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Each week I write a Healthy Living column. I talk about
food, toxic substances, mind and the place it holds in healing, or
provide healthy recipes. All these things contribute to healthy living.
Everything is connected. Our health is not measured just by whether our
bodies work or not. Optimum health includes how we deal with others, how
we take care of our bodies, our cars, our home, and our finances.
Everything we think, say, and do is vibrational. Everything is
connected. How
do we take care of the earth? Do we contribute to the suffering of
others? Do we treat ourselves and others with kindness? No act stands
alone.
Everything is sacred, and when we only consider the effect everything
has on us, rather than the effect we have on everything, we get sick.
We get heart sick. We feel like something's missing, and what's missing
is this connection to everything. All is sacred. There is nothing that
can stand outside the interrelatedness of everything.
I saw a video that said that crows can remember someone who was mean
to them, and when they migrate, they fly out of their way to avoid the
place where this human was. The act of buying things we don't need, the
act of letting good food go to waste, the act of poisoning insects and
other species - all these are acts of blasphemy. And the blasphemy is
against ourselves, because we are a part of everything, and when one
thing or any system suffers, we suffer. We share the joy and suffering
of
everything, including microscopic life forms.
Some people want to build a wall on the Mexican border. Those that
do, do not understand the wildlife that will be threatened because of
this act. If the wall is built, it could mean extinction of the big cats
and trouble for thousands of other animals. It will cut their food
supply, their ability to migrate, and threaten their habitats. The fact
that we can even think about building a wall shows how disconnected and
wounded we are.
All disconnection comes from unhealed emotional wounds. Every
politician should have to go through intense therapy and take a "Raising
Your Self-Esteem" course before s/he takes office. We will continue to
annihilate ourselves and our earth family until we dive into the world
of self-healing.
While this is more of an Op Ed piece than healthy living; it is
relevant. Sunday, April 22nd, was Earth Day.
We need a People Day, an Animal Day, a Fish Day, a Fungi Day – we need a
Recognition of the Importance and Interconnectedness of All Life Day.
We need a Self-Forgiveness Day. We need a Day of Innocence. We Need a
Cease Fire Day, where every country in the world sets down their arms
for one day. We need a Kindness Day.
Many people feel they have nothing to contribute to the world, but if
you look at all the possibilities spawned from the problems above, you
might find something that is yours to do. Good God, hold a Flower Day in
your neighborhood to show off flowers. Unless we connect, we are going
to continue down the path of separation. Get in there and connect. Your
health depends on it. And when you do, you will find that everything can
be EZier and EZier. #earthday #weareone
Chaos is an important idea in the totality of the universe, but
when it is a part of our daily lives, it creates and sustains
stress. We are drowning in our stuff. Annie Leonard’s video, The
Story of Stuff, tells of the predicament we are in with our
possessions. Our society not only supports the purchase of more
and more, it solicits these purchases.
It’s possible that we are genetically predisposed to hoard, buy
too much, and clutter. In the past it’s been wise to store food or
other supplies for the future. This is not the case today, but
epigenetics show that genes are malleable and they can change in
the midst of trauma. Environments, even emotional environments,
affect our genes. Could it be that our needing to have so many
things is a product of our parents' or grandparents' experience of
hoarding during and/or after the Depression? Studies
of holocaust survivors suggest that people whose parents
went through the Holocaust carry unique genetic markers: the same
markers their parents carry.
One of the most popular ideas of our time is the idea of
decluttering. It’s about taking control of the physical chaos that
surrounds us and creating order. Does the story of more have an
irreversible hold on our lives? If our genetics predispose us to
hang on to too much stuff, does that mean we are doomed to buy and
keep much more than we will ever need?
We are destined to fail unless we become aware of the problem and
take some time, energy, and effort to overcome the problem. The
first step in overcoming our stuff problem is knowing that we have
a problem.
I've written a 12 step Program to help us with decluttering our
lives that's fashioned after the 12 Steps of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
12 steps to Freedom From Stuff
- We admit we are powerless over our stuff—that our
lives are unmanageable. Just say, “I admit that I
have too many things and, as a result of that, my life is
unmanageable.” Having too much stuff makes a heavy load. We call
that a burden.
- We believe that a Power greater than ourselves can
restore us to sanity, relieve our chaos, and empower us to let
go of useless items. There is a force larger than
what made these problems. It’s larger than our past and more
powerful than our limited minds.
- Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to
the care of The Infinite Source of our understanding.
This is the humbling step of surrender.
- Take an inventory of our keeping behavior and of our
stuff. What behaviors keep our chaotic system going?
For example, too busy to take care of ourselves, don’t know what
to do, self-talk is negative. Make a list of categories of
stuff. For example, kitchen gadgets, shoes, shirts, makeup, or
toiletries.
- Admit to Source, to ourselves, and to another human
that we had too much stuff, didn’t have the ability to
organize our belongings, nor the willpower to let go of our
useless items. Talk with a trusted friend. Tell them
you are in the midst of cleaning up your life and your
environment and that you have a problem. Tell them you are going
to get rid of the things that no longer serve you and that you
don’t want or need as many things in your life as you used to.
- Become entirely ready to have The Infinite Source
remove all these defects of character and self-judgments, and
for Source to break the chains that bind us to our family
history. I am willing to have my life changed at the
core. I am willing to be changed internally so that I can make
the external changes I need to make.
- Humbly asked Source to remove our need to buy and keep
too many personal and household items. Ask Source to instill
in us a sense of having more than enough of all things
necessary to abundantly support our lives. We pray or
ask for help in our own way. The
Cosmic Forces Exercise, developed by David St. Clair, has
proven an effective way to ask for help. Years ago I taught this
method to a Catholic Priest. He told me later that he had solved
a long time problem using this technique.
- Made a list of how having too much stuff saps our
energy, keeps us from succeeding, and keeps us in the
addictive drama of overwhelm. Be specific. For
example, “When someone rides in my car, I feel ashamed because
there’s so much junk and trash in it.” “My purse or briefcase is
too heavy and taxes my body.” ”I’m ashamed to have anyone to my
home. I don’t want them to see the mess.”
- Work the steps, develop an action plan for
decluttering, and execute this plan. Take action. Go
through the steps, make your plans for recovery, and implement
them.
- Continue to take personal inventory and continue to
declutter on a daily basis. Carry a copy of the steps
with us and affirm perfect and easy order in your mind and all
your surroundings. Click
here for a PDF Printable copy.
- Seek, through prayer and meditation, to improve our
conscious contact with Infinite Source, praying only for
knowledge of our dharma and
the power to carry that out. Stay in touch with the
stillness. It is from this stillness that all order is born. The
stillness allows us to experience the enough-ness of the
universe and gives us the ability to lighten our loads.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of
these Steps, we seek to live in freedom from stuff, and to
practice these principles in all our affairs.
My 5-5-5-5 Plan
will help you declutter your mind so you can focus on the task at
hand and provide a plan for the day. The Minimalist
blog offers ten creative ways to declutter your home.
As humans we walk a dual path. One path involves our physical
world. This includes earning a living and taking care of our
physical world in an effective way. It is the path of the
physical, the practical, and the sustenance of life. The other
work we do is on ourselves. This is our dharma. Our dharma
requires that we live life in an effective way that enriches life
itself. In order to live the path of rightness for our lives, we
must identify the obstacles than keep us from fully living.
Working the steps helps us live our dharma, lighten
our karma,
and makes our lives EZier and EZier.
Anne
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