10 tips for Eliminating Clutter

06
Apr
2024

  1. Use the clutter test ~ does it lift your energy? Do you use it? Do you love it? If you answer no to these questions it’s time to let it go.
  2. Give yourself a miniature energy shift ~ set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes and clear a small area such as a kitchen drawer. You will probably find you are feeling more energized and might have trouble stopping
  3. Put things away within 30 seconds of using them ~ How many times have you tossed a magazine on the table, Intending to get back to it? Is it still on the coffee table? Just for today put everything back in its place.
  4. Throw things away often ~ 80% of what is stored or saved is never used again – that applies to papers clothes magazines et cetera. Maybe it’s time to clean out those old files stored on your computer or on your desk?
  5. Make a list of all the unfinished things in your life ~ this could include letters or phone calls you need to make, someone you need to apologize to, an appliance that doesn’t work then set out to complete these.
  6. Do a little clutter busting every day ~ sort mail daily and file your paperwork. Have a place to put things so you don’t waste time looking for them.
  7. Get rid of old clothes ~ for some reason we hang onto clothes thinking they will come back in style or we will lose the weight we need to fit back into them. Ask yourself these questions, do my clothes represent who I am now? Do they make me feel good about myself? If your closet is filled with clothes you no longer need, donate them to charity. Open up space in your closet for new things to come in.
  8. Clean out your cupboards and refrigerator ~ do you have any nonperishable items that you know you won’t eat? Donate them to a food bank or offer them to your neighbor. Read about dated food items in the refrigerator and give it a good cleaning.

9, Donate books that are no longer serve your needs ~ aim to have a collection of books that represent you as you are to day not who you were in the past.

10, Think before you buy ~ the next time you go shopping ask yourself before you buy something, do I really love this and need it? What am I willing to part with, in order to have this? A good rule of thumb is to only buy what you really need.

1 extra – Set a daily goal, put away or throw away 10 things each day. start small. don’t get overwhelmed.

As you identify and release your clutter you free up energy held there for more constructive purposes. Your life may take off in ways you never thought possible. Clearing your clutter is essential for well being.

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MAKE SLEEP A PRIORITY

04
Feb
2024

Stick to a schedule, and make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Blue light from devices and screens can make it harder to fall asleep, so reduce blue light exposure from your phone or computer before bedtime.

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Children and Meditation

12
Dec
2023

Mindful Meditation for Children’s

Mindful meditation is a practice that involves focusing one’s attention on the present moment nonjudgmentally. In the context of children’s self-regulation, mindful meditation offers a valuable tool to help children develop skills to manage their emotions, behavior, and attention. By introducing children to the concept of mindfulness and teaching them simple meditation techniques, we can empower them to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings. This introductory section lays the foundation for understanding the benefits of mindful meditation for children’s self-regulation and explores how it can positively impact their overall well-being.

Mindful meditation offers various benefits to children that can aid in their self-regulation. Firstly, it helps improve their ability to focus and concentrate, allowing them to pay attention to tasks and activities for longer periods of time. Additionally, practicing mindfulness can enhance their emotional regulation skills, enabling them to better understand and manage their feelings. Through meditation, children also develop self-awareness, becoming more in tune with their thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. This increased self-awareness can help them identify and address any negative thoughts or behaviors. Furthermore, mindful meditation promotes relaxation and decreases stress levels in children, allowing them to feel calmer and more balanced. Lastly, regular meditation practice has been associated with improved sleep quality in children, helping them attain better rest and rejuvenation. Overall, incorporating mindful meditation into children’s lives can significantly contribute to their self-regulation abilities and overall well-being.

Implementing mindful meditation in schools and homes can provide children with numerous benefits for their well-being. In schools, incorporating mindfulness into the curriculum can help create a calm and focused environment for learning. Teachers can introduce short mindfulness exercises, such as breathing exercises or body scans, at the beginning of each class to help students settle their minds and increase their ability to concentrate. Additionally, schools can set up dedicated mindfulness spaces where students can go to practice meditation or take a moment to themselves when needed. At home, parents can establish a regular meditation routine by allocating a specific time and space for mindful practice. They can engage in guided meditation sessions with their children or use meditation apps designed for kids. By integrating mindful meditation into both school and home settings, children can develop essential self-regulation skills, such as emotional regulation and impulse control, leading to improved focus, reduced stress, and enhanced overall well-being.

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Where did I go

07
Sep
2023

A personal story about life post menopause

Where did I go?  I miss the old me.

Post Menopause, that is where I went.  For 10 years, with every drop of disappearing hormones, so disappeared what little of Rita I knew.

The first notable change without even knowing me, is the weight I have put on.  I was aways a bit overweight but obese was a place I never, in a million years, thought I would be.  45 lbs crept on in less than 3 yrs. Most noticeable in my belly and my butt. (I’m now told I have two butts).   No change in my diet, but there was an extensive change to a sedentary lifestyle.  Far from sexy for me, and miles from a confident happy self. I am in a bubble, keeping to me, hiding.

I may not like the postmenopausal me—and knowing that you may not like me, either can be overwhelming. Love and support are needed more than ever right now.

In researching menopause, I came across many comments from hurting men. A lot of them said they loved their wife for 20 or 30 years but she’d disappeared due to menopause. They reported that she became this person full of smart remarks, a flying temper, and some even abandonment. She changed into someone totally different and unfamiliar. 

Unfortunately, that was/still is sometimes, my life. About 2 maybe 3 yrs of mean and nasty, angry, sharp, boiling over with rage at the smallest of things.

This was also me, out of control emotions. Crying at commercials, criticism, a reel, a TikTok, a look, thinking comments are slights at me.

I got everything menopause was handing out:

Foggy brain, memory loss, brain freeze, forgetting what I wanted to say mid-sentence, not being able to focus. I have stress, anxiety, bloating, fatigue, chronic disturbed sleep, dry skin, aching joints, painful sex, and most of all depression.

No one told me it would be like this, that these symptoms would be so severe and intense that my life would be disrupted for years.

I will be honest (Knocking on wood) the only thing I didn’t get severely were hot flashes.

Hormone therapy is helpful for a lot of people, but it’s not an option for me because of a family history of breast issues.

I am going to get through this. I am praying that most of these symptoms will dissipate as the hormone issues stabilize.

I have studied for many yrs and made menopause a very intense part of my degree. I am working on pulling out of my depression and working on being better holistically. Relaxation, stress management, mindfulness, meditation and maybe yoga.

Is this going to bring back the old me?  I don’t know.  Honestly, I don’t remember much of the old me. I want to think that I am going to come out on the other end a much better person.

No Comments Menopause

KARMA

11
Aug
2023

From Times now news

Does your past life karma carry forward to your next life?  

                                                                                                

Your Karma is closely tied to the kind of life you lead in your subsequent lifecycles.                

Your good and bad karma’s both will come back in your subsequent life in various forms. The reason they come back in our lives is not just to punish us but to make us understand and appreciate things from another perspective.

 Karma

Karma is the memory of our souls, which means it’s often long-standing, even stemming from prior lives. Indeed, the course of our current life is mostly predetermined by our karma in previous lifetimes: What we didn’t finish then, we come back to finish now which some people would say is the purpose of reincarnation.

The unpleasant situations that we are facing in our current life are the consequence of our lingering karma, which can always be reversed and resolved. If you want to erase the energy carried over from previous lifetimes, you need to understand these five properties of past-life karma first:

1. Karma has no expiration date 

                                                            

Karma is the luggage your soul carries with it as we navigate through successive lifetimes. Unfortunately, unlike the luggage at the airport, this particular baggage never gets lost, which means you’re stuck with it until you open it up and sort through its contents. You might not even know what your past karma was while dealing with the challenges in this lifetime. But when you open and dig through your karmic suitcase, then finally, you can confront your outstanding karma and lighten your energetic load.

2. Karma means that no person in your life is a coincidence

Karma places everyone into your life for a specific reason, and karmic relationships will play out as planned despite your best efforts. It could be an unresolved issue between the two of you or some past life connection which needs resolution in the present life that has brought the two of you together. That’s why it’s important to acknowledge the role of each person in your life: Why are they there? What have they come to teach you and vice versa? What is the karma you’re meant to experience with this person? The sooner you acknowledge the truth of the karma you share with someone (whether it’s good or bad), the sooner you can resolve your issues.

3. According to karma, what you have done, you become.

We have been told about karma that “what goes around comes around.” But the reality of karma is more expansive than just being “punished” for our bad deeds—positive karma exists just as much as negative karma. If you stole, others will steal from you in following lives. If you did good to others, good things will happen to you. Your actions throughout your various lifecycles become the circumstances of your being, so if you want good to happen to you in your subsequent lives then make sure that you do the same and live a virtuous life.

4. Karma can make our roles reverse

One of the most fascinating facts about karma is that it often causes us to reincarnate in a reversed manner. This means that your parent may have actually been your child in a former life. Then, before reincarnating in this lifetime, the souls agreed to take on the opposite act. Souls switch genders, too. Positions shift throughout lifetimes based on karmic need; whatever dynamic is needed to repair or heal karma will be manifested through changing roles in our cycle of lives on earth. The people you know now may have had a very different impact on your previous lives! Similarly, if you hate someone for whatever reason karma might put you in that person’s shoes in your present life to let you experience things from the other side. So as far as possible keep your stand neutral and never be judgmental about anyone.

5. Karma repeats to produce new results

There’s a greater reason that karma repeats itself, and it’s not to cause you pain. Instead, it’s to teach you to take different actions for different results. If you’re attracting the same type of partners into your life over and over again, it’s time to stop and inspect your choices: Why do similar people keep coming into your life? What should you be doing differently so as to get the desired people? This calls for honest introspection and evaluation of your own faults and weaknesses, which is admittedly hard to do. Don’t be afraid to look within. Recognize what must be changed inside of you so as to change what’s outside of you. Then, you can modify your behavior to end karmic patterns and progress in your potential. Past-life karma is resoundingly present in your current life. Mustering up the courage to open your karmic suitcase today can change your destiny for lifetimes to come.

6. The soul is eternal

One of Hinduism’s most fundamental teachings is that every living being is a physical incarnation of an immortal soul. Though these physical bodies die, each immortal soul lives on. According to the Bhagavad Gita all souls are a part of the Divine and thus spiritual in nature. Just as sparks of a fire become extinguished when separated from fire, souls forget their true spiritual nature when separated from their Divine source.

Lacking proper knowledge, each soul is stuck in a cycle of reincarnation called samsara, in which each is born into a variety of physical bodies, including that of plants and animals. From body to body, and species to species, each soul lives one lifetime after the next, all the while ignorant of its Divine nature.

The soul moves through this cycle of births until — after lifetimes of spiritual practice. — this Divine nature is fully realized, the cycle of reincarnation ends, and spiritual liberation (moksha) is achieved.

7. Karma and reincarnation are closely tied

Hindu texts strongly encourage individuals to spend their human births endeavoring to make spiritual progress. Though not impossible to achieve moksha in other incarnations, Hindu sages have long insisted that this is far easier done in a human birth.

The whole of material creation can be likened to a rehabilitation center meant for helping a soul to rediscover its Divine nature. One of creation’s mechanisms to help facilitate a soul’s spiritual development is karma, the concept that every thought and action has a corresponding reaction.

Through karma, selfless actions uplift a soul, while selfish actions degrade it. The results of both selfless and selfish actions are experienced over a series of lives, as a soul comes to understand how its actions affect those and the world around it.

Karma is thus the ultimate teacher of empathy. Theoretically speaking, if one takes its karmic lessons seriously, and strives to act selflessly, one can continuously elevate its status of existence. If, however, a person chooses to commit one selfish act after another, spiritual progress is not made and in extreme cases what progress has already been made can be squandered.

8. There are three types of karma

Karma is generally divided into three categories: sanchita (latent karma), prarabdha (ripened karma), and agami (future karma). Sanchita is the accumulated karma from your past thoughts and actions, the results of which will eventually be experienced in the future. Sanchita is like the seed of a tree you planted in the past. In due time, the tree will grow and produce a particular fruit you’re destined to eat.

Prarabdha is what you’re experiencing now. It is the seed of a past action that has grown into a tree, producing the fully ripened fruit you’re eating in the present.

Agami is a seed of action you’re planting in the present that will inevitably produce the fruit of the future.

The three categories of karma ultimately work in creating a cycle of cause and effect. The fruit you eat now (prarabdha) leaves an impression in your mind — compelling you to plant more of a particular seed (agami), which will cause you to eat similar fruit in the future (sanchita).

In other words, karma is habit forming. Repeated actions become like grooves in the

mind that get deeper and deeper. You have the free will to change your habits at any

time, but the deeper the groove, the harder those habits — whether good or bad — are to change.

9.    Selfless work frees one from karma 

When the eternal soul identifies with the physical body, the soul becomes attached to

what  this  body is doing, feeling and  thinking, seeking  out pleasurable experiences and avoiding unpleasurable ones, accumulating karma the whole time. Even good actions performed with the intent of gaining some reward binds a person to this world, as that good karma has to be experienced at some point.

Fortunately, the way of breaking free of karma’s cycle is explained in the Bhagavad Gita:

“… without being attached to the fruit of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains the Supreme.”

Because the Supreme (another word for the Divine) is the source of creation, a person’s real duty is to perform spiritually uplifting work. This means acting not for one’s own material desires, but for the spiritual benefit of oneself and others. By doing such selfless work, a being becomes an instrument of the Divine, and is thus no longer tied to the results of its actions, thereby discontinuing its karmic cycle.

10. Good association is key in one’s spiritual growth

Because karma is habit forming, creating those deep grooves in the mind, it can be very difficult to make and follow through with better choices, even if one wants to. Take, for example, exercise. Lack of exercise usually makes one less healthy, have less energy, and can even cause laziness. The more people choose to not exercise, the worse they generally feel, and the worse they feel, the harder it will be for them to begin exercising, even if they wanted to break the negative cycle. Our choices shape our perception of reality, which is why the less people exercise the more they might come to believe they are simply incapable of getting in shape, fueling a cycle of negative exercise karma.

However, when you spend time with people who are not only disciplined in their exercise routines, but also willing to share what they know, one has a much better chance of breaking through personal  negative health habits to create new positive ones.

In the same way, by spending time with and taking guidance from spiritually advanced souls, it becomes possible to overcome lifetimes of karmic baggage, opening the door to profound spirit.

No Comments Mindfulness