Time of Change

To state that the past few weeks have been a whirlwind is a bit of an understatement. 3 major hurricanes have caused far reaching devastation. A mass shooting. Earthquakes. I feel as though I am surrounded with chaos and as I sit this morning in contemplation, I am feeling quite insignificant.

My sweet life. It's tiny in comparison to the state of our world right now. I am not humbled. I am rather blindsided by the reality of this.

My world centers around others. Helping them to create space for happiness and health in their own lives. That is what I do. And in times like we have been faced with this past few weeks, I help them to heal and move forward.

My community was ransacked by Hurricane Irma. I am shocked by the number of people who respond to their new found stresses with such flippant reactions. Wondering aloud why they are feeling so sad, angry and frustrated as of late and also very quickly pointing fingers outward toward others as the "cause" of their new found emotions. As we are forced to view the devastation, we seem to forget that we have just managed to live through a major life event. Dealing with such things brings us fear, anxiety and stress. We can't and shouldn't just brush these things aside. We need to make time to allow ourselves to process them.

This doesn't mean that we need to dwell with these feelings but we should be pausing at least long enough to begin to understand them.

Catastrophic events are hard on our body physically as well as emotionally and mentally.

When we pile 1 event on top of another and then another, as we have these past few weeks, we see an increase in anxiety and stress issues as well as shorter tempers, angrier responses and less compassion.

I am not guaranteed that everyone around me will honor, heal and recover fully. I can't control any of that. I can however, see to my own peace. I alone, am responsible for creating my own gentleness within my body and my thoughts. As the world reels around me, that becomes more and more difficult.

Time to dig. Deeply.

Let Go

It's difficult. This thing of letting go. As humans why do we have that need to hold onto things? Habits? Relationships?  Why must we possess? It's a funny series of thoughts for me.

We own cars, houses, pets. We are owned by our jobs and sometimes our spouses. Yet do we really own those things or is it simply our ego working to make us feel powerful? Why do we have these NEEDS to have stuff?

I have been working toward the idea of owning less for quite some time. The idea of a Tiny Home is so scarily appealing to me at this point in my life. The freedom of having a life with less so that I could focus on being more present...and less responsible for THINGS. A life where I could find happiness by spending time reading, writing and simply being. This idea of owning less is something that I am actually working toward. I have also found that it is coming to me in waves of ambition.

I will ransack my house. My 5 bedroom 3 bath house mind you. I will clear out closets. Donate clothing. Empty the clutter. Working fervently to rid myself of excess and then....I allow it all to return over time. Until I am swallowed up by stuff and all of the responsibility that goes along with it again.

I don't like the cycle. The clutter, both physically and emotionally, that goes along with excess is exhausting. The process of emptying it all is even more so.

How do we get caught up in stuff? More importantly, how to we break that cycle?