Welcome January 2011

Starting a New Year is always the perfect time to wipe the slate clean, literally, in more ways than one including cleaning house!!  I am sure by now; all your holiday decorations are now neatly packed and tucked away. This leads me to share with you a wonderful ceremony that will bring positive influences on the way you feel about every aspect of your life.

Space Clearing and Home Blessing

The Space Clearing techniques that are reemerging have their source in the distant past. Throughout human history, there have been rituals for purifying and uplifting the energy of homes, temples, shrines and public meeting places. Since earliest times, people have been performing these Space Clearing ceremonies for a very simple reason… they work!  Some of the tools used throughout history include drums, rattles, gongs, chanting, salt and prayers, smoldering resins and burning herbs.  For this particular ceremony, I suggest you purchase a “sage” stick and “sweat grass” incense/herbs.

Space Clearing involves a four-step process. Each step is integrally linked to each of the others, and together, they create a kind of magic. These steps are Preparation, Purification, Invocation, and Preservation.

1. Make sure your “home” is free of clutter and is clean. Take a purifying bath with salts or essential oils added to the water.  After dressing in clean clothes, you will want to smudge yourself with ceremonial “sage” smoke.  Setting your intention for the clearing is the most important step here. Where intentions go, energy flows. So take a few moments to decide on what you’re hoping to achieve from this clearing.
2. This is the step where you will do your actual Space Clearing. Light your sage stick so that the smoke is smoldering. Crack a window in the back of your home so that all negative energy has a way to escape from your home. Begin at your front door. Ask for guidance and pray for your home and its occupants. Start to slowly walk clockwise along the wall of each room, from room to room allowing the smoke to rise up without stopping. Continue throughout your home until you arrive back at your front door.  Close with a prayer.  Repeat this process with your sweat grass incense. The sage removes all negativity and the sweat grass invites the positive energy in.
3. Bless your home with an invocation. A typical blessing might be:

“May the Creator within all things bring blessings and peace for all of the members of this household. May this home be filled with joy, laughter and love. So be it”

The invocation is meant to reflect the unique intention underlying the ceremony. If you wish to create a space filled with quiet meditative energy, then your prayers will call in this kind of energy. If you want to fill your home with love and healing, ask for this to be so. Whatever energy you invite will be the energy that permeates your home. Ask and you shall receive.

    4.     The final step in Space Clearing is to preserve the new radiant energy that you’ve called into the home. Doing so keeps it alive. Just as plants and other living things need to be carefully tended in order to thrive, energy also needs to be renewed in order to maintain its healing power. One way is to dedicate a small home fountain to inner peace and serenity. Or place a small stone near the base of a healthy plant. Write a powerful word, wish or symbol on the stone.  Another preservation method is setting up a permanent altar in your home. As you spend time meditating or praying at your altar, your thoughts and intentions will once again connect you to the energy of your home and revitalize its power.

The Full Moon in Cancer on January 19, 2011 brings with it the energy of defining our foundations for our family and home life.  This is the time to make solid choices for what you want in your life. The timing couldn’t be better to do this Space Clearing ceremony.  This is definitely the week to release what no longer serves you. Ask yourself how safe and secure do you feel then create your list to burn it within 12 hours of the Full Moon.

Peace and Prosperity,

Lauren

Interested in a Professional Home Blessing and Space Clearing please feel free to contact me at lauren@claritywith laurenlarsen.com

Set an intention. Plan consciously to enjoy your well deserved vacation before the time comes. Tick off the days on your calendar until you leave, talk out loud about how excited you are to be going away, and consciously look forward to a truly restful but fun adventure away from home.

Start packing several days before you leave. Select, fold, and put aside the outfits you plan to wear. Do not wait until the last minute to pack, and do not pack too much! You will likely end up wearing your most comfortable shorts and t-shirt more frequently than you think.

Avoid overextending yourself before vacation. Plan to get several good nights of sleep before leaving. Do not cram in extra-long hours at the office in anticipation of your absence. If you have trouble sleeping, consider Melatonin, an over-the-counter supplement that is most effective on a short term basis for sleeping difficulties due to jet lag. There are several herbs that are helpful for sleep, such as valerian and chamomile, which have a calming effect.

Make your room as familiar and comfortable as your home. Bring your most comfortable pajamas, your own pillow if possible, and relaxing music. Often the front desk can provide a CD player if the room does not already have one.

Be patient and “roll with the punches.” Inevitably, things will happen that may be contrary to your well-laid plans. If there are delays or you have to wait in line, first, accept it as being inevitable and then use the opportunity to do something. Make sure you have a good summer read with you. Welcome unscheduled “downtime” with your family or travel partners as an opportunity to just be.

Spring is a time for renewal, but for people who suffer from seasonal allergies, it can mean renewed suffering due to constant sneezing, a runny nose and itchy, watery eyes. Fortunately there are healthy, drug –free alternatives for treating and alleviating these symptoms if you are willing to make changes in your diet, lifestyle and state of mind.

Daily Diligence

• Avoid tobacco smoke and alcohol, which irritate the lungs and eyes. Alcohol increases the production of mucous.
• Spend as little time as possible outdoors and keep windows and doors shut during the day. If you must be outdoors, limit it to the morning and evening rather than midday, when grasses pollinate.
• Upon coming in from outside, shower and wash your clothes to remove pollen.
• Avoid doing yard work; if you do, wear a mask and goggles.
• Avoid hanging laundry outside; pollen gathers on clothing and linens.
• Keep pets inside or outside; they bring pollen indoors with them.
• Buy a good-quality air purifier and filter

Herbal Help

• Place slices of cool cucumber over the eyes to help relieve itchy, red eyes; alternate them with steeped, cooled black tea bags.
• Place eucalyptus oil in a humidifier and inhale its vapor or add it to your bath water to help relieve congestion; the oil is available at health food stores.
• Use a Neti Pot, an Ayurvedic device that helps cleanse allergens from the mucous membranes in the nose, providing relief from sinus congestion. Also available at health food stores.
• Eyebright, yarrow and stinging nettle liquid extracts help relieve hay fever symptoms; 20-30 drops twice daily is recommended.
• Take 1,000 mg of the flavonoids Hesperidin and Quercitin, which provide an antihistamine effect.

Dietary Do’s

• Consume magnesium-rich foods such as bananas, kidney beans, soybeans, almonds and brown rice.
• Horseradish is excellent for a runny nose and congestion. Use it as much as you can stand, as a condiment.
• Eat foods rich in sulphur, such as onions, and garlic, which help thin mucous.
• Consume yogurt. Homemade yogurt is ideal but any soured products consumed three times per week can greatly reduce the incidence of hay fever attacks, particularly those exacerbated my grass pollens.
• Avoid cakes, pies, chocolate, coffee, dairy products, canned or packaged foods, soda pop, sugar, white flour products or any junk food; they suppress the immune system.

As part of my healing journey, I practice clearing my mind and body of clutter and debris – physical, mental and emotional. Keeping my living space clean and clear of clutter is an extension of my success in my daily practice for peace and harmony. For most of us, spring allows us the opportunity to open up the windows cleaning and clearing out the stagnant energy of a long, cold winter to begin anew. I find that I must constantly let go, releasing my attachments to things especially when I realize that they no longer serve me.

So as you begin your Spring Cleaning this year, make it your goal to purposefully and joyfully clean and clear out your home, clutter, dust and all. Take some time during this important ritual to observe yourself and ask questions. What objects are you attached to? What are you keeping that is cluttering not only your living quarters, but your inner life as well, your true self? Why is it so painful to donate that raggedy old doll that you received for your seventh birthday? What part of your past are you holding on to? Why is it so difficult to get rid of the outfit that your mother loves on you, even though you never liked it? Are you still very concerned with other people’s opinions of you? If you can begin to clean and clear the space around you, it may help you clear the space within you, the space in which you truly live.

5 Spring Cleaning Tips

        ·            Set a reasonable time period for Spring Cleaning. Often, it will take you more than a day or a weekend.

        ·            Commit to one room at a time. In the bedroom: dust, vacuum, change the curtains and the bed linens, and exchange your winter and spring wardrobes – then move to another room.

        ·            Observe when you resist letting go of something. Explore your attachment to the object in writing.

        ·            When in doubt, throw it out! If you haven’t used it in a year, it’s probably time to let it go.

        ·            Celebrate at the end of your Spring Cleaning. Congratulate yourself for the dedication it takes to care for your home and yourself in this important way. Play with your children, take a bath, go on a picnic, see a movie – whatever gives you joy!

By: Lauren Larsen