Being an awakened person in this world is a tricky thing.  There are very few people to call when the weirdness sets in and we are forced to use our innermost compass and try to just figure it all out.  Being awake and also empathic feels two ways- I either feel like I’m in absolute bliss floating around on love and beauty or I feel like I’m a balloon in a room full of sharp pins.  The world around me can feel daunting.  When I am aligned with my own center and not affected by the outer world I am strong and solid and Empress-like, commanding my own ship, creating vividly and freely allowing a flow to exist through and around me.  When I’m off my center, though, I am a balloon, in the pin room, with a lot of wind gusts. In that room I feel vulnerable and panicked.

So the moral of the story is to know how to stay in my center.  That means having a really good self care routine, positive self talk, and an outlet for the balloon to soften before it becomes vulnerable or bursts. But, I also do another thing…  I also go after the room itself so it has less pins.  After all, a balloon in a soft room is not vulnerable.  I take the time to consider my environment and make adjustments so the space around me feels less daunting. I cultivate changes both inside me and outside me, working to align myself in both.  Sometimes changing the outside means little things like tidying up, cleaning, adding inspiration to a room, rearranging things in my home, and sometimes its bigger, like getting out of town.  You know that awesome feeling of being reset when we travel, paint a room, or decorate for a holiday or party.  Changing the outside is sometimes a step to feeling alignment.

Sometimes we need to create a sacred space around us so that we can find ourselves again.  That space needs to be free of anything that will increase our stress and overstimulate us.  It needs to be free of the outside world’s messages about who we are and should be, and instead, full of the authentic “ME” factor.  We want to create for ourselves a place of serenity where we can feel most comforted and able to return to ourselves, which means it needs to be soft and welcoming and quiet in every sense.  Quiet doesn’t mean silent, either.  It just means a softening of sound and light and space and stimuli.  Creating space around us that feels nurturing is hugely important.

As I consider the new year and my intentions for it, I ask myself what my space needs to be like in order to nurture that lifestyle and the growth I expect. I know that the last of my wallpaper needs to come down in my bedroom so that I can call my house complete.  Its not even the wallpaper that bothers me.  It is a sense of putting the old in the past so I can start fresh.  I need to file away paperwork that is looking at me, because when it is visible it pulls me into stress and worry about things that feel uncomfortable to me like investments and health insurance.  I want my environment to be full of nature, books, and beauty.  Not piles of old receipts and bills.  I need to add color and warmth to my decor right now because it is gray, cold and rainy in Pennsylvania and will be this way for about four months. I need to add some pictures of places I love, place that make me feel whole and free and alive. I need a few pictures of the sea and mountains, more sacred cues that hold the energy of potential and reminders of my most blissful moments, my greatest inspirations.

When I work on the environment around me there is a constant dialogue with my higher self going on, too.  I am playing and conversing with my best friend and shopping around my creative mind, pulling forward the things that light me up.  It is a practice in itself, like meditation and yoga, this communing with oneself.  It is a practice of self love and self discovery.  It’s questioning what I like and honoring my needs.

I stopped at a furniture outlet yesterday and for two hours I communed with my soul, asking if this would be nice or if that pattern pleased me or if this would serve any purpose.  In the end I bought nothing.  But the experience of spending that time with myself, using my creative mind and spending time offering myself nurturance, was holy. Just thinking about making sacred space felt fulfilling.  When I got back home I felt like I had been out on an adventure with a great friend and happy to slide onto my cozy couch with my sweet dog nestled into my leg.  No change was made other than the time spent considering what I desire.

As this new year, new decade, approaches, consider your space and ask what about it might shift and change to accommodate your inner needs more.  Do you need to purge old energies, get organized, create a cozy spot, add inspiration?  How will you then take that new space and allow it to transform your inner being? Can that sacred space outside help connect you to the sacred space within? Can your outer world help support the evolution of your inner world?