Most people get the idea in their head, that they need to have this or that item, from clothing to furniture to housewares. I do. Sometimes, you think, I just have to have such and such, and then I'll be satisfied.
I guess for a while.
I guess the trick, is try to make do with what you have for now, and then if you really need or want something, then obtain it. The idea of Feng Shui is that good luck and fortune will come, once the space for that is clear, so it is tempting to want that to come now, and sometimes one does not know what one truly needs.
In a sense, you know what you need, food, water, exercise, coffee... But, in terms of long term needs, we cannot really control what we get, I mean I cannot, but we can control what we do not need.
Like with people, besides family, sometimes it is good to clean house, and not have people in your life, who are not good for you. Eventually, you either lose or get rid of them in the end, anyway.
For example, if someone leaves you for someone, and then rebounds to you, and you accept them back, or try to, and you fear that even though they say they love you, if you let go, they will go back to the other, even though they are saying, "I love you...," the truth is they will go back to that person, anyhow. If they left you once, they will leave again, and they will definitely go back to the other person, no matter what you do. You probably think I am cynical, but I have learned this from experience. So, my experience in the love department, 1) do not trust a cheat, 2) do not take a long lost lover, who left you, back, 3) people usually do not change, 4) do not let others control you, 5) children before lovers, 6) do not let anyone make you support them, nor give them money, 7) any type of abuse, physical, mental, emotional, sexual, is not acceptable, 8) never stay with someone who either flirts, or talks about other people as if they are interested, unless you and that person have an open relationship, which never works, 9) be disrespected by no one in the least, and if they do, say, "don't let the door hit you in the ass when you leave," and mean it for crying out loud.
Okay, how I went from wanting things, to Feng Shui, to relationship advice: I do not know. Perhaps, I really had nothing to blog on today. I will be coming up with great new topics soon, so stay tuned. Isn't it always the people who have zero luck in the love department, I mean maintaining it, that have the most advice? Oh no, self deprecation. Just kidding. I guess I got onto that subject, because people tend to want people, like things, possessions.
Money and love, the two things wanted most, or is it money and sex? Personally, I do not want sex without love. Some people would prefer it that way. And, truthfully, money is great to have, but I have never been into money, but like not to worry about it, financial freedom, rather than wealth, but wealth would be nice.
Well, it is another nice day out there. I feel sad about the kid that got killed on the CCU campus, one of my two universities I attended. It is so sad. They are having a candle light vigil for him tonight. I am sure there will be many tears. The counselor there, said on the local news, that she has had a steady stream of people needing to talk to someone. Another result of death from a gun. Very, very sad. A kid goes off to college, and gets shot in his dorm.
Namaste.
Once you have achieved your goal of making a clear space in each room of your home, getting rid of useless junk, and everything in your home not pleasing or serving you, as well as some rearranging to make yourself more comfortable, such as turning the sheets and pillows, so that your bed faces a different direction, changing lighting, or what not, how does one keep it that way - clear?
Once you have that clarity, both in a physical and metaphysical sense, it feels pretty good. You have now, open space, but the danger is those spaces, side tables, dresser tops, etc., once again becoming cluttered. You may have cleared the vibes with a sage stick and some prayers, something good to do every now and then.
Keep things put away, so that spaces do not become cluttered, and enjoy not having too much on them. Maybe even get some lemon pledge, and enjoy polishing wooden furniture. If you like to paint, you can paint furniture, unless the wood is really nice, then it is best to leave it unpainted. However, if you are talented at drawing and painting, you can decorate some wood free handed, as I have, but not the really nice stuff, like knotted pine. There are also stencils you can get, if you cannot paint well, free handed.
You may prefer to leave things as they are. Basic is nice too. You might consider painting one room a different color. I painted my bathroom light green with light yellow trip, a few years ago. I thought, perhaps painting one wall a heavenly shade of blue, lavender that they can mix at the hardware store might be nice. I am not sure.
Another thing that can prevent one from keeping to the uncluttered look, is to not buy a whole bunch of new stuff to clutter it up again. All this takes, is a little self control. If your friends invite you antiquing, you do not have to buy stuff, just because you are in a store. Not driving, I used to always buy stuff this way, thinking well, when will I get to go out shopping again? Last time, I just did not buy. Then you have more money for bills and food, ha ha, but really it is true.
When I was a student at the S.C. Commission for the Blind, we could go shopping almost every week night as a group, if we wanted to, and in Columbia, the malls are bigger, with escalators, and Walmart as well. The great thing about Walmart there, is the plant section. I really enjoyed keeping basil in my room, until the ride home when I gave it to a friend to give to his wife. The smell was delicious. The thing was, with all those chances to shop, it was hard not to. Also, one night, as I unpacked, I realized I had forgotten to bring pants. I had had a black pair and a brown pair right on my bed at home, and just had not put them in my suitcase, and sure enough, they were sitting there as I left them, once I went home for the weekend. I also needed a swimsuit, because we were temporarily staying in a hotel, while the dorms were being remodeled, and I wanted to swim in the pool and enjoy the hot tub. It seems like when you are away from home, you always end up needing things you forgot, which gives an excuse to buy stuff, and if you do not like shopping, this is an inconvenience, but if you do, an opportunity.
So, if at home, you make shopping a money saving game, like instead of buying a certain thing on line, finding it cheaper, or comparative shopping and pricing, perhaps it is not such an impulsive thing. As I have said before, you can also get rid of stuff you do not want anymore.
So, I guess the answer is not to start buying more stuff, unless it is something necessary and needed, or really, really wanted, lol.
Another thing, which helps clarify the vibrations, is candles, mini lights, and Aura Casia scented oil. Lavender is very calming, and helps you sleep, also makes yoga more relaxing. I recommend the mist, which can even be used as perfume. It is good to use on your pillow. I spray it inside my pillow case. I do not like anything directly near my eyes. It is great for spraying on linen and making a beautiful scent in the air, invigorating and relaxing.
So, after my last two blogs, I am going on to the third part. This is a series of three blogs, which I wrote about introspection, and self forgiveness, looking at the past, processing it, and now going forward.
At this point, the past is over, we dealt with it, and it is not only time to move on with our lives, but time to be 'here and now.' That is what Ram Daas, Eckhart Tolle, and other deep philosophers have written about, such as Be Here Now, by Ram Daas and The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.
Depression can be a sign of holding on to a false perception or belief. Once letting go of that belief system or thought, we can lose this depression, hopefully, and perhaps with other therapies to supplement our own work on ourselves.
I cannot be thirty again or twenty, or forty, for that matter, but I can be where I am, and I can make the most of the time I have left on earth, which may be a long time. No one knows for sure. I do not need to look behind now, nor look ahead. I may plan a trip, an event, a project, but I must be mindful that every moment of my life, is the only thing that exists at this moment.
So, if I am bored, I guess that is alright. If I am sad, stupid, whatever, it is all good. I am not stupid. I am just making a point. If I was stupid, then so what. That is my point. I did not think of that on my own. My brother told me that someone said that to him, not because it is true, but to make the point I am trying to make, because he was regretful of something at the time. You either know what I mean or you don't.
I think most people, those of us who are not perfect anyway, have to go through a lot in order to reach the goal, God realization. On the way, one can reach points of higher enlightenment. These enlightening moments make us less unhappy, because as A Course in Miracles teaches, I realize more that it is illusion, this world of forms, so I am less attached, and therefore suffer less. Many Meher Baba followers disagree with me, I think, because they do not study A Course in Miracles as I have, and think like Catholics, that the more they suffer, the more spiritual they are. This is not true. Yes, we grow from our difficult experience, and may even become more empathetic and compassionate towards others, may be able to counsel others to a degree, with boundaries, but we are not necessarily more spiritual. I know however, that there is a spiritual nature to suffering, such as that of the saints, Saint John of the Cross, for example, who wrote, The Dark Night of the Soul, but he was basically tortured in that monastery, had his back broken, before he escaped.
But, most of our suffering, and by us, I mean people like me, is caused by our desires not being met or our ego not being gratified. How much of our suffering is longing for God, or true persecution? Of course, bullying is a form of persecution, ridicule and anything that is not love. Just remember that the one who causes others pain, is believe it or not, crying out for love. I know it does not seem that way. It seems they are just a shit and an asshole, and I am sure no doubt, they are, but it goes deeper in that they are crying for love. This is not an excuse, however. They need not cry for love in such a sick way, but they don't know this.
I hope I have made sense to the reader. I do not want to ramble. Back to living now. It is time to let go of the past, let the scars heal and move on towards the brightness, face turned to the sun, moon and stars.
Sometimes, one looks back, and no matter how bad, or not bad, one can dwell on some specific nuance, but if you take a step back, and talk to someone also present or involved, or even talk to an objective person, even subjective, but who does not share your same personage, as no one can, you may find that the horrors you linger memories upon, are not as horrible to the people you feel have been harmed. Perhaps, they see it as a shorter time, or a lesser horror, now that time has passed, and perhaps, in your neurotic guilt, you have blown it into a huge, looming, giant, shadowy, mushroom cloud of doom. Perhaps, here you are filled with remorse and guilt. I guess that is how I felt, but sometimes, you may not have true perspective, and need to step back.
Many times, we build up our negativity, far greater than it is, because we feel unworthy. Perhaps, one is more - not to go in another direction - strong, than one thinks, and far less bad. Some of us, who are sensitive, beat ourselves to smithereens, drown ourselves in sorrow, perhaps alcoholically, because we cannot deal with being anything less than perfect.
Alcohol is a good anesthetic, in a sense. I am not saying it is good, but many people who turn to alcohol, as a drug of choice, do so, because it helps to lesson the all that haunts our pasts. The thing is that, the past will not disappear, but maybe one can come to see it differently.
Here is where A Course in Miracles comes in. "God, help me see this differently," a course principle.
I got no response to my article, which was meant to be, although a few people liked it on facebook. I think that was just what was meant to be. I was supposed to work through my own stuff, without anyone else's point of view, comments. Perhaps, my story is too personal, and I am no longer meant to air it.
We get upset about illusion, "depressed about our depression," as Meher Baba said, in Lord Meher Volumes 14 and 15. We get so obsessed with what eats away at us, because we are obsessed. Thus, it can become a viscous cycle, a circle, and one becomes a mouse on a circular stair, going round and round. I wrote a poem about that once, I am a lab rat on a circular stair, myself the offering, does anyone care?...
So, this winds up my thoughts on this, but identifying with illness, mental or physical, has never been healthy for anyone. And, subsequently some of us are so critical of ourselves, that we do not forgive ourselves for times when we are ill, while others use illness for a pass. I do not. I feel, and I suppose this is where I do not have enough compassion for myself, past, present... I always look for ways to blame myself, and feel I should have done better, known better, and all the while I am not the totally horrible person I think. I know to many people, I probably make no sense, but to myself, I understand what I am saying. Of course, or I suppose I would not write this.
Having been a single parent, and feeling guilty, not for my marriage ending, because not only was it not my choice, but it was not a good marriage, at least not most of the time, guilty for my kids not growing up in a higher standard of living, and for my own emotional turmoil and unstable romantic relationships, which caused unsteadiness and stress. It had its moments, I suppose, the marriage and family life with two parents, I mean.
I have been doing research to find out if there were other mothers, who feel like I do, like they failed in some way, that they should have been stronger, more stoic.
I recall my younger son, bragging about me to an ex-boyfriend of mine, about how, "my mom has never let our utilities get turned off, or not payed the rent. She's always payed the bills, no matter what." That is true. I was thinking, standards should have to be higher in our culture, and I do not know how I managed, but it is true. I actually felt good about him saying that, something to feel good about. Some of his friends were not so lucky. I know married people with kids, who have not been able to pay their bills, got them turned off, got evicted. Also, when my son was in high school, one of his friends, a girl, had to stay over, because her parents never came to get her on a school night. I am not comparing myself, just trying to uphold myself, possibly make myself feel better, for being a drama queen, for not being able to raise my kids in the best neighborhood, for going through phases of instability, for getting involved with the wrong guys, for the most part. But then, as a biker friend once said over a sandwich we were having, "why ya gotta feel better?" That was the night of my first and only 'on the back of a Harley ride.' It was fun, to say the least, not to mention he was an artist, as well as a biker, a true southerner, and obviously a deep philosopher. The question poses something quite deep and philosophical, almost 'A Course in Miracles like.' It left me speechless and pondering the question for years to come: 'why do I need to feel better?' After all feelings are not facts. Right? And, I need to live on life's terms, feel what I feel. I don't know, and yet, good counseling can make a person feel better. I do not know. It certainly provokes some thought, for what it is worth.
How long can a person go on beating their own self up, looking for closure, and excuses perhaps? When I did research, it said finances were the biggest problem of single parents, and that is true, but I do not think it is the worst part. I mean, my kids had video games, and we always had cable. They had clothing, food, and shelter. Sometimes I had a job, and other times I did not. Finally I had to go on complete disability.
But, when I could see, most of the time we had a vehicle, but sometimes we did not. Now I have not driven for years, but I was able to drive for most of the time my younger son was in high school.
I am trying to think of some pros now. I think at times, when the kids were young, that I was more stable with no man around, even more happy, more calm. Sometimes, I think relationships make parenting worse, and bad marriages are not good for kids.
I cannot change the past, and take away the scars I have caused. It was not intentional. Depression can come upon a person, with no warning. I do not have the answers. I wish I were perfect, but I am not.
I realize that kids need stable homes and need to have stress free lives, and they need to be able to be a kid as long as possible, not have to grow up early, because their parent needs them to, so I look back and feel glad about every childish behavior my younger son exhibited, because children need to be able to be children. There is joy in the voice of a child, and a child's eyes should not have to have sorrow in them. Unfortunately, sometimes they do. Is it our fault, parents? Partly, I guess, and there is no way to avoid taking responsibility, so how does one live with the past and make peace with it?
If you have had any experience with being a single parent, or even a parent at all, who has not felt that you did your best in some way, or wish your child or children's life could have been better in so many ways, or any way at all, I would very much appreciate you leaving comments on my blog. Perhaps, someone, or many people, can help me. I greatly appreciate any input at all. I would like as much feedback as possible, even if you have something critical to say, I would welcome your comments, all of them. Please...
Sometimes, even with the magic of snow, occasionally in winter, and hot chocolate or you name it, fuzzy sweaters if that's your thing, you can feel the winter blues, especially when it is too cold to go for a walk or be outdoors much.
I have been kind of an indoor person, due to my light sensitive eyes, but I have been taking full advantage of the sun and warmer weather, walking in the sun and momentarily going outdoors. For some people, sunshine makes a great difference in mood.
They say the sun gives you vitamin D, so that is a good thing. It is still good to protect the skin, and your eyes, from the sun, and in my case, with special sunglasses, that filter out glare and harmful rays.
Sometimes, solitary times and loneliness alone, can cause depression. Sometimes, like in the James Taylor song, 'i seen lonely times when i could not find a friend...' from the song Fire and Rain, (another song like Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, that mentions a girl named Suzanne and Jesus in the same song), but also, at other times, if you pick up your mobile or land line telephone, and call someone, you might get invited to do something, or someone might invite themselves to visit you, which I happen to like. Or, I should say, give you a chance to invite them to visit or do something with you.
Shopping can be fun, and we all have to buy food, unless we are fasting, but that cannot be forever, or we will not survive, and grocery shopping can be enjoyable, and it can be tedious, and unbelievably redundant, in its perpetuation, but so is doing laundry, dishes, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, etc..
Shopping and not buying, can be a fun endeavor, but I have this problem, where I do not feel very fulfilled without at least buying one small thing. Although, it is good practice, and good for the wallet, to say no to things you do not need, or truly like. And, if like me, you are into Feng Shui, if you start buying stuff, or I do, I will end up back where I started, with a lot of junk, so I have to be discerning.
For now, I suppose this is a long enough know it all blog about nothing, kind of like the show, Seinfeld, and soon I will write more on the Civil War, WWII, conservative values, chakra yoga, and other more serious topics, not to mention A Course in Miracles, of course.
By the way, I am a Democrat, but I have some conservative values, as well as some more liberal ones. I am what they call a moderate, but I believe in social programs, which help the poor or those who cannot take care of themselves without help. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "a nation spending more on the military than social programs, is headed for disaster." That is not verbatim, but close enough.
Of course, we do need a strong military, though, and in some wars, there is a right side and a wrong side, like WWII. The Nazis were wrong, period. There is not a gray area, where that matter is concerned.
As to guns, we need more gun control, but I read a lot of Dean Koontz novels, where the good guys survive, because they have guns, but then again, these are novels. Still, I can see how a gun can help, in certain circumstances. Of course, I can't see, so maybe not a good idea for me, although I can be a 'bad ass.' LOL
I wish more self help books talked about forgiving oneself. I think there are too kinds of people, those who think they are victims always, and those who blame themselves. I know this is somewhat putting it in black and white, and there are many gray areas, nuances. It is not that simple, really.
I blame myself for the suffering of others, due to mistakes I made in the past. Truthfully, my children have suffered for the most part, but I also blame other adults in my life, for their own part, but I also beat myself up for certain bad decisions I have made. I know that this is unhealthy. This is where God and A Course in Miracles come in. The past does not exist, in a sense, and I can identify with now, like Eckhart Tolle talks about, rather than looking behind and ahead. I may also say a prayer:
Dear God,
I have made so many mistakes in the past. I have caused suffering for myself and others that I love. I know that You always forgive, so help me to forgive myself and heal the scars of my loved ones, as well as my own. Help me be a better person, with Your compassion and guidance.
Amen
Forgiving oneself is hard. Some people do not take any responsibility for their own part, because they have not worked a program of sobriety.
Either way, being a victim totally in one's mind or blaming oneself for everything, it is wrong, because no one has complete control of the events in life. And, some of our behaviors, disturbances, etc. are often out of our control. People get unwell at times, like having a cold, only mental, and it can last a long time, unfortunately. If during that time, things in one's life got out of hand, and others lives turned upside down, then one has to forgive oneself. We also need to forgive the people who caused us to suffer, who confused us, tormented us, abused us.
Finally, we have to heal, pray, find God within, for He is nowhere else out there. We can be at peace with ourselves, with God, with those we love. In the 23rd Psalm, King David says, "you prepareth me a table in the presence of my enemies..." Yes we have enemies, but we need to let them go, and be with God. We need to find forgiveness. We do not need to be around them. We can just let go of those people, places and things which are not serving us, like a yogic intention. We can meditate on this. Say, "I let go of all that is no longer serving me." And this way, we can be free. We can be happy, like Chris Williamson's Song of the Soul, "let in the light it will heal you, and you will feel you, you can be happy..."
Someone who heard me sing that at one of my performances, said I should sing that song every day. We all can, in our hearts. Namaste.
Most people struggle with jealousy, either sexual jealousy or some other type of jealousy. This is due to 'special relationships' in part, but also due to ambition or wanting prestige.
In the twelve steps, the fourth step, taking a searching and fearless moral inventory of oneself, is about resentments, which stem from only three things, self-esteem, prestege (same thing in a sense), security, and sex relations (sexual jealousy), and these all tie together, because our sense of security is tied in with all three.
We do have special relationships, and a marriage is a special relationship, which is a bond that should not be broken. The thing is to not put anyone before God, even your closest and dearest, although you do have a special relationship with that person. Not being jealous does not mean that cheating is okay, but that one should trust the other if one can.
Sometimes, jealousy is understandable, and it is okay to feel the way you do. No one can control, or should try to completely control how they feel. I am just saying to look at where it is coming from, and if it is coming from any of the three things I suggested, security, self-esteem, or sex relations, depending on the nature of the jealousy and the nature of the relationship.
Recently, I was kind of hurt and surprised. The last man I had a long term relationship, Alan, died of cancer in the fall of 2012. A woman who lived in his building told me, one night when I ran into her, that he told her that he and I broke up, because I was jealous of her.
I was a little upset that he shared this with her, but it was not unlike him, and I told her, "I didn't say I was jealous or think anything was going on. I just suggested he ask you out, because he and I were not getting along." He had gotten really angry at the time. This had been before we knew that he was sick. Maybe, he was angry, because it was true, but I told her that I never thought she was hitting on him, which was true.
I guess I felt bad, because he shared a personal conversation, between he and myself, with her, and because maybe he did want to go out with her, and was using my feelings to go about talking to her, but I am only speculating. I suppose if I were to go on thinking about all this, I would be wasting time. It really does not matter or mean anything, really. I wonder though, why it is that people say things to you, that could be damaging or hurtful, even if well meaning, perhaps not fully thought through. I mean, Alan had died a few months before she felt compelled to tell me this, and perhaps I needed to be 'enlightened,' so to speak, that Alan was not really this great love of my life I may have been fantasizing romantically about, after the fact, because my ego wanted to feel that somebody loved me. Perhaps, her ego needed to tell me that she was desirable, which I am sure she is, and maybe Alan's ego needed to feel that he was the desirable one, amid the competition of females, so that he could feel good about himself. I do not know. Again I am merely speculating, and should not waste more time on this. I have read though, that women tend to live a rich fantasy life at times, and I have learned that that is not healthy. Things are what they are, and getting caught up in romantic fantasies is silly, to say the least, not to sound jaded, but maybe I am. I am just a realist. That is all. If one creates a fantasy, then one stays stuck in an illusion within illusion, and it only leads to a downfall of disaster, even humiliation, according to the I Ching, at least the ego itself, with or without fantasy, but through its hysterical need to be important. This is part of what A Course in Miracles talks about in terms of specialness. We want to be special, and perhaps we are, but not more so than God. That is the best way that I can explain, except that one need not feel more special than someone else, although in romantic love, there is a place for that, as well as love between mother and child. And yet, a mother can possibly love another child too, like an orphaned child, which she might adopt, and still the bond of giving birth is quite great. Yet, as parents, we must free our children, once they have grown, let them spread their wings and fly, and can no longer cling to them. My son is getting married, and he lives far away now, so I am going through much of that type of growth.
Part of spiritual growth, I guess, is getting everything 'blown out of the water' all the time, and having to let go more and more, bit by bit, until the ego is annihilated. The older I get, the more times I have to say, "oh well." Finally it just becomes habit, and nothing surprises me anymore. I guess that is the point that Baba refers to as 'hopeless and helpless.'
In a Course in Miracles, forgiveness is the most important thing - corrected perception, atonement. But, must we not acknowledge, process and not deny what it is to forgive? Surely, that is important, and many of us have spent years trying to forgive at least one person.
It is harder than at seems. Sometimes, I recall things my ex-husband said to me, and I think, 'that was cruel and unusual mental abuse.' Or I remember his bossiness, and it makes me cringe. At times, I have thought I had truly forgiven, and had this huge spiritual awakening, but it turned out that I was wrong, because it always came back to another altercation. So, he moved far away with his new family, and his wife does not want him to speak to me, which is for the best, but as Marianne Williamson says, "if you stand between the person you are with and their ex, you are standing between the healing between a man and a women." I do not mean that you should have an open marriage. I just mean that jealousy does not serve anyone, and thus the healing unfortunately may have to spread to another life, not where the two people can be together, but where they can peacefully work out their differences and forgiveness occurs on both sides. Even if one feels guiltless, there may be something to forgive, even at the deepest level, even a small thing.
Resentment is like drinking poison, waiting for someone else to die. In the meantime, when any hard feelings remain, one may lie in bed at night mulling the feelings over and over again, trying to find peace.
I think the best way is to say a prayer something like this:
Dear God,
I need your help to see this differently.
I cannot carry the burden of anger,
despair and resentment. Help me to see
this differently, and help me to let go of
this baggage, which is weighing me down
and preventing healthy existing and new
relationships. Help me to forgive, by
correcting my perception. I surrender all
of this to
You. I choose peace.
Amen
Then, one might be able to move on, and be stronger. This resentment and pain hinders the future, the present. Sometimes, a lot of guilt is felt, because those of us who are parents may feel that had we made better decisions when we were young, our children may have had a happier, more peaceful and fulfilling childhood. At least, I do, but I cannot go back and make the right decisions, and perhaps not all of it was my own decisions, that I cannot take every bit of the past on myself, and not let others find their own responsibility, other adults that is, in making life difficult all around.
So, I can eternally beat myself up, and tear myself down, and take multiple inventories on my character defects, past, present and future, all the while longing for a chance to relive the past right, but I cannot. So, in order for me to face myself in the mirror, and face life on life's terms, I must forgive myself, first and foremost, and hopefully others will too. At the same time, or subsequently, I can forgive others as well, and this will be a miracle, atonement.
The first step in Feng Shui, is clearing clutter. The sooner the clutter is gone, the sooner you will have a clear space.
Clearing out clutter does not take a special assistant or an expert. If it is something you know you want and love or truly need, keep it. If you do not need it, do not really like it, do not keep it. If it is clothing and the wrong size, do not keep it for when you are the right size. I got rid of business suits. This way a woman with a job and not a whole lot of money, can get them reasonably and worn gently at Goodwill Industries, for a low price, and they are attractive, clean and in good condition. If I ever need a suit again, I will buy a new one, maybe even nicer, that fits better than my old suits, and is a color I like better now, than pinstripe black or brown.
As far as nicknacks, none of that brick a brack is important. Of course, if you have a special shelf in your living or bedroom for that, and you really, really like it, then keep it.
But, do not keep every little thing you ever picked up anywhere. The more clear spaces, the better.
Also, try to compile things in containers, and get rid of little boxes and storage boxes, because these only attract more junk to put in them.
Everything, including sheets and floors, should be very clean. Cleanliness is important in Feng Shui.
You can also clear the bathroom, by getting rid of creams and lotions that you never use or do not like the smell of, etc..
Also, getting rid of old pill bottles and expired medicine is good.
Perhaps, you have too many towels, you can give some to Goodwill, as well as sheets and blankets, if there are some you prefer.
Get rid of things that remind you of bad experiences or have bad vibes. That is important in Feng Shui. Smudging with sage is a good practice, after the fact, because then what you do have still, will have a fresh new feeling to it.
It feels so good, once you have finished. It is amazing. You now have space for doing yoga and meditation, being creative or just relaxing. Creating and eating meals is easier in an uncluttered kitchen and dining room. Uncluttering the kitchen cupboards, also helps discourage roaches if you have them. They are common in the south, where it stays warm a lot of the time. Keep the heat low to form a hostile environment for microbes and bugs, and keep dust under control. Salt crystal lamps are good for this too, and they are attractive. Some people swear by them, and have them in every room.
As far as the office or paperwork, just keep important papers filed in manila folders, in a system you understand. Filing shelves or filing boxes are good for that. I would like to get rid of our desk top, since we have lap tops, but my son does not want to. We do not use it, but if we had it gone, we could have a lot of space on the huge computer desk, where the flat screen T.V. is.
Even outdoors, it is good to throw out junky vases and broken chairs. I should throw out my outdoor table, but I would have to get another. Sometimes, if you do not have a lot of money, you can keep the crummy thing if you need it, until you can get a decent one, but do not keep appliances that do not work.
By Spring, you will have a head start, and will not need to do much cleaning, except perhaps washing bedspreads and curtains if you like. Much love. Happy February.
Most people get the idea in their head, that they need to have this or that item, from clothing to furniture to housewares. I do. Sometimes, you think, I just have to have such and such, and then I'll be satisfied.
