2020 affected people all over the entire planet whether positively or negatively or perhaps a combination of the two, but we are now embarking on a new year and it’s time to shed what is no longer serving us so that we may move forward and enjoy a beautiful new year with nothing holding us back.
We have the tendency to accumulate whether it be physical belongings in our homes, unresolved negative experiences and emotions, excess body fat and toxicity, negative unintentional thoughts and conversations, poor habits of relating, living in the past, old dreams that we are holding onto, and unhealed past experiences. Or perhaps, we are in the future missing out on the present moment. If we aren’t mindful of letting it go we can find that all aspects of waste can accumulate without us even realizing it. Basically, we feel, think, act, look, and live like crap. And what is crap? Waste that is no longer serving us.
Sadly, that can leave us feeling stuck, depleted, burdened, and negative. We hold back from loving and living our dreams fully. When we take the time to intentionally let it all go what we feel, think, act, look, and live like is pure joy. Love, ease, gratitude, fulfillment, meaning are buried underneath it all.
I am personally challenging myself to invest the next 4 weeks wisely by cleaning the slate and I want to inspire you to join me. We deserve to experience the fullness of life without regrets or excess baggage weighing us down.
This challenge begins at the new moon in January which is today and it ends at the Lunar New Year which this year is February 12th.
I am cleaning the slate in 5 categories of my life but the options are unlimited. Feel free to customize this challenge to your specific needs.
- Body – there are countless ways that you can do this, from how you eat and drink, move your body, sweat it out, and so forth. I will be doing a combination of fasting and plant-based foods. You can fast like the Master Cleanse or juice, do a green smoothie cleanse, eat only raw foods, eat plants cooked or raw, or any other variation that feels good to you at this time based on your own needs. Maybe you add healing herbs or simply stop eating when the sun goes down and fast for 12-16 hours from dinner to breakfast every day. The options are limitless. Use your intuition and gut instincts and follow the path that lights you up. It can be a blend that you customize for yourself.
- Environment – our homes are our own personal wellness sanctuaries. It is the place that we heal, rest, rejuvenate, and relax before going back out into the world. It is our safe haven. However, it can easily become cluttered whether with old papers, books, music, movies, and other media. It can be filled with old clothing, toiletries, makeup, accessories that we no longer use or love. Maybe you have a pantry filled with expired food and ingredients. Perhaps you have momentos and photos stuffed in a box somewhere that you have been meaning to go through. Take this time to go through your home and let go of items that 1. you have not used in the past year. Donate it to someone who can use it now 2. Do not spark joy, but perhaps have negative emotions attached to them. Look through your home and if it doesn’t light up your face with a smile, consider letting it go. Keep only the items that have a loving memory for you. You may be inspired by minimalism or perhaps Marie Kondo’s method. I personally love those two combinations along with green, non-toxic cleaning. Consider sage to cleanse the energy in your home as well.
- Energy – our thoughts and our emotions are things. We emit them with our facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, the words we use, and the actions we take. My favorite forms of cleaning my energy are through talk therapy, meditation, vipassana (silence), I’ll never forget the saying, “Wise people speak because they have something to say, foolish people, speak just to say something.” Taking the time to be silent, simply listen, observe can help you be more selective and intentional with the words that you speak. Consider the media that you listen to as well, the news, the lyrics to songs, the things you read, the conversations you have, and so forth. Transformational breath. I have used many many methods over the past 20 years and my favorite is the work of Dr. Emoto and the book Power vs Force specifically reading the levels of consciousness and allowing myself to raise my energy. Gratitude journaling has also been a daily habit for about 15 years.
- Relationships – We have all heard the saying that we are a combination of the 5 people that we spend most of our time with. When I heard this, I really reflected on the quality of my relationships. I actually stopped spending time with 90% of the people I was around. At times I was lonely, but I filled the time listening to the 5 people I wanted to be most like from their audiobooks, podcasts, talks, workshops, and so forth. At the time it was people like Wayne Dyer, Jerry, and Esther Hicks, Tony Robbins, Oprah, and of course the great ones like Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama. They were people who wanted to inspire people, to uplift them, to be contributors to the goodness in the world, to help improve the quality of life. I wanted to be like them. However, I also adopted healing my valuable relationships with forgiveness with Ho’oponopono, The Work by Byron Katie, the story of the Babemba Tribe by the Peace Pilgrim told by Wayne Dyer. There are again unlimited ways to heal your relationships or simply to let them go temporarily or permanently. My belief is that if you only have love, respect, appreciation, and gratitude for them then you have healed your relationships. If there is any negativity, take this time to clean it up. Often it comes from a shift in our perspective. When you can say this wholeheartedly you have fully healed your relationships. “ I leave you free to be yourself, think your thoughts, indulge your tastes, follow your inclinations, and behave in ways that you decide are to your liking. Do anything you need or want to do. Be however you need to be and I will selectively sift the specific components of you that resonate with me and I will practice them until it becomes my proclivity. It really isn’t any of my business what you do. It is my business to find things in you that please me. For what I do not like in you, is only pointing out the unclean aspect of myself. Ultimately, It’s up to me to rise up and become that which I am admiring in you and to let go within myself of that which I don’t. “
- Dreams/Vision – Perhaps you have old dreams that were never fulfilled and you are holding onto the past feeling regret. I want to inspire you to let go of who you once were and dream a new dream for yourself. Maybe just for the year, or possibly even your life. I love how Stephen Covey has you reverse engineer your life by saying, “Begin with the End in Mind” meaning that imagine what you want to be said about you at your funeral and then start to live that way now. Maybe you don’t know where to begin. I love Michael Beckwith’s Life Visioning Process. It’s simple and can help you clear out all the old stuff and get clarity on who you want to be and how you want to live. It helps you remember what you are wanting to express in this lifetime. Dream a new and more refined dream for yourself.
Of course, there are more aspects to life than this, such as work and finances, but I find that shows up secondary to the clarity of the dream and vision you have for your life. I am setting out 4 weeks to complete this challenge, but you can make it as long or as short as you want. When I first did this challenge 14 years ago it took me about 3-6 months. Nowadays I spend one weekend a month at the new moon during my cleanse to go through all of the things I have listed above. It no longer takes me much time at all and if you make this a regular habit it will be the same for you.
Are you ready to join me? If so, Let’s SOAR….
