If you want to put someone to sleep, start talking about your clutter.
This is not a judgment, mind you. It’s just a fact.
I noticed this pattern a lot in my clearing workshops and retreats back in the day when I was teaching them. As people started talking about their stuff and their stress; their attachments and their stuckness – shedding light on the places that they have held in the dark for so long – the entire room would begin to look like the poppy fields in the Wizard of Oz!
Wondering why that might be? Here’s an excerpt from Your Spacious Self that may explain what happens when we clear:
Feelings Come Up – Allow Them
By definition, clutter clearing releases energy that has been stuck for a long time, sometimes for an entire lifetime. When energy is moved in a big way, it is possible to feel more tired than usual or more cranky or edgy or uncomfortable. You may feel more emotional, or have a bout of panic, or grief, anger or sadness. You may notice yourself shutting down completely. You may experience spaciness, memory lapses or mental fog, or the opposite, feeling more alive, energetic, excited, and clear!
You may yawn more than usual, or tear, or burp, or fart, or feel nauseous. You may get unexplainable physical symptoms like headaches or backaches. You may sleep more, or you may have too much energy to sleep. You may want to quit. You may feel more out of control or desperate to escape with cravings for food, alcohol, TV, exercise. You may feel awesome one moment, and completely fall apart the next – all in less than sixty seconds!
Symptoms of clearing are the myriad ways that the body processes old stuff that is coming to the surface. They are signs of detoxification that result from raising the energetic frequencies in our home and in our life. They are ways the ego copes with the idea of letting go and feeling “those feelings.” They are the result of expansion energies colliding with contraction energies – no different than high-pressure system slamming into your sluggish low-pressure holding patterns. Storms come up naturally. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
–Excerpted from Your Spacious Self: Clear the Clutter and Discover Who You Are, Chapter 46, by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.
So next time you empty a drawer or a closet, or tune into a painful memory or a grudge you’ve been holding, notice what happens.
Notice what happens when you simply allow any (uncomfortable, messy, gucky) feelings to arise without judging them or taking them personally.
That is the real work of clearing.
And pure gold for what it can do for you.
Art credit: “Golden Tears” by Gustav Klimt
