As I prepared to embark on my spiritual pilgrimage, with a one-way ticket to the unknown, decluttering my home became an unexpectedly powerful, eye-opening, experience for my soul.

People seldom jump on the opportunity to let go of old possessions and memories that are no longer serving them, but I was more than ready to let go of all ties, allowing me to face my journey with a sense of clarity and peace. OMG, I needed this so much.

“I’m trying to free your mind Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.” Morpheus, The Matrix

Almost every day as I ‘walked through the door’, I experienced a flood of emotions and cried as I parted ways with not only my material possessions but feeling the loss of boyfriends, ragged relationships, and the fact that motherhood and family times were over.

Then there was the duality of that experience ~ joy and relief because I made someone happy on the receiving end. Resistance was there too. The things I resisted giving up because I wasn’t quite ready, stayed until the dire end.

CHANGE

Changing your life isn’t easy. It can suck and feel really sad.

So if you need a gentle prompt to begin decluttering your life, consider the silver lining in ‘letting go’ that I discovered. You’ll feel better, period. And I found that to be pretty amazing!

You may also feel less burdened and tied down as I did. Perhaps you’ll discover the deeper reasons you’re still holding onto those things. You may even experience greater ease in moving around your space, dancing with a sense of freedom and lightness.

Whatever it is for you, it’s worth doing it. I promise.

The truth is, our belongings can hold us captive to a life we don’t want to be living. I’m sure you’ve asked yourself at least once, “where did all this Sh#$ come from”, as you glance around your home.

Here’s the next challenge I faced~ in the process of learning to let go of my possessions, I was faced with regret. OMG, how can I live without this box of cards filled with love from the last 3 decades? What about those cozy blankets and bamboo sheets? The vase my mom gave me on my birthday….

I wanted to move forward with peace, but I could not ignore the underlying emotions that kept arising over what to do with every little thing.

THE INNER WORK

There was no choice but to do the inner work. I needed to come to terms with the reasons why I had become attached, and why it was so difficult to release the old baseball uniform of my brother who had died at 31.

Sometimes I felt guilty, and other times I felt very sad for a time gone by. Part of me wanted to live in that time again and go forward as I thought life would. I was wrong. It wasn’t going to go the way I thought it was going to. It was time for a new life.

This was all part of the deal I made with myself, and it was the meaning-making of everything that was helping me to turn a corner, and allowing me to release my belongings in peace.

In the end, I learned to accept that letting go of something doesn’t mean letting go of all the memories and emotions associated with it.

It’s all just stuff. You can’t take it with you when you go. As I gave my things away, I realized that we often give immense power to our things and this one thing can keep us trapped.

This reminds me of something I heard Les brown once ask, “have you ever seen a hearse with a u-haul attached to it? I don’t believe I ever have.

So why do we cling so hard to our things?

THE DESTINY-CLEARING APPROACH

The focus of my ‘Destiny Clearing’ approach is about letting go of the past and embracing a new future on an emotional, spiritual, and physical level. After all, these are all parts of us that are connected in us, as one spiritual being in a physical body.

By surrendering to what has been and ceasing to hold onto it, we open the door to a new future filled with wonderful possibilities. It’s not easy to embrace this at the start, but it becomes quite evident in the end.

“By breaking free from the chains of the past and allowing our destiny to be fully realized, we can create a life of abundance and joy.” Shelley Marenka

Material clutter can be more than just an unnecessary burden in life.

I found it to be a stronghold that kept me chained to the past.

As humans, we often become emotionally attached to the items we own, giving them meaning and allowing them to become part of our identity. The stories we tell ourselves about them become part of who we are and this makes it even harder to let them go.

I’ve discovered that this is one of the main reasons why people find it so hard to do this thing called ‘decluttering.’