Day One – The Element of Air

Our first day will focus on the Element of Air which is connected to the mental aspect of yourself. Spend a moment focusing on your breath; the way that it flows in and out of you. Whenever I’m working with a client and things become overbearing, I ask them to focus on their breath as a quick and easy way to bring calmness and focus on what is true. The Element of Air helps us to change and transform, brings inspiration, mental clarity, but also discerns, analyses, evaluates and judges. When we focus on our breath, all of these functions become clearer and easier for us, and we’re able to do more. Very often we think we have to make decisions on the spot, but that’s not true. If we take a moment to focus on our breath, and then make a decision, it comes from a much centred space within us.

“With every breath you take, you are inhaling air that has been in every nook and cranny of our world, from the dry region of the Sahara, to the heights of the Himalayas, to the lush and humid Amazon rain forests. The breath that you just took contained at least four hundred thousand of the same argon atoms that Gandhi breathed throughout his life. The air that you are breathing now has been in me, and the breath that I am taking now has been in you.”

~ Denise Linn, Soul Coaching®

Today

All throughout today, be aware of your breath. Notice as you go through your day how your breath is. For example, what happens when something good happens to you or if it doesn’t go your way. Throughout the day, take moments to stop and take deeper breaths than you normally do. Breathe in through your nose, hold and then let go through your mouth. As you do this, take note of how you feel before and after, but also what else you notice in the world around you. When I stop and take a breath, I notice more colours, sounds and objects around me.

Journal Exercise: Where Am I Now?

The first exercise for today is one of my favourites. Whenever you go on a journey, you need to know where you are in order to begin. You can’t get to London if you don’t know that you’re in New York, for example. Taking time to focus on where you are in your life at the moment brings clarity. The key to this exercise is not to judge. It’s to observe where you are in the here and now. Using your journal or notebook, write a few sentences on where you are in your life regarding in the following areas: Abundance ~ Relationships (Romantic and Friendships) ~  Creativity ~ Relationships (Work/Life) ~ Career ~ Spirituality ~ Family ~ Health It can be easy to judge yourself as you go through this list, but try to be factual. For example, I am overweight at the moment. Rather than write down for Health that I am fat because I’m eating all the wrong foods and not getting exercise I write down that I am overweight at the moment and not taking care of my health. There are many reasons as to why I am where I am with my health right now, but that’s not the point of this exercise. We are looking at where we are. Denise Linn often says “The Soul Loves the Truth” and if I was to say my health is fine, when really it’s not, it creates imbalance within myself and takes me away from where I am in my life. As you go through these areas of your life, be honest but not critical. When you are in a true place of this is me, this is where I am, you have the ability to change it.

Where do I want to be?

The second part of this exercise is to pick one area of your life you’d like to change and ask yourself the question “where do I want to be?” Think, if there were no restrictions on how you could change that area of your life, what would your life look like? When you have the answer to that question, the next question to ask is “how would I feel?”. This is the key part to making changes in your life. We often focus so much on what the end goal would be like that we don’t think about how it would make us feel. If I were to be healthy, I would feel confident, which gives me focus to work on the next question. With the area of your life you want to change, and the feeling you will have when you get there, answer the following question: “What can I do to become more <emotion> today.” Write down everything that comes to your mind and don’t change it. Keep asking yourself the question again and again until you’ve exhausted everything in your mind. Look over your list of ideas, you may want to rewrite it, and find one or two items that you can easily implement now. Make a pact with yourself to take action on this and that change won’t be far away.

Clutter Clearing – Front Door Area

Our first clutter clearing exercise takes us to the front door of your home and the area around it, both inside and out. The front door is known as the Mouth of Chi and in Feng Shui it means that is where the energy will come into your home. Take a step outside and then look at your front door area as though you are looking at it for the first time. What do you notice? What needs clearing or cleaning, maybe what needs fixing? When you look at the front door, how does it feel to you? When you step inside your home, what do you notice about the immediate area? Is it welcoming or cluttered?

This can set the energy for the rest of the home, so you want to make sure it feels right for you and that you can walk in easily and effortlessly. Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to do a surface clear of the area first of all. Putting things away, clearing any rubbish that has accumulated and giving the area a small spring clean. If you have more time, clutter clear using the additional information below.

Additional Clutter Clearing Information

Clearing clutter is the ultimate way to make changes in your life, as well as clearing out what you no longer need. Clutter, for me, is defined as something that I don’t love or don’t use anymore. When I release the physical objects surrounding me, I’m inviting new experiences into my life that I couldn’t have before. Here are the steps I take to clear clutter, which may be of inspiration to you.

Set a Time Limit It is important before you start any clutter clearing, that you know how long you’ve got. You may think that you have all the time in the world, and it will take you no time at all, but actually it can be a bigger job than that. If you have an hour to clutter clear a space, then split the time in half. Thirty minutes would be dedicated to sorting through and clearing the clutter. The second half would give you time to get rid of the clutter, put back the objects that you love and leave you a clean space that will feel uplifting and clutter free. You can do this for smaller amounts of time too, so if you only have twenty minutes to spare, then split that into two rounds of clearing and then disposing of your clutter.

Clear the Surface Sometimes there is “stuff” accumulated on top of the clutter. It can be a powerful exercise to clear away the surface first. This way you can see exactly what clutter you have to clear. This is really handy when you have stuff you want to go through later when you have more time, enabling you to deal with or release the things that you need to do.

Four Boxes This is the most important part of clutter clearing itself. You will need to get four boxes or bags and label them as “Throw Away,” “Give Away/Donate,” “Recycle,” “Maybe Later/Store” and “Keep”. The names are quite simple, and should be self explanatory. The only thing I will say is that your “Maybe Later/Store” box should have an expiration date. Whatever you put in that box, seal it up at the end and put a date on it that is in six months time. If you’ve not needed anything in the box by that date, then you can give it away.

Questions to Ask Yourself The following questions will help you when you are going through your things to find out if it is clutter or not.

1. Do I love it?
2. Do I use it?
3. Do I really need this?
4. Does this fit who I am? Does this fit who I desire to be in the future?
5. Does this make my energy go up, down, or remain neutral?

After answering these questions, decide if the object you are holding is clutter. Ask yourself, “Do I want to throw this away, give it away or sell it, recycle it, keep it, or store it for another time?” There is a place inside of you that knows the exact right answer. And there is immense power in making a decision. Decide quickly and go to the next item. It works well to decide quickly. This gets your conscious mind out of the way and makes room for your inner knowing to come forward.

Additional Clutter Clearing Information

Clearing clutter is the ultimate way to make changes in your life, as well as clearing out what you no longer need. Clutter, for me, is defined as something that I don’t love or don’t use anymore. When I release the physical objects surrounding me, I’m inviting new experiences into my life that I couldn’t have before. Here are the steps I take to clear clutter, which may be of inspiration to you.

Set a Time Limit It is important before you start any clutter clearing, that you know how long you’ve got. You may think that you have all the time in the world, and it will take you no time at all, but actually it can be a bigger job than that. If you have an hour to clutter clear a space, then split the time in half. Thirty minutes would be dedicated to sorting through and clearing the clutter. The second half would give you time to get rid of the clutter, put back the objects that you love and leave you a clean space that will feel uplifting and clutter free. You can do this for smaller amounts of time too, so if you only have twenty minutes to spare, then split that into two rounds of clearing and then disposing of your clutter.

Clear the Surface Sometimes there is “stuff” accumulated on top of the clutter. It can be a powerful exercise to clear away the surface first. This way you can see exactly what clutter you have to clear. This is really handy when you have stuff you want to go through later when you have more time, enabling you to deal with or release the things that you need to do.

Four Boxes This is the most important part of clutter clearing itself. You will need to get four boxes or bags and label them as “Throw Away,” “Give Away/Donate,” “Recycle,” “Maybe Later/Store” and “Keep”. The names are quite simple, and should be self explanatory. The only thing I will say is that your “Maybe Later/Store” box should have an expiration date. Whatever you put in that box, seal it up at the end and put a date on it that is in six months time. If you’ve not needed anything in the box by that date, then you can give it away.

Questions to Ask Yourself The following questions will help you when you are going through your things to find out if it is clutter or not.

1. Do I love it?
2. Do I use it?
3. Do I really need this?
4. Does this fit who I am? Does this fit who I desire to be in the future?
5. Does this make my energy go up, down, or remain neutral?

After answering these questions, decide if the object you are holding is clutter. Ask yourself, “Do I want to throw this away, give it away or sell it, recycle it, keep it, or store it for another time?” There is a place inside of you that knows the exact right answer. And there is immense power in making a decision. Decide quickly and go to the next item. It works well to decide quickly. This gets your conscious mind out of the way and makes room for your inner knowing to come forward.