“Spring is a time when life is bursting forth with abundance, a time for new projects and activities,” says Christan Hummel, author of the Do-It-Yourself Space Clearing Kit (One Source Publications). “By synchronizing our home activities with the cycles of nature, we align ourselves with the natural pulsation of life.”
These principles may sound lofty, but you can employ them to do something very practical and necessary – namely, clean up your life! Hummel believes that by using the Feng Shui technique called “space clearing” in our home or office, we can banish the old stagnant energies that surround us to make way for new opportunities in the year ahead.
“Everyone—and every object—has energetic vibrations,” says Hummel. “Unless those energies are cleared away, the emotions of a person can linger long after the person is gone. That’s why it is possible for a former spouse to remain in energy form in a place, such as a bed, long after his physical body has left.”
Here, Hummel offers some insight into why we accumulate things we neither want or need. She also offers simple Feng Shui techniques for clearing up this clutter – it’s a great way to free up your space, body and spirit, too!
Keep in mind that clutter has four main causes:
1. TIME: We lead busy lives and lack of time creates jobs left undone. As a result, clutter piles up.
PROBLEM: These piles drain our life energy, making it more difficult to tackle the tasks at hand. As a result, a vicious cycle ensues.
ACTION: Take baby steps. Tackle your clutter problem the way you would eat an elephant: One bite at a time. Give yourself one hour a day, or even one hour a week, to devote yourself to tackling the piles of paper, old clothes that need mending, or to focus on the unfinished jobs that clutter up your office or home.
2. SPACE: With the high price of houses, many of us have found ourselves downsizing, making adequate living space is an issue. With professional organizers commanding upwards of $50/hour, it behooves us to liberate as much of our space as possible by clearing out the disorderly piles.
PROBLEM: Clutter triggers a visual alert in the brain, especially when we see it staring us in the face day after day. We are overwhelmed by feelings of powerlessness, guilt and anxiety and we shutdown when confronted by these visual “to do lists.”
ACTION: Out of sight, out of mind! Free up the space by stashing away the untidy stacks until you have the time to deal with it. Having it sit in front of you every day doesn’t make it go away any faster.
Pack up the unnecessary or inactive items and put them in storage, in the garage or out of the common living areas. This frees up those important ch’i (life
energy) zones and also clears the visual space, leaving your mind more at peace. You will feel more rested and able to deal with the mess when you finally commit the time to do it. That’s where the one-hour-a-day or one-hour-a-week comes in.
3. EMOTIONAL CONNECTION: Sometimes we resist dealing with a pile of junk because we have emotional connections to the items. The classic example is inheriting your dead aunt’s teacup collection. What to do with them? One needs only have so many teacups, right? But they are precious emotion-wise, and you don’t want to let them go. So they sit there for months and years, holding the dead energy and the indecision.
PROBLEM: The emotional baggage associated with these items is choking that invisible ch’i which is the lifeblood of your home.
ACTION: Do some emotional release work, a closure ceremony, perhaps one in which you express gratitude, appreciation and love for the person in question, then let their items go. Keep one or two representative items, and give the others to special people — family members, friends, or organizations close to your heart. Let Aunt Tilda’s cups circulate in the community, rather than staying locked up in your living room.
4. UNSEEN CAUSES OF CLUTTER: Unresolved emotional issues such as financial stress, arguments, prolonged illness, or the death of a family member are all significant elements in creating blocked or stagnant ch’i. Like a river, ch’i flows when healthy, and when blocked, it becomes stagnant. Clutter, like leaves and debris collecting in a damned river, collects in these blocked ch’i paths in the home.
PROBLEM: The unseen issues manifest as a very visible—and unsightly—mess.
ACTION: Go around the house to places where there have been past traumas or difficulties. Do a cleansing ceremony (sage, or candles work well) with the intention of clearing the blockages from that space.
Bring in something that represents more flowing energy, such as a fountain, chimes, or living things like plants, to bring life energy back into that area.
With some small investment on our part, we can dramatically change the energies of our environment, making our homes a sanctuary to reflect our highest intentions and dreams. As nature renews itself in the springtime world outside our windows, so too can we renew the spaces where we live and work.
About Christan Hummel: Christan Hummel is the author of the Do-It-Yourself Space Clearing Kit. She travels internationally, lecturing on how to access nature in a co-creative spirit. Check out more from Christan at her website: www.earthtransitions.com
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