My Memorial Day Clean Up

Whenever I am going through a period of change and transformation, and I feel that things are re-arranging themselves internally and I am not sure which way is up and which way is down, my go to solution is to embark on a de-cluttering project.

So yesterday I tackled the bathroom and ended up chucking out two large shopping bags full of outdated lotions and potions and supplements.  As I was gleefully discarding 10 years worth of obsolete stuff, it dawned on me that this was the perfect backdrop for also getting rid of outdated mindsets, beliefs and worldviews.

You know the ones I mean. “I can’t do that.” “I’m too old/too young/too you name it.” “I’m not qualified.” “I’ll never be able to learn that.” “What if….”

Just like with the stuff of life that we accumulate, we collect these obsolete and often limiting beliefs about ourselves and then hang on to them for dear life.

Why do we do that?  Inertia, habit, comfort, fear, the notion that if they were useful at some point, surely we might need them again in the future.

The trouble is, as we well know, the old must go out to make room for the new. When life gives us the opportunity of stretching beyond what we thought was possible, the old ways of thinking and being in the world just don’t match up any more. 

The scary part… it’s that vacuum – that space between letting go of the old, and not yet quite knowing what the new is. Saying good-bye to what is familiar, and saying hello to that expanded, but still unknown new way of seeing life, of seeing ourselves.

It’s about trusting that if you let go of who you thought you were, and you are not yet sure who you are now, who you will become will make itself evident.

It’s about looking at those empty spaces on the shelf, and just enjoying the spaciousness, and resisting the temptation to rush out and fill them again.

It’s about hanging out in the mystery, and trusting that your new, expanded, brighter self will reveal itself to you. It’s about being OK with not really knowing what is going on, and embracing the enormity of infinite possibilities, and opening your heart to welcome change.