then it can grow strong as it manifests in your life. 

 “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.

“I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.
Yeah, yeah, oh-yeah, what condition my condition was in.”
-Mickey Newberry
 
I have lately been more aware of the beauty surrounding me, especially outdoors. Yesterday morning I walked outside and it was as if it called to me. A bird sang, the air was bright and beautiful. It was like a “heads up!” message. Yet I didn’t know what to do with it except to notice.

Last night I dreamt of being driven in a van through the Alps. The beauty of the mountains was overwhelming. Tears of joy filled my eyes. I was glued to the window not wanting to miss one instant of the beauty.

Recently too, the sunsets have attracted me and felt like a pathway to feeling the love of Spirit, a daily reminder of just how much we are loved.

Perhaps the message is to focus on the beauty of all that surrounds us, both inner and outer beauty. Focus on God’s love and how that love is shown, both large and small. It is all there for us to be open to, to focus on every day.

Pay attention to beauty as a reflection of God’s love and you are choosing to allow more and more of it to enter your daily life.

Additionally, pay attention to what else you are paying attention to. Look at where your attention goes. Is it something you want to increase in your life? It will.

And then there is this - pay attention to where your positive attention is, for it is not random. What attracts and entices you is your Spirit communicating with you, guiding you to your inspiration. 

What is your Spirit saying to you today?

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Photo by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash