Where Energy Flows

Subtitle: Dr. StrangeRebmann, or how I learned to stop worrying and love cleaning my chemical free home - Part 1.

This is the first in a series of four articles on Healthy Home Cleaning.  In this first installment, I will talk about my thoughts on cleaning and using intention.  Part 2 will focus on the bathroom and contain step-by-step instructions.  Part 3 will be on the kitchen, and Part 4 will be on the rest of the house as well as laundry.  I ask for indulgence, with a title this funny – I have to use it more than once.

Part 1 – Thoughts on Cleaning

When my son was an infant, I had a cleaning lady.  It was wonderful!  The feeling the house had after she left was unmistakably sparkly and fresh.  It was one of the best post-baby treats I can imagine and highly encourage everyone to spend money on cleaning services for baby shower gifts.  Yet, as sometimes happens, budgets change.  When the baby was about one, we started cleaning our house by ourselves again.

Luckily, I had recently gone through Denise Linn’s 28 day Soul Coaching program with the book and her guided meditations available free on her website.  While many things changed in my life during this process, I also started to think about cleaning in a new way. 

Prior to this, I could vacuum, dust, and straighten all day, but I just hated cleaning my bathrooms.  Throughout our ten years of marriage, my husband had been our designated bathroom cleaner because I hated it that much.  Yet, after my enlightenment, so to speak, I started thinking about a clean bathroom as a present to myself.  I remembered how great it felt to be home after our cleaning person left, and decided I wanted to feel that way again.  I also started researching making my own environmentally friendly cleaning products, so it became a bit of a challenge and science experiment at the same time.  Pretty much, I just decided to own it.  Having a clean house was going to be my gift to myself. 

Now, I really like it.  I play music.  I dance.  I improve my family’s health.  I help the environment.  The bathroom doesn’t bother me at all anymore.  Go figure.

AND… there’s more!  Cleaning has the power to activate intention.  If your are feeling tired and grouchy…come up with an intention like “I want to be vibrant and full of life.”  Then, clean your widows, and say, “ I clean these windows to let vibrant energy into my home and fill me with life.”  Every time you see those clean windows, you will remember your intention and it will re-enforce your desired change.  Easy!  Recruit these chores to serve your highest good – I say!

Do I have you convinced?  Want to learn more?  Stay tuned – more coming.  However, if in the mean time you want to start leaning more, good places to start are:

1. Denise Linn’s “Soul Coaching”
2. Karen Logan’s “Clean House, Clean Planet”
3. Google phrases like “Natural Bathroom Cleaner” or “Make my own tub scrub.”

Happy Cleaning! 

© Elise Rebmann, 2008. All rights reserved.

Do you make an overall plan for the New Year? Most of us do.  Here is a simple guide for making plans that have great chances for success.

Your home acts as a mirror which reflects what is happening to you on an inner level. Whenever you make internal changes — or plan to, as in New Year Resolutions, it is a perfect time to scan your home and work environment to see how your home (or office) support those resolutions. 

Look to see if there is anything in your environment that might hold you back or sabotage your efforts to bring productive change in your life. You might find clutter, objects or photographs that have negative connotations, or energy blockages. Take steps to create a physical environment that matches where you want to go in life.

Add colors that are personally healing, forward looking and that support your progress. Use the bagua map to help you define and focus on goals. If improved diet or physical healing is your goal, start by checking the Health gua in your home. If abundance is your goal, check your Abundance gua. If finding your soul mate is your goal, check your Relationship gua and so on. 

Finally, to create plans for positive change that stick, write it down. When you write down goals and plans you act as witness to yourself. You can write it as a contract, as a commitment or as an affirmation. All of these steps will help you to create positive change and make lasting changes in your life.

Copyright Deborah Redfern, 2007. All rights reserved.

There are times when things (objects, projects) in our lives seem to fit the bill of clutter, but are hard to let go of. This is a time to be especially kind to yourself because there is usually a reason for holding on.

Sometimes, holding on to the past is a way of keeping the door open on a part of your life that is almost over. It is similar to being immersed in a book you really enjoy or strongly identify with. When the book ends, your experience of being a part of the story will end as well, and often there is a bit of reluctance to finish the story.

So, in your life, holding on to something may be needed in order to:

• give yourself permission to let go of a part of your identity that you’ve outgrown
• allow time to absorb changes in your life
• get closure on a part of your life that is over

So when is it clutter? It is individual. No one else can really tell you what clutter is. For me clutter is an awareness of the ‘mind chatter’ attached to the item in question. Examples of mind chatter are self-criticizing, admonishing, and energy-draining, unpleasant thoughts that do not feel good. If there is no mind chatter, it isn’t clutter.

If something you’ve been holding on to you begins to ‘talk back’, you will know that you are getting close to being ready to release it. When the time is right, you will be ready to come to completion – whether it is finishing the project or finally letting something go. Until then, trust your feelings!

Copyright Deborah Redfern, 2007. All rights reserved.