This has been the summer of the purge. It began with my clothes. Four bags, sayonara. Then books. One Hundred and Seventy Two. Using Marie Kondo’s concept from her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I started as she suggests with the big categories, not room by room, and I released stuff that I had no good reason to keep. It wasn’t serving a positive purpose so I let it go. Ten bags of kitchen items. Two trips to Good Will, five trips to Salvation Army and ten different items placed on my curb all now someone else’s treasure. One trip to the dump. Four grocery bags of photographs and twenty seven journals. An endless amount of recycled paper.
In the pursuit of personal clarity I chose to tackle the physical items in my home and as a result the cobwebs in my mind, covering my heart are disappearing.
These things that I was hanging on to, shoved to the back of the closet, was an amalgamation of stuff that represented me in another time or I was keeping out of fear. This worry about maybe needing it one day or stressing over not having it was all in my imagination. If I get present, which is always my aim, these things are obsolete. The feelings, experiences and memories they represent live deep inside of me. No trip to the dump can change that.
Looking at something day after day that doesn’t create positive vibes, like an over stuffed drawer or piece of clothing I never wear has a way of clogging my mind. Seeing order and items that make me smile clears that space in my mind.
4, 172. 10. 2. 5. 10. 1. 4. 27. Just numbers? Just stuff? All of these things carried emotional baggage. No longer stuff to sort through, make space for, or hide in a drawer or at the back of the closet.
I see now how I have hidden behind objects. The physical space they took up in my house somehow crept into my subconscious. Now this spaciousness is not something I need to fill but rather be in, simply experience. Yesterday after clearing drawers of paperwork and de-cluttering my home office I sat down in it and colored. I created a piece of artwork with colored pencils that meant something to me. Free to birth something that allows me to take up the space that matters. Space that inspires, motivates and nurtures.
Purging what takes up space that can be better utilized feels good. I am light all over. Unencumbered by stuff opens up channels in my body, mind and spirit. I am breathing more deeply. I have room to dance. Space to fly.
Hi, I’m Jenny Gwinn McGlothern, Certified Transformational Master Life Coach, Retreat Leader, Writer, Teacher and Seeker. As founder of my retreat business, Mama Needs A Refill, LLC, one way I know I fill my cup is by showing up to a blank page to write. Thank you for stopping by and reading my posts, because I will be honest that fills my cup too, knowing others are reading my filled page. Life is too short to blog about anything else unless it touches my heart. Please know I appreciate you joining me on this journey whether you visit regularly since I began in 2009 or this is your first blog stop.
Curious about becoming a life coach or upleveling your life? I am a co-facilitator at Seattle Life Coach Training. The program is transformative, the experience more life giving than words can describe, www.slctseattle.com.
Interested in life or spiritual coaching (individuals and couples) or want to learn more about my retreats in Seattle, please find me on FaceBook, www.FaceBook.com/MamaNeedsARefill or visit my website www.mamaneedsarefill.com. Holding sack lunch mini-retreats since 2009. The next one on September 15th is sold out but there are openings for January 5, 2018. Contact Jenny, 206 255 0463, to reserve your spot.
Heartwriter's Blog 
Love it, I am getting ready to purge too!