Soul Coaching and Cluttered Bathrooms

As I mentioned a few days ago, I discovered this really fascinating book called Soul Coaching by Denise Linn. I was in the East West Bookstore and the beautiful picture on the front caught my attention. I don't buy a lot of books lately since I get them from the library. My only exceptions are books that I can't get at the library, or reference-type and/or work books that I will continue to go back to over a period of time.

The subtitle of the book is 28 Days to Discover Your Authentic Self and that really spoke to me. I'm all about personal growth and insight, and I figured this book was right up my alley. This is what the inside cover says about the book:

Soul Coaching is a four-week program dedicated to an in-depth clearing and cleansing of the different aspects of your life: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. By following the practical, carefully crafted steps presented here, you'll find that you're able to uncover your authentic self. This book is for you if you want to know:

• who you are
• why you're here
• what your mission is

This book is also for you if you're ready to start:

• putting your needs before everyone else's
• living life at a peaceful, moderate pace
• loving yourself

By utilizing the energy of the elements of nature - Air, Water, Fire, and Earth - this program allows you to clear away old blockages so that you can truly begin to hear the secret messages of your soul.

There are affirmations for each of the 28 days, tasks, and lots of stuff to write about. I don't often take a lunch hour, but since starting this book I've decided to take my lunch hour, sit in the beautiful atrium downstairs and spend time doing this work. In the 5 days I've been doing it so far, it's been really illuminating in many ways. And partly why I haven't been posting here - since my energy has been in writing in my "processing journal."

Yesterday's task was about clutter. This is huge for me - I am a cluttered packrat - and it suggested working on clutter in the bedroom or bathroom and I chose the bathroom. There are 3 "levels" you can choose for working the book so you can choose your participation level. Level 1 for this day was to completely clear a small area (like a drawer). Level 2 was to completely clear a larger area. Level 3 was to completely clear an entire room. (I've been doing the book at Level 3.) While doing this, you're supposed to affirm "I am clearing all that I do not need out of my life." I decided to tape that up on the bathroom mirror while working. I got a beautiful scented candle to put in there so that I would make it a special place.

I started with the Level 1 "small area" and chose a bathroom drawer. This is the drawer that is "my drawer" - a giant mess of things like toothpaste, combs, things I go for every day. I dumped the entire drawer and started just tossing things that no longer serve me. Do I love it? Do I need it? No? Gone! Feeling really motivated by a completely clear drawer. I decided to do the other 3 drawers and the under-sink cabinet. And then the medicine cabinet. That was my Level 2 task. I decided for Level 3 that I would clear the entire bathroom, and this meant the dreaded large bathroom closet. I decided before starting that I would not finish today, and I should get to a place I was comfortable with and commit to finishing it on Saturday. So I got rid of all the superfluous crap in the closet, but left it an unorganized mess. I will come back to that tomorrow, along with straightening up the countertop.

While in the closet I found 2 pictures that I used to have on my bathroom walls, but they've been sitting in the closet for 2 years since we moved it. I put them on the countertop with the vow to hang them on Saturday. Then I remembered some carnations I had in the kitchen and I got a small vase and took 3 of them and put them in the bathroom. I want to think of the bathroom as a nurturing, cleansing place. It became very symbolic to me as a place of self-care. It's where I wash and groom myself and look in the mirror and declare whether I am respectable enough to leave the confines of my home. :) How can I truly enjoy the self-care I deserve if the room is a cluttered, disorganized mess that doesn't make me feel good about myself?

My husband, the feng shui aficionado in the family, tells me that this room is in the "creativity" place in my house. That sounds like a good room to clear.

Another day's task had me, in part, commit to taking at least one empowering action per day for the 28 days. I chose two: to meditate for 10 minutes and to clear clutter for 10 minutes. Yesterday's bathroom clutter cleanse certainly went over and above (I was in there 2-1/2 hours!) but the day before I simply set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes and set to work in the kitchen. 10 minutes doesn't seem very overwhelming at all. It's over before you even start. Hopefully this will be a habit that forms over the 28 days; surely I am worth 10 minutes!

Hopefully my Aries nature of diving head-first into projects and then quickly abandoning them doesn't come into play here - I think this Soul Coaching is going to be very helpful to me if I follow through. I know my soul has a lot to say if I'd only take the time to listen!