We have been talking this month in our Teacher Training Program about Non-possessiveness. Each month we have read about and then tried to live one of the Yamas (the restraints) that is talked about in the first limb of yoga. In our culture we think that we own everything in our care. But in reality, we own nothing. If we begin to take care of those things in our life as if we had them for a time and then were to release them back to the world we might do a better job in caring for them while we have them. I love the notion in Feng Shui that everything is energy. Therefore, everything that is in our care currently we have a string of energy tied to. So those boxes in the attic and basement are taking up some of our energy. The same goes for all of those emails in our inbox. They are like a list of “to do’s” that just don’t go away. I am one of those people who love the New Year because it motivates me to clean things out and look up so that I can see the things that I have not been caring for like I should. I have used this month to clean out my closets, my little piles that had accumulated around my house, and finally today my email inbox. Until recently I was not deleting all of those extra emails that come in each day. I was skipping over them but not deleting them. Since early January I have been deleting those emails as they come in to my box but I had not gone back to the months before. It took a long time this morning to go back and get rid of them all but I cannot believe how much lighter my mind feels after doing it!
Our yoga practice does many wonderful things for us. One of those things is that is allows us to create space inside our muscles and our connective tissues so that we can live more freely in our body. Our body will continue to contract if we do not go out of our way to stretch our muscles and facia frequently. Our surroundings work the same way. If we do not purposefully create space in our surroundings, it will fill up with clutter. I challenge you to de-clutter something today. Maybe it is your purse, your car, your in-box, or your closet. Think about non-possessiveness. Won’t you feel lighter if you create space inside and outside of yourself. By the way, thank you Lisa for reminding me it had been awhile since I posted.
