How to rid our minds of clutter

One of the most common comments I hear when discussing meditation is:

How can I get my mind to be quiet?

We carry in our vast mental storehouse an unfathomable amount of wisdom, chaos and clutter.  Ever try to lay down to sleep and your mind decides to drag out all you unfinished chores, grudges, shoulda, coulda, woulda events; things from the past, worries about the present.  When our minds get cranking in this mode, we could be up for hours tossing and turning.

Some say their minds remind them of pinball machines.

I use the mental picture of mischievous and playful monkeys – 5 little monkeys jumping in our head – only it’s more like 500 little monkeys jumping and playing in our heads.

How can we quiet these monkeys?

How can we find mental peace?

We need quiet so we can listen to the still small voice within.

We need quiet so we can hear the answer to our prayers.

We need quiet so we can attune to our spirit guides.

Prayer is when we are talking.

The answer to our prayers – our guidance – happens when we are still.

So, how to get to this peaceful mental clarity.

Let me give you some of my thoughts on how I achieve mental peace – I have for suggestions.

First – when my mind is really crazy and the 500 funloving spirited monkeys are bounding around my head, I will need a mantra to settle the chaos.

There is nothing fancy about a mantra.

You don’t have to climb the mountains in Tibet to have a sage monk whisper your personal mantra in your ear.

A mantra can be as simple as:

Breathe in

Breath out

Or

Inhale

Exhale

Or one I love for myself, and one I use with my trauma patients is:

I am safe

I am loved

Or

You are safe

You are loved

I repeat this over and over, with each deep inhalation and exhalation until I achieve mental quiet.

Then I focus on my breathing and enjoy this ripe rich and spiritual time,

If a thought returns – I begin my mantra again until I can sink deeper into this mental and spiritual peace.

A second method I often use – especially after a traumatic night at the hospital is to ask my Spirit Guides – or God – to take all of my burdens, thoughts, and mental meanderings and hold them for me until morning.  My prayer goes something like this:

Dear Spirit Team- I need to sleep now, a peaceful restorative sleep.  Today was a full and busy day.  I am asking you to lift out of my mind, body and heart all of the clutter I accumulated today and carry it for me. Hold it for me so I can sleep in quiet, still and beautiful peace.

Let the winds of Spirit blow away any unnecessary thoughts and in the morning, return to me only what is important for this day.  I thank you for your love, guidance and support.

Then, if a stray thought dances through my mind – I just say, “Spirit, please take this thought.”

My third suggestion is good for a cluttered mind during waking hours: it is simply to live in the moment.  When we live mindfully, in the moment, in the now – there is no room for mental clutter or chaos.  

Life happens in the moment and when we are able to keep mindful – our minds are so full of vibrancy and life that we can achieve mental clarity.

And the fourth is the Serenity prayer - another good tool for clearing clutter of any kind in our minds, bodies and hearts.

Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change

The Courage to change the things I can

and

The Wisdom to know the difference.

Try one or all four depending upon your circumstances and the crazy, playful monkeys jumping in your head.  They will truly help you to:

Be still and know that there is God

Be still and know

Be still

BE

Some days we just need to STOP!

Most of us are doers.  We rush from project to project, challenge to challenge - doing things for everyone else, often forgetting to do for the most important person in the equation: ourselves.

We are wives, mothers, girlfriends, teachers, nurturers, fixers, chauffeurs and the like. 

The sense of accomplishment is grand.  But, aren't there times when you feel like your head is in a vise, and you are running just to keep up with yourself?  Do you ever feel like the hamster on his wheel?  Do you feel your blood pressure raise as you try to do all and be all?  I have one word of advice: STOP.

This practical word can be a lifesaver for you.  Let me give you some tips on how to use it.

If you find yourself in a quandary, or an argument (even with yourself), or just spinning your wheels: STOP:

S = Stop.  Just stop what you are doing.  Catch your breath. Take a deep breath.  Feel the sudden sensation of peace when you allow yourself to just STOP.

T = Think.  Think about what the heck is going on.  Invoke the Serenity prayer: are you trying to change things over which you have no control?  Do you need courage (or help) changing things you can change? And do you have the wisdom to know the difference? Think: is this (fill in the blank) serving my greater good?  What would happen if I just let it go?  Would the sun come up tomorrow? Would the world continue to spin on its orbit?  Am I making much ado about nothing?  Or is it truly something within my power to change? If so, begin thinking how you can effectuate the change.  How you can be the change you want to see?

O = Opportunity.  Find the opportunity in the challenge.  Every challenge presents us with an opportunity to learn or to grow.  What is the opportunity in your current challenge?  What is it trying to teach you?  Embrace each challenge as your teacher.   Note: I didn't say summon challenges.  Just embrace the ones that seem to find you. 

P= Proceed.   Once you have taken a time out with STOP, savored the cleansing breaths, thought about what is really going on, found the opportunity or the way to make it a win/win situation, then proceed with your plan. 

Does this help?

There are other uses for STOP besides the acronym.

Some days it seems as if everything you do goes wrong.  After a series of frustrating snafus, invoke the STOP word and just go sit down, maybe with a cup of tea or glass of water.  Take a STOP break just to refresh and renew.  Maybe a walk around the block? Or just a few moments to put your feet up? Or take a play break with your dogs.  Then, go back to your day and start over.   Most of the times, this shift in energy is enough to turn the day into a productive one, rather than one filled with frustrations.

Sometimes we need to keep moving and literally cannot STOP.  By way of example, I am a trauma chaplain and respond to any Code Blues in the hospital.  There are times when I am called away from another heart breaking situation to respond to a Code and as I am speed walking to the Code, when I find my heart racing and my mind spinning, I invoke the STOP command.  I am still walking, but by invoking STOP, I take some deep cleansing breaths; I call on my Spirit Guides (or God, or higher power) to walk with me; I tell myself that I am where I should be; I am calm, I am safe, I am (fill in the blank).  And by taking this mini STOP break while walking, I can arrive at the Code mentally prepared to give 100% to the new family.

If we find ourselves saying something mean spirited: invoke STOP.  We are our thoughts.  Change the thought to something loving or kind.

If we are listening to something upsetting, either on television, or via another person: invoke STOP.  We absorb what we hear.  Tell your friend you choose not to have this discussion; turn off the television or radio.  Breathe in a positive or uplifting thought.  In other words - change your internal channel.

If we find ourselves reaching for food or drink with chemicals or toxins that can stress our body: invoke STOP.  Find a healthy, plant based snack.

Think of ways you can use STOP in your day.    It is a free, easy, yet absolutely powerful tool to have in your Life's Tool Box.

Declutter Your Heart

The heart, the vibrant center of our bodies rules us in so many ways.  Not only is a healthy heart vital to our well-being, but healthy relationships, often ruled by the heart are necessary to our emotional vibrancy.

Yet, how many of us honor our heart center, much less even acknowledge its importance?

In the last Declutter session we discussed eating a plant based diet as a way to unclutter the physical heart.  Avoid fried foods, foods that have been processed adding chemicals and toxins, and food that is void of nutrients.  Exercise, breathe and celebrate life.  If we do these things, our hearts will be physically healthy.

But what about the emotional care of our hearts?  What kind of clutter and debris to we carry around in our centers that weighs us down and gives us heartache?

Grudges

Anger

Sorrow

Worry

Toxic relationships

Let’s talk about ways to liberate our heart from this needless clutter.

              

Take a grudge for instance.  Carrying a grudge, a resentment, or a wish for revenge is certainly a toxic load.  Holding a grudge is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die.  Who are we hurting?  The best revenge is living a wonderful life.  Chances are, the person we are trying to snub has probably gone on with their life and no longer even thinks of the incident.  By holding the grudge, we make ourselves double losers:  first for allowing our self to be wounded by the incident and second, by carrying around the hurt in our heart for so long.  We need to learn how to let go.  Some say, “Let go and let God.”  That’s not a bad way to think about it – another is that the law of Karma will handle it.  Maybe that person, being hurtful, is living their own hell.  Give up your grudge – free yourself from this weight, and put your new found energy toward making your life joyful.

Anger – another heavy toxic load that can actually eat away at our physical body.  If you feel you are carrying anger, take it out and examine it.  Who is the real target of your anger?  Could you be angry at yourself for getting into the hurtful situation.   The Serenity Prayer helps here:  Ask God or the Source to grant you the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Are you angry because you are trying to change something or someone who cannot be changed?  If so, invoke your wisdom and let it go.   If a person has made you angry – pray for them.  You heard me – pray for them.  Why?  Because it helps you to release your anger and soon you not only feel a lighter load, but you feel more loving and heart felt energy in sending healing energy than rather than hateful vibrations.  Don’t cut off your beautiful nose to spite yourself.

Sorrow is a heavy emotion.  It is not toxic if it comes from a true loss, but it is heavy to carry.  If you have experienced a loss, mourn it.  Curl up in bed, pull the covers over your head and weep until you are cried out.  Journal your feelings perhaps.  Share them with a trusted friend or counselor.  If you have lost a loved one to death – look at your life through their eyes.  What would they want you to do?  Often the answer is to life a rich life of joy and happiness.  If so, do it for them until you can do it for you.

Worry happens when we don’t live in the now.  When we live in the moment, that’s where life happens.  There is nothing to worry about in the moment because we are living our reality.  We worry about things that happened in the past, or that will happen in the future.  We have no control over these things.  When you find yourself carrying the worry load, notice it – it is probably past or present.  Acknowledge and dismiss it and bring your focus back to the present moment and live it.  You should feel the lightness of being when you do.

Toxic relationships are “friends” we continue to see even when we allow them to make us feel bad.  Stick up for your wonderful, loving self.  If you feel bad, sad, or mad after spending time with a person, this person is probably toxic for you.  End the relationship.  Surround yourself with friends who enjoy you as you are.  Being alone is better than being with someone who denigrates you.  Do a reality check first, however, to make sure you are not being too sensitive.  But if time and time again, you come away from an encounter feeling less, than you need to end the encounters with this person.  Love yourself and be with those who see and honor your true inner beauty.

Remember, in relationships, we cannot control the other person or what they do.  We can only control our reaction to it or them.  After presented with their action, we have our opportunity to create the response that is in line with our loving heart and with the sacred energy of the world.  Take the high road.  Respond to each encounter with a win/win, or kind and understanding response. 

By taking these steps, we can not only free our hearts from the heavy toxic load we often carry, but we can live in harmony  and beauty.  We can be the light of love and kindness to ourselves, to others around us and to the world.  We have the power to create global peace through our inner healing work.  Let’s do it.

Got some clutter in that beautiful body of yours?

Clutter is chaos, chaos that we welcome into our lives.  Chaos that blocks the flow of our energy and dims the brightness of our spirit’s light. 

               Have you ever walked into a crowded antique store, where everything was smashed together and you had to turn sideways to maneuver through the packed aisles.  What did you feel?  Me? I feel uncomfortable and then find my breathing getting shallow.  These places are often dark and there is no energy flow.  Soon, I abandon my mission, even if there is something special to see, it is not worth sorting through the rubble to find buried treasure.

               Yet, have you ever mined for gold?  You are outside on a beautiful day, sun shining upon you, with your pan in the river, gentle waters flowing as you search for your nuggets.  The energy is inviting and invigorating.

               Our bodies can either be like the crowded store or the free flowing stream and we are the ones who control this. 

               Picture your body like the stream on a sunny day.  Light illumines it and it magnifies this radiance for all to experience.  Energy flows through it: your heart beat sends healthy blood pulsing through your entire body, free to travel and do its job.  Your lungs bring in fresh air to oxygenate every molecule making them vibrant.  Water flows through your body giving it life-sustaining hydration and removing all toxins.  All systems bright, healthy, flowing and glowing – your radiant self.  Breathe in this feeling – it feels awesome, doesn’t it?

               And yet, what do we do to our beautiful bodies?  We, who have the power to heal and sustain them…..we often clog and clutter them.

               We fill them with toxins, chemicals we know nothing about, artificial flavors and food colorings, hormones and drugs given to beasts of burden, stimulants and a gazillion things we can’t even pronounce much less understand their side effects.  And worse, we think nothing about this chemical dump into our bodies and we feed our children the same toxic load.

               The result: clutter, bodily chaos, overwork of our beautiful internal systems, illness, disease and premature death.  Our insides become as dark and dusty as that cluttered and cramped antique store. Clogged and dark, soon broken – and we did this to ourselves.

               I challenge you to change this, to liberate your body from this chaos of internal nasty clutter. You have to power and the knowledge and the ability to do so.  What is stopping you from making this change?

               Here is what I recommend if you decide you want to liberate your body – to free it from this clutter and to allow it to be the vibrant, radiant and beautiful body it wants to be.

1.      Begin right now drinking water.  Hydrate yourself.  Allow this water to begin opening the rivers within your body encouraging them to flow throughout your entire system with  life sustaining hydration.

2.      Avoid any processed food.  In the processing, chemicals and toxins are added.  Most of us are not scientists to even understand what these toxins are, much less what they do.  But suffice it to say, our bodies were not created to handle artificial or processed foods.

Most of these foods are in the internal aisles of your supermarket – when you shop, most of the health sustaining foods are on the periphery of the supermarket – hug the walls with your cart!

3.       Please consider a whole food (ie, unprocessed) plant based diet.  Eating sentient beings not only causes damage to your body such as heart disease and cancer, but it darkens your spirit because another living being had to be slaughtered needlessly.  The best foods to sustain us and keep our bodies healthy and vibrant are from plants.  Start with one plant based meal a day, and then one day a week.  The more you get toxins and chemicals out of your system, the more your taste buds will crave these healthy foods.

4.       Eat mindfully.  Be cognizant of everything you put into your body – is it beneficial to your health? Is it chemical and toxin free?  Is it given to you without needless slaughter of another sentient being?  Will it promote your internal energy and health?

These four steps are guaranteed to clear clutter from your body, brighten your spirit, energize your life and bring peace and beauty to you and to the world – one body, one loving action, one beautiful world.

Create Calm Within Chaos – you have the power.

A Goddess is a woman who radiates light. She is magnetic.

We all know people who can walk into a room and fill it with light.  Where does this light come from? What does it take to ignite our own flames so we too can radiate light?

This light, I believe, is the soul spark that unites us all.  It is a divine gift.  We are born with it. 

But like any living gift, it needs to be tended.  Our spark can flicker and become dim.

Out task as keepers of the light is to breathe energy into our souls in order to fan our divine flame. Our breath is what connects us to all of life - it is life itself.  Our breath can open us to the universal flow of energy, light and love.  It fills us with peace, it balances our energies, and it grounds us. 

By consciously keeping our flame alive and vibrant, our human bodies cannot contain the glow.  We are vibrating on a universal energy level and it creates not only a glow, but a radiant light.  This vibration draws others to us - they know they can come near and be safe and loved and honored.  With this beautiful light, we become magnetic and magical.

We use this gift to spread love and peace to our closest friends and around the globe.  We are part of the global transformation - an agent in loving change.  Let your Goddess spark light up the world in loving harmony.