A tried and true approach: Letting go, in order to receive.
You know the feeling. You've been cooped up in the house for too long, the cold long days growing old and tiresome. And then it happens. The birds start singing a sweet tune just for you and the fresh breeze starts to settle in for spring.
You open the windows and let it all out. The old energy escapes and rejuvenated hope fills your space with the promise of a fresh beginning. Heck, I might even clean my floorboards - anything is possible!
We mentally attune to this freshness. Letting the crisp cleansing air fill our lungs, we exhale all that is stale.
This my friends, is the art of creating space. Sit with this feeling for a moment, and carry it with you. The practice of letting go, surrendering and releasing that which doesn't serve us - with the keen awareness that new is coming, wide open to receive - is what manifestation is all about. In fact, once you've crossed the barrier from old energy to new - anything is possible.
I had the pleasure of spending time at my mom's home - and art studio this week. What greeted me was a room set up with beautiful treasures from my childhood, a portrait of my sister and I from when we were little - and a huge blank canvas. Waiting just for me.
There is something extremely refreshing, cleansing and terrifying about staring at a blank canvas. An entire world of possibility awaits and the most intense white space just begs to be a part of creation. An entire world of possibility brought to you by the vast opening of cleared space.
What's your plan? Mom asked. I consider myself an intuitive artist. Meaning? I don't think about it. I just create. Wherever I feel pulled, called or drawn, I go. My career in Marketing has allowed for a marriage of thought AND feeling. As I take this week off to spend time with my daughter and recharge, I am drawn to all things that require no thought. Just being.
Art has always been very meditative for me. From an early age, all through high school and into college - I kept with it. Why? I felt it was the only place and space that understood me, where I could time travel to a place where time itself didn't exist. I was the art, the art was me. A divine union requiring no explanation. Do you have something like this in your life?
Over the years, art has faded in and out. An old friend who comes calling, and it's as if she never left. There, in the background, manifesting creativity and infusing the same energy into all areas of myself and my life - she was never really gone, just using different instruments to create.
If I try to force art, rather than flow with it - I get stuck. Fulfillment slips away and all of a sudden - I feel like art is on my list as 'yet another thing to do.' Agitation and the antithesis of why I do art, creeps in.
Ah, the merging of discipline and free will. Some days go far right, others left - the sweet spot in the middle. The in between creates a unique opportunity for creation.
I once shared with a loved one, the belief that we are living in a dream. Broken down to the most practical of descriptions to help cement this concept for a man who is a logical, calculated thinker to the bone. The theory is, that everything that is around us was at first, a thought. Born of consciousness and moved through spirit into action and form.
As such, the house you are living in right now was at one point a thought in someone's mind, then mapped onto paper and birthed into physical form.
Each stage of that process requires a blank canvas, and the energy for creation to see it through. The blank canvas requires the deliberate need to allow. Allow the vision, allow the creativity - all the opportunity to become a vessel for something bigger.
Stop forcing.
This approach to life, for me, has proven to be a tried and true method for manifestation. An acute ability to translate what I aspire, what I envision and what I deeply want in my life - into existence. Trial and error my friends, as I stumbled into this way of life.
Up first? Removal.
I spent a lot of years, acquiring. Acquiring stories, pain, feelings, resentment, drama, fun, memories, history. Each layer imprinting on my subconscious. Layer upon layer. Building up. Suffocating my life force energy in some ways, in other ways guiding me towards more of what I truly love and showing me freedom. Each layer, uniquely me, uniquely you.
At a retreat I went on years ago, in Italy (the birth story of essenza), one of the facilitators brought us through a visualization exercise of clearing our energy. Envisioning that there was a tube running from the top of our head, through our body - connecting to each chakra (or energy center in the body). Sending radiant light through the top all the way down.
At first, the light got stuck. It didn't want to move through many areas. Too many layers. Over time, with meditation and visualization - I was able to clear the vessel. Guess what that did? Brought up a whole bunch of stuff that needed healing.
You see, getting to the place of a blank canvas, sometimes means removing layers until the true form emerges. It is only then, through the release, through healing and letting go - that space is created for new. Intentions, visualizations - what are you creating in your mind? What are you manifesting? What do you need to let go of in order to receive?
Is it more of the shit that you don't want? Recounting the stories, pains, drama over and over in your head? Woof. Been there, hated that.
This is more of what I meant by 'the dream' it's all what we create. Read these two statements and tell me which one feels better in your body:
Ugh. He keeps playing games, I am not good enough - he doesn't really want me. I thought I was ready for this but now I am questioning everything. What the heck do I do next? Do I hang on? I knew this was going to happen again.
vs.
Okay, so this isn't going how I thought it would. In fact - how I know I deserve. Feels like some games are being played, and I am not playing. I will tell him what's on my heart, knowing deeply what I want. What he chooses to do with it next? That's his choice. How I choose to respond? That's on me.
For me? Old energy vs. new energy. Old story vs. new narrative. Old beliefs vs. new appreciation for self.
Does it change the 'problem'? No. Does it release the attachment to the outcome by way of response? Yes. Does that, in turn, signal the universe that you are ready to receive what you really want? Also, yes.
I read a quote this week that really stuck with me:
"Throw away the idea that you will always be happy after serious healing has taken place. Low points are natural and they do not mean you have gone backward, what shows your progress is not reacting to old triggers with the same intensity as before and knowing not to judge yourself when your mood is turbulent or heavy." yung pueblo
Upleveling and healing doesn't change the human condition. It does however, have the potential to alter limiting beliefs. We will still be creatures of habit, deep in our feelings, riding the waves - creating space simply means allowing for a new opportunity, a new frame of mind, changing the way we respond, adjusting and releasing what is no longer serving our highest potential.
Creating space is all about HOLDING space. Holding space for what you want, for who you truly are and want to become. It means choosing your intuition over your mind at times. It means loving yourself deeply, and honoring the journey. Releasing judgement on the bad days, and keeping your lungs wide open to receive the fresh air when it comes rolling through the window after a long winter.
Creating space emotionally means letting go of all the stories. The 'stuff' that shackles around our ankles - keeping us in the pain. The stuff that clogs the vessel.
If you want something different in your life, whatever that may be - the work of emotional clearing needs to begin. As you release old energy, you will be able to breathe a little deeper. The question then becomes - what do you want to fill that space with?
My recommendation? Keep it open. Don't rush to fill it. Learn peace, learn the art of non-thought. Just be. Get to know yourself. Choose healing. When the stories and other people take a step back, you are left with you. How well do you TRULY know her? How well do you know the energy that you live in, the energy that you are? Does this projection match what you are looking to attract? Not just people, but places and things too.
Take a look inward, then take a look around.
We've touched on emotional clearing, and often times our physical surroundings are a reflection of who we are.
Piles of stuff hanging around? Clutter filling your space? Don't get me wrong, as a mom of two - I know all about stuff. In fact, I use to cling on to stuff like it was a part of my identity. Playing tug of war with my husband over shit that should have been put in the donation boxes years ago. I consider myself a recovering stuff-aholic, still at times reminded of the need to release.
Energy, in all forms of attachment. Those hooks into the stuff, the people, the circumstances - can keep us stuck. A big messy canvas, every square inch full - when what we really want is some wide open space.
With this, I invite you truly think about what you are hanging on to that no longer serves the vision you hold for yourself. People, places, things. Start with your physical surroundings, clear out some new spaces - that thing you keep putting off and want to do - excuses that you don't 'have enough room' to do it. MAKE ROOM. Now, today, don't put it off. Tip over the first domino, create the ripple effect.
And when you are done clearing the space, smudge. This isn't hokey pokey. This is real deal holeyfield. Release the clutter, get yourself back to a blank canvas, heal, imprint new energy and the world is your oyster. What will you create? Ever, a work in progress.
With love,
L
