Releasing the Junk that Surrounds You

Everything has a vibrational frequency.  

When you look around your home, your office, or your car whatever you notice has its own specific frequency.  The artwork you have in your home speaks to you vibrationally. The furniture you sit on. The lamps you use to light your home.  The plants, trees, and flowers in and around your home share their frequency with you. And not just the things themselves, but even the arrangement of things can carry a specific frequency.  The clutter on your desk, the unmade bed, the curtains closed or open, the dirty clothes hamper open or shut, the toilet seat up or down. All these things impact you to some degree. Most of the time we are not aware of how different things impact us.  Well, at least not consciously. You may not notice the clutter on your desk, but subconsciously it speaks to you all the same. If you take a moment to consciously focus on it you will find it does indeed create a sensation within. You may say to yourself, “Oh, I really need to do something about that.” Or, “I should really organize some stuff in here.”  

It’s not only an eyesore, but the cluttered aspect also holds a frequency that overlays your environment and you can feel it.

It’s important to surround yourself with things that are uplifting, make you feel good, or at the very least are neutral in how they make you feel.  Most of us have so much stuff we have collected over the years. All with varying types of vibrational frequencies which impact us in various ways. There can be frequencies that are carried in the things themselves which have nothing do with the objects own inherent frequency.   Maybe a memory is triggered on seeing a certain object that carries its own type of frequency for you. Maybe a piece of furniture holds the frequency of an ex lover and triggers you in certain ways that tend to be more subtle than obvious. Maybe you picked something up at a garage sale or an antique shop and its blend of frequencies is a mystery.  The possibilities are endless. The idea isn’t to eliminate all things but rather to be aware of how the things around you are impacting you. Pay attention. Become consciously aware. Anything that throws you off or makes you feel less than ideal let go of. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had it. Or how important it was to you at one time in your life.  If it feels off, it’s time to move on.

Here’s an example from an experience I had almost 20 years ago.  I was once gifted a colorful painting from a friend. She told me I was the inspiration for the work.  It was a beautiful painting. I was elated to be given such a gift. A number of months after receiving the artwork we had a falling out.  Shortly thereafter I moved from Seattle to Santa Fe, NM. I kept the painting in the move. At some point I became aware of a heaviness I felt every time I looked at the painting.  I didn’t get rid of the painting because I felt I had a responsibility to keep it since it was a gift. A couple of years later I tucked it away in the closet to avoid the heaviness I was feeling.  Oddly (or at least I thought so at the time), for months afterward I was still sensing the same heaviness from time to time even without actually seeing the painting. Finally I decided to part ways with it.  That same day the heaviness was gone. I felt it just one more time after that. About a week after getting rid of the painting I received an email from the friend who had gifted me the artwork in the first place.  She let me know that she was still hurt and angry over the fallout we had years ago. I then realized her energy had been tied to the painting. It was a link between us. She had felt when the link had been removed.  She needed to share her unhappiness with me in some other way. I was grateful for the realization that things carry a vibrational frequency for a number of reasons. Some of those vibrations uplift me, while others bring me down or lower my vibration.  It is important to recognize those that bring you down and remove them if possible.

Activity:  What junk do you have that needs to be released?  Take some time to scan your home and your work place.  Notice how things around you make you feel. Is there any heaviness or discomfort?  Does anything make you feel anxious or unsettled? Angry? Unworthy? Guilty? Etc. Are there typical areas of clutter in the space around you?  What would it feel like to keep these areas organized and tidy? Play with it. Feel into it. Look around you with the idea of releasing stuff.  Are there things weighing you down?

If so, it may be time to let some things go.

3 Strategies for Kicking the (Harmful) Habit

Have you ever felt you would like things to be different in your life?  Maybe you are tired of feeling stuck in a rut or stuck in a pattern of disharmony.  You are ready for change. Well in order to facilitate that change you need to make room in your life and mind for something new to be planted.  The three biggest things one can change to prepare for the new are harmful habitual mindsets, harmful habitual actions and harmful habitual words.  These three habit types can greatly limit the potential catalytic force of new empowering thought and strategies for change.

1. Harmful Habitual Mindsets:  What are harmful habitual mindsets?  Well, let me use a personal anecdote as an example.  I used to always have the emotion of anger be my default setting when things didn’t go my way.  There was no room for anything else. No room for understanding. No room for patience. No room for asking myself why this might not be going my way.  No room for other potential possibilities of thought or action. Then I was exposed to a Vipassana meditation technique in which one of its main premises is you can be exposed to stimuli and choose to react or not.  You can even choose a different way of experiencing a stimulus. With some practice I was able to shift away from anger being my default mindset when things didn’t go my way. It was quite liberating to discover I could break a habitual mindset and change it to something new.  Whatever mindset that you tend to wallow in or that lowers your vibration is a mindset that can be changed. Know this!    
   
   (Journaling activity: Take a moment to become aware of habitual mindsets you have which make you feel less than optimal. List five of them you would like to work on and get to it. )

2. Harmful Habitual Actions:  What are harmful habitual actions?  Well, maybe when you are sad you eat ice cream or chocolate.  Maybe when you are stressed you drink wine. Maybe when you are angry you lash out at loved ones. Or maybe when you are lonely you make poor decisions in intimacy.  We are creatures of habit. We tend to do things the way we have always done them. There is energy and force in habit. Resistance is experienced in attempting to do anything in a new way.  Even if there is a better way of being, doing and acting we generally stick to the way we know. This is the case across the board. In communication, in diet, in exercise, in sleep patterns, in the shows and movies we watch, and in the books we choose to read.  Our day to day lives are filled with habitual actions. 
   
   (Journaling activity: Take a moment to become aware of at least five actions you tend to take that are reactionary to a certain stimulus or actions you take that just generally make you feel less than optimal.  List them and next time choose differently. Again and again. See what happens.)

3. Harmful Habitual Words:  Habitual self-sabotage is not only found in mindsets and actions, but also in speech.  In the words we choose to communicate to self and others we are creating our foundation for the experiences and the relationships we draw into our lives.  It is important to become vigilant in monitoring the words we speak aloud and the words we think in our minds. Are there a lot of “shoulds” in your communication?  “I should really go to the gym.” “I should really do yoga.” “I should really change my diet.” Etc. “Shoulds” are not helpful. They lower your vibration. Either do or do not.  Try to avoid speaking “should”. Other vibration lowering words include…but, can’t, I don’t know, curse words, etc. Closely monitor your thoughts and speech for a few days and see how often these words come up in your speech.  
   
   (Journaling activity: Make a list of those words that come up with regularity for you in communication.  Become aware and make a change.)

It takes strong will power and persistence to replace an old habit with a new one.  Most of us don’t even bother until we bump up against something that makes us very uncomfortable.  Often times one’s diminishing health will be a wake-up call. Or maybe you have gained some weight and don’t look and feel comfortable in your own skin anymore.  Maybe you hit rock bottom with relationships and realize you keep cycling through the same disharmonious relationships over and over. The other person looks different but the themes and interactions are the same.  You say, “Enough all ready.” The level of discomfort reaches a level in which your will now has significant force. You are pushed internally to make some changes.

What if I told you that you have the ability to make changes right now without waiting for life to uncomfortably push you into making a different choice?   

Sustained consistency is the key.  There is a hurdle to jump in the beginning for sure.  You need to put some effort forth to overcome the natural resistance within, but as you do it more and more you build that force I spoke of earlier.  Then each time you choose the new habit you are creating it takes less and less effort to make it so. Eventually it becomes the new (consciously chosen) habit.  Other options no longer hold the same appeal. You have shifted your center. You have changed an aspect of self!