Sunday Story...Takin out the trash

Sunday Story…Takin’ out the trash

Recently I wrote about getting rid of stuff. About how your stuff is limiting you and holding you back. The pile of papers on the table are sucking up energy and attention and creating a hole where your essence is getting sucked into. You don’t notice this while it is happening. And let’s be honest, you didn’t put the pile there to suck you dry. You put it there meaning to get to it later and then it grew and morphed into the black hole. Until you take care of it you won’t notice the detrimental effect it is having on your life.

Maybe it isn’t a pile of papers. Maybe it is some item that has an emotional attachment, a group of memories surrounding it. Every time you look at the item you remember that day or that person or that time when… It feels like if you dump the item you will be dumping the memories. Which we all know is not true. The memories do not live in the item. The memories live in your mind and the item is just a physical reminder of that experience. But the item is still taking up room in the garage or closet or wherever you have stashed it.

You might want a reminder of that happy occasion. You might want to remember a particular event. So how to get rid of the physical item that is creating clutter and sucking up energy in your life? It could be as easy as taking a picture of the item and writing a note to yourself about the experience…the things you want to remember, the smiles, the lights, and the delights of that moment in time. Put those items in a scrap book for your enjoyment later. The item is no longer taking up valuable real estate in your life and the memories are preserved. The act of doing this will create joy in your life. You will be releasing something that no longer serves you, you will be re-living the experience the item represents, and you will be preserving something that is important to you.

Or you might choose to just release the item and bless it on its journey. The memories will still be there. Granted they will fade and become less sharp and poignant but they will remain. In some ways this may be the better choice. Even the scrap book will contain a certain amount of psychic baggage and energy that may limit your ability to move forward. Better to just let it go with love and gratitude, especially if it is an item that can be used to create memories for someone else. This is the use it was intended. It was never intended to just gather dust in a corner of your garage. Let it go.

Then there is the stickier issue; the one about all the stuff rattling around in your brain. This stuff just can’t be thrown out and put on the curb for the trash man. What to do about the memories, hang ups, and stories that are holding you back, that are sucking up space on the hard drive in your brain. How do we release, how do we let these prickly little things go?

The process comes in 3 parts. First (and obviously) you must find them and decide they no longer serve you on your journey. They are not part of your purpose any longer. Second, you must enter a space of gratitude and happiness for whatever part those things played. They were important and served a valuable purpose at the time you created them and decided to keep them. Third, release them to the universe, the divine. Say it aloud…”Thank you for your service, I release you back to source.”

Unfortunately these memories won’t just be gone like the trash on pick up day. You may need to release them again and again. The stories you have told yourself? The ones about not being worthy, of not being lovable, or not being good enough my require you to rebuild new stories.

Let us suppose that your experience in life has you thinking you are not worthy of love. First go back to the experiences themselves. And take a snapshot of what actually happened. Not the story you are telling yourself but the actual event…as if there was a silent camera recording the event. Second, ask yourself if there isn’t another story you could create about that event? And third tell a new story. This is how we change the past by the way. No longer am I unworthy of being loved. Rather, I have kept my love safe until now, when it is ready to bloom and blossom under my new tutelage and with new stories.

I am not going to tell you this is easy. It is not. You have been living with these stories for many years. And these stories have been serving you well. They may have been keeping you safe for those years. They may have been integral to your growth and evolution as a human. But it is time to let them go, just like we give up the childish things as we grow, so too must we give up the stories we told ourselves when we are children. It is your life, your movie…don’t you want to write the script? What happened to you happened to you. It was not good nor was it bad. Good and bad are the stories, the judgments you are making around those events. Make a different judgment, tell a new story, one that empowers you and serves your adult, grown up purpose today, now.

I mean really, what have you got to lose? You can always go back to the old stories if you don’t like the new ones!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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