Sunday 24 August 2008

Creating Space


It's that time of year again, when I feel the urge to do a "spring clean". (Yes I do know that it is nearly autumn.) I always see spring and autumn as seasons of transition. I love all of the seasons, but I feel the need to cleanse my home and my life generally at this time of year, as if to prepare for the coming winter months. Incidentally my most successful detoxes have usually been in September.

For me spring cleaning is a permanently on-going process, a way of life and a state of mind, but there are times when I am more focused on creating space than usual. Clutter clearing never seems to be finished! Really I aspire to a minimalist lifestyle, with no clutter anywhere and discreet storage everywhere, where the eyesight flows along clear surfaces and while I believe this is achievable (hopefully) stuff just seems to accumulate, especially paper clutter. Whenever I feel a little sluggish or bogged down or as if the energy in my life and environment doesn't seem to be flowing smoothly, a good clutter clear feels so good!

I view clutter clearing and spring cleaning holistically. Something that works on all levels, body mind and spirit. I tackle my home, I try to clear out my physical system by eating healing foods and I try to clear the junk from my mind too. I try to create sacred space within my home and revitalise all aspects of my life. Due to the interconnectedness of all things, I also believe that the external environment is merely a physical expression of the internal environment, so that by clearing out that cupboard under the stairs, your wardrobe, the kitchen drawer, you really are cleaning your body, mind and spirit too! Working externally affects the internal condition, just as inner work affects the external condition.

Creating space allows Divine providence to act more effectively in your life. Divine Providence is where what you need comes to you when you need it. For example, the other day I was generously given a hoover by a neighbour who was buying a new one. Now I already have a vacuum cleaner, so I didn't really need one but this was a Dyson, so looked nicer and newer than my vacuum cleaner which has probably seen better days and was already quite old when it was given to me (although it has always worked perfectly)! At this point I did think "oh no two hoovers, more clutter!". A couple of days later my partner, who is a builder, was working in a lady's house and she a room full of stuff she wanted to get rid of, including a computer. Now my own computer's memory was choc-a-block and I really needed a bigger hard drive, so I was very happy when my partner came home with a computer with a slightly bigger hard drive / memory than mine! I transferred my stuff on to the new(er) one and cleaned up my one. I was able to give the old computer to my friend who didn't have one (as she says, bringing her out of the dark ages) and amazingly it turned out that the lady who had kindly given me her computer.......needed a hoover! Its amazing how things work out! Thats what I call Divine providence in action! I needed a computer with more memory and the Law of Attraction set to work and hey presto! I got exactly what I needed and a lovely new vacuum cleaner too! Not only did I get what I needed but I was able to act as an agent of Divine Providence and pass on to others what they needed. Isn't life amazing?

So over the next few days I shall be clearing out, tidying up, cleaning, shredding, chucking, recycling, deleting (musn't forget the computer) filing, pruning, re-organising and cleansing. All of this is in an effort to create space. Space allows the brain to think more freely, energy to flow, the body to move. Space in your home allows the energy to move and to shift things in your life. Who knows what amazng things will happen as a result!

Thursday 21 August 2008

Not enough Hours In The Day


I don't know about you, but maintaining self discipline, motivation and time management is difficult for me. In my professional life,these are issues that I have under control and can even excel in, being a very goal orientated person, but in my personal life it is a very different story, especially since I made the decision to look after my daughter full-time.


No matter what I am doing, I can't help feeling that I am supposed to be doing something else. If am am writing on the computer, I feel I should be playing with my little one, If I am playing with her, I feel I should be doing some housework, If I am cleaning up I think that perhaps I should take the opportunity for a bit of me time, If I am getting a little me time I think I should really be giving my partner some attention, and so on and so on. The fact that Jasmine feels I should be focused solely on her 100% of the time doesn't make this any easier. Prioritising is a little bit of a problem lately!


The funny thing is, I thought that by taking work out of the equation, for now at least, my life would get simpler. I now realise that your working life provides a structure for your life, perhaps because at times it seems to leave little room for anything else. I might feel I spread myself a little too thinly between various commitments and priorities now, but before I gave approximately 80% of my time and attention to work and very little was left for anything else. I didn't have time to question how my time was divided or to doubt myself, because there was no time!


I have discovered how little of myself I was able to give to my partner, family, friends, neighbours, community activities and other interests. Obviously Jasmine gets the bulk of my attention and my day is structured around her needs, such as her nap time, meal times, bed times and her routines, but I am able to focus on aspects of my life that were neglected before.


No matter what your situation, when it comes to how you divide your time, focus and priorities, compromises need to be made. Unfortunately I spend too much of my time, questioning myself, berating myself, doubting my capabilities to get things done and feeling as though I should be doing better. What a waste!


Ultimately every second, of our lives is a precious gift, and our lives are limited. No-one is given an exact timetable for our lives and so much of what we take for granted can be taken away at a moments notice. Our Life-Time is a limited resource and all of it, the good, bad, happy and sad needs to be valued for the learning experience that it is.


So my priority as of today is to stop wasting time worrying about what I should be doing with my time! So I might not get everything done, my home may not always be tidy, people may feel I don't give them as much of my time as they would like, I may not always write this blog regularly, but I will know that I am doing my best and that that is enough. I don't have time for regrets but I do have time to enjoy and value my life and the people and experiences in it!

Monday 4 August 2008

I Haven't Abandoned My Blog !


It has been a few days since my last blog entry. Now I have been known to have problems with self discipline and while I am good at starting a new project, I am not always very good at maintaining or finishing them. But to be fair I have had my reasons for tardy blogging!

I have been concentrating my efforts of the last week on the Starlight Intuitions Forum. There have been quite a few changes.

For a start I have combined forces with Louise of TACRA which was formerly known as the "Tarot & Angel Card Readers Alliance" and is now known as the Tarot, Angel & Clairvoyants Resources Association. The site originally sold readings (I myself was a TACRA Reader) and had its own forum. I was also a moderator on the TACRA forum for a while.

Shortly after I had set up Starlight Intuitions Forum & Blog I finally had the chance to talk to my friend Louise. I discovered that Louise had taken some time out from the site and really wanted to move in a new direction, but wasn't quite sure of the specifics, and she hadn't decided what she wanted to do with the TACRA Forum. I felt I had the time to devote to a forum in addition to this blog. A solution was born.

We decided to operate as sister sites. We would move the forum membership to Starlight Intuitions, keep the old forum accessible as an archive and link to Louise's new and improved website. In turn Louise would link to Starlight Intuitions.

It's funny what happens in certain relationships. It is a though some people come in to your lives at specific time in order to help, inspire or work with you to further your goals and if you are lucky you can do the same for them. I would say Louise and I have that kind of friendship.

So for the past week I have been busy transferring the TACRA members to Starlight Intuitions, adding the new members email addresses to the email listing, writing a "Welcome Email", and sending it to all new members and placing links on the log & Forum to the TACRA sites.

I have also been making other improvements to the site. I have updated the calender to show lunar and solar astrological information, multi-faith holy days and celebrations and birthdays of esteemed individuals. There are now links to Jonathon Cainer's daily horoscopes for each sign. I have been adding and improving, tweaking and re-vamping. I hope you will notice a difference.

Anyway I just wanted to let you know that I have incorporated all the planned changes and seem to be back on top of things (for now at least) and normal service will now resume on this blog.

The one negative of this hive of activity, other than putting this blog on the back burner is that I felt I didn't give my friends and family as much of my time as I would have liked to! Last night having completed most of the planned tasks on the forum I was watching a drama programme. One of the characters was talking of the importance of enjoying the moment, of not saving things for a special occasion and putting things off till later, once you have got everything done!

Now this isn't exactly a new concept to me, but one I sometimes need reminding of! It is so easy to put things off, to wait until later, to fill your time with being busy. So just so you know, if I don't blog for a little while I am either busy, or I am busy not being busy and making time for the little things!