New Year’s Focus

I really dig personal transformation and self-discovery, so I find myself going a bit haywire over New Year’s resolutions. I have a whole series of posts right below this one, talking about how I’m going to ease up on myself with a “do one thing at a time” motto, but in the first several days of the New Year–I’ve caught myself feeling overwhelmed by a daunting to-do list.

And that’s OK. It takes practice to change! You have to perform something for 3 weeks to create a habit, otherwise your brain reroutes you right back to your normal patterns. On day 3 of the New Year, I was so restless that I caught myself trying to plan a spontaneous trip–to anywhere exotic and expensive. That idea goes directly against at least 2 of my resolutions. But, you should’ve seen my to-do list at the time–what else was I going to do, but plan an escape?!

I named these first 7 days of the New Year, “The Week of Cleanse.” If the name would’ve matched my expectations, it could have been called: The Week of Cleanse, Scrub, De-Clutter, Organize, and Redecorate the House. By day three, I was exhausted (I’d cleaned only a few rooms as thoroughly as I’d planned) and grumpy. Also, when I feel that way, I begin to seek an insatiable amount of attention and recognition. 😀 It’s like I’m asking the world to please, tell me I’m doing enough. What can I say? Old habits are hard to break.

While my plan was to “cleanse” the entire house, plus my own mind, body, and spirit, I recognized the ridiculous expectations I had for myself (read: my husband told me I was being relentless and asking too much of any day’s time), and changed the to-do list. I decided to organize half the house (the upstairs), and that immediately felt better! Yes, organizing the whole house would make me feel good. Scheduling it all in five days makes me feel overwhelmed. Lesson learned!

Overall, it was a success. I tackled all of the bedrooms and upstairs closets, which is no small task, and I removed 10 garbage bags of trash and donations. Hello, better Feng Shui! I haven’t named next week, yet. I’m too busy chill-axin with the latest copy of O today. What’s your current focus?

 

 

Smudge-Tastic

Do you ever find yourself completely lost, but in a really good way? Let’s say, you make a wrong turn and you end up in a dense state forest on a dewy summer morning. You find yourself driving beside a cool and narrow river, and you roll your windows down to take it all in. You’re not sure where you are, you’re still lost, but you’ve also found quite a bit. I love, Love, LOVE these happy accidents (love you too, Bob) in Life. They happen all the time.

This year has offered me a series of new ideas. I’m never sure where the next one is going to lead, but I love losing myself, and simultaneously finding myself in them. Blogging was a brand new idea (to me) and I can hardly believe the new things I have learned. And then I found beading and bracelets.

Have you ever stumbled onto an activity and fallen in love–and then you realize how much of your life has been leading up to that discovery? This happened for me with horseback riding. When I started taking lessons and completely lost myself in the passion I had for this activity, I could trace hints of that passion back to my early childhood. It happened for me with writing, I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to sit down in a private spot with a notebook. It happened again for me with beading and bracelets: the way I admire my wrist when I have a bracelet on, the way I used to string beads as a girl, the way I long for a delicious piece of arm candy. Sometimes, I wonder what’s next. I think maybe I’d like it if all of these interests would surface at once, so I could play with them all! But, I would probably be overwhelmed by that kind of eruption, so I’m grateful for the way Life unfolds.

So, in this last week, I’ve lived hunched over in a world of creation between my eyes and my fingers with gemstone beads flying in and out of the picture. It’s been wonderful. I’ve made bracelets for myself, friends, family, and even my first customer on Etsy! What Love! And I’ve gotten really good response. The gemstones I use are of the Earth and they come with attributes: they add joy, courage, luck, prosperity, and rhythm, among many others. Once I clean them, bead them, and tie the bracelet off, I smudge them.

Smudging is a Native American tradition that involves burning white sage. The white sage is said to release any negative energy on the material (object, person, or room), which is released and recycled back to positive. The white sage smudge then brings forth and activate the positive ions–bringing alive the stone’s best ideals.

I think each smudge stick is simply beautiful.

White Sage Smudge Sticks

I love this so much that I’ve purchased my own supply of smudge sticks. I sell them with my bracelets, wrapped up pretty and neat.

These are fantastic for a Feng Shui energy-cleansing too!  Visit my Energy Shop on etsy if you’re interested.

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Until the next time I pull my head out of the beads, dear friends!