Clearing Out The Clutter

 

Clearing Out The Clutter - should be the theme of my summer!!!! Literally and figuratively, this summer has been an expedition in releasing what does not serve me and focusing on what really matters to my mind, heart and soul. After losing 100 pounds, I had so many clothes that no longer fit me. I tried to selling items on Facebook Marketplace, with no lock, bus was able to consign a few items at Best Friends Consignment. I still had six bins of 3X-XL & size 18-14 clothes. I decided to have a garage sale. Ultimately, after two days of sitting in my yard, reading books with my mom; we sold $100 worth of stuff. At the end of the last day of sales, we bagged everything up and took it to Savers to donate it. 

I also did not plant a garden this year. I realized last summer that my garden of vegetables and mostly weeds was not bringing me joy. I liked when it was nice and orderly when I first planted it, but I couldn't spend every hour in the garden, weeding and trimming. There were other things around the house that needed to get done. Other areas were becoming overgrown and quite honestly, I couldn't stand all the mosquitos. 

So I decided that this summer, I would focus on a different part of the yard every weekend to trim down the overgrowth, weed, and allow for the beauty of the plans to be enhanced by seeing the sun. The act of decluttering my yard, which is roughly 2 acres, with 4 acres of woods, is an absolute metaphor of what I was doing in my mind and soul as well. 

I had my trusty pruner and lobber and went to town!!! My burn pile grew and grew with wild grape, buckthorn, honeysuckle, mulberry, sticker weeds and a bunch of other stuff that was blocking out our beautiful flowers. We were finally able to see our vast variety of hostas, liatris, hydrangea, lilac, day lily, Asian lily, cone flowers, lily of the valley and a bunch more. The grounds around our home was really starting to look amazing!!!

As in any cleansing ritual, there will be some set backs and challenges. At the beginning of the summer when the trees were starting to bloom, we discovered that three of our large oak trees in the front yard were dead. The largest of them all, was over 100 years old, and also had a bee hive living in the hallow middle. My father, husband and son cut them down themselves, with their ingenuity of ropes, trucks and chainsaws got all three trees down, without hitting the house or getting hurt. Unfortunately, the bees got displaced and I hope they were able to find another spot to build a hive; not next to or inside of my house. The clean up of the yard was extensive!! So many branches, bark, little sticks and huge trucks that needed to be cut down further and moved. They are now all in a humongous burn pile that will eventually need to be taken care of. We also want to use my fathers log splitter to make fire wood to sell at the end of our driveway. 

Another not so great outcome of this yard cleansing, was me getting poison ivy. I have hiked, camped and been digging in the dirt for all of my almost 44 years and have never been affected by poison ivy. But, I had a delayed hypersensitivity to urushiol. Urushiol is the oily substance in poison ivy that causes an immune response and severe itching and rash. My arms, legs, torso and even behind my ear got the rash. I was scratching so much that I broke the skin and after almost three weeks still have redness and need to use Calamine lotion each night so I can sleep uninterrupted by the itch. 

I guess this is yet another metaphor for deciding to clear which that does not serve you, and cleansing yourself by finding purity within your habits, what we consume (food/drink/media), our thoughts/judgements, self-talk and within our environment. It can be painful, messy in the beginning and full of coming to terms with what causes us "suffering" and eliminating it from our lives. 

Yoga is more than asana's or the poses. There are 8 Limbs of Yoga. 1. Yama (Restraints): Ethical principles governing interactions with others, such as non-violence, truthfulness and non-stealing. 2. Niyama (Observances): Ethical principles governing one's own actions, such as contentment, purity, and self-discipline. 3. Asana (Postures): Physical postures designed to improve flexibility, strength and balance. 4. Pranayama (Breath Control): Techniques for regulating and controlling the breath. 5. Pratyahara (Withdrawal of Senses): Turing inward and withdrawing attention from external stimuli. 6. Dharana (Concentration): Sustaining focused attention on a single point. 7. Dhyana (Meditation): Deepening the state of concentration and achieving a state of inner peace. 8. Samadhi (Union): A state of blissful absorption and oneness with the universe. 

Moonswept Yoga

The second limb of niyamas or duties directed to ourselves; our own inner observances. "The niyamas are five practices that invite us back to our center. These five personal observances are daily practices that sustain us and keep us walking a path towards justice, liberation, ease and ultimately joy. They are an evolution towards balance, harmony." Jaime Hanson Yoga

My summer of Clearing Out The Clutter is Saucha, the first observance in the niyamas. "Shaucha is about purity and cleanliness. This niyama is related to both external and internal cleanliness. This can mean a wide range of things including how we keep our house, what we put in our boides or anything else we consume including media and relationships. Shaucha guies us in identifying bad habits that longer serve us and through this new found purity we can move though life with ease and care" Beginner Flow Yoga 

Other ways to practice Saucha are: 

• Lighten your loads (physical weight, mental clutter, emotional rigidity, messy living space). 
• Introduce clean, wholefoods, vegetables, fruits and drinks into your diet. Eliminate processed foods, high fat meat and refined sugars.
• Allow things to be as they are, not as you wish they were. 
• Let go of judgments, expectations, opinions and disappointments. 
• Keep from attempting to change others or hide from your true self. 
• Slow down and rest as must as you need - this is super important for your body to be able to heal and rejuvenate. 
• Do one thing at a time. Fully focus on your intention, purpose and be in the present moment. 
• Journal thoughts, challenges and judgments to release them from your mind.