Take, for example, a pencil, ashtray, anything, and holding it before you in both hands, regard it for a while. Forgetting its use and name, yet continuing to regard it, ask yourself seriously, “What is it?”… Cut off from use, relieved of nomenclature, its dimension of wonder opens; for the mystery of the being of that thing is identical with the mystery of the being of the universe - and of yourself.

Joseph Campbell

PHASE TWO : LET GO

FIRE ELEMENT

In order for things to come into our lives, we have to create space for them.

Once you Trust yourself, you have the power to Let Go.

It’s not necessarily that easy, though, right? Some things are incredibly difficult to Let Go of. It requires time & preparation; cycling through, getting deeper & stronger. But, that’s what this process is all about : the process itself.

In Phase Two, we are putting our Intention into action. So, in order for your Intention to take form, what actions do you need to take? Take inventory. What needs to be weeded out? In shedding, we become more aware of our needs. We begin to peel back the layers, so we can see where things are rooted; what is really going on beneath the surface.

This Phase is aided by the Fire Element. We Let Go & cleanse, in order to clear our path so we can move forward. Fire allows for new Growth to take place. The Fire Element supports our Legacy. When going through this Phase, ask yourself what it is you want to leave behind. Now, more than ever, it feels essential for our physical mark on this earth to be more gentle. Learn how to move with ease & Grace.

Intention + Action.

Go through your home, see what you have and what you can Let Go of. Look through every item of clothing, each drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, bathroom, living room, car, garage. Take everything that lives in that space out while you clear. This is an intensive, deep clean & release. Clean the walls, vacuum the insides of drawers, wipe down shelves, the rods of closets and hangers. The items that you need to get rid of will reveal themselves. Listen to them. Organize as you put everything back together. And, if this already sounds like too much, start small ~ dedicate a few hours a week to a different place.

Creating space will immediately bring a shift. You are releasing items that hold energy ~ some might be very emotionally charged. You have to support yourself and rest; this step takes time & energy. It can be tiresome, and you might feel very sensitive. Self~care will be super important during these cleanses (see Phase Three). 

This step is complicated ~ move through it carefully. It is physically & emotionally exhausting, and also has an environmental impact. Donate or sell what you can. If it’s possible to avoid putting more things into a landfill, please try. It is very important to understand that donating unwanted items is not the answer every time you get tired of something; that is a complex industry in itself. From this point on, you must buy with integrity. So much of our spending is on items that don’t last, we don’t need or we outgrow after a few months. Stop yourself before purchasing anything new and really consider what you are consuming. We have a responsibility as individuals to practice conscious consumerism. From the clothes we buy to the food we eat ~ where these things come from, how they get to us, what they’re made of and who we are supporting in buying them ~ it all matters! Our actions ripple, and it’s paramount to do your best and recognize your impact.

I recommend going through this step multiple times a year.

JOURNAL :

What does Phase Two look like outside of your home environment? Is there something that is no longer serving you, that is standing in the way of your moving forward? What steps can you take in order to Let it Go ~ with Grace.

SUPPORT YOURSELF :

clean your body / go on a walk / smudge your space + yourself / open the windows / eat a nice dinner / turn on some moody tunes / lounge in your cleared space!

Notice how your space feels after this Phase. How do you feel?

When we are attentive to our actions we are not prisoners to our habits.

T.K.V. Desikachar

PHASE THREE : HEALING

EARTH ELEMENT

Throughout the process we are shown something new each step of the way. What is presenting itself to you?

Healing is in the energy you surround yourself with, that you create, that you control. The Earth Element supports your Self, Health & Love. In this Phase, your physical being can experience a changing point. This Phase is all about the transitions; the spaces between and where that takes us. Healing carries us from one step to another ~ not only physically but mentally, emotionally & spiritually. Maybe you’re not there yet; wherever there is, wherever you think you should be. So, how do you hold, ground and Heal yourself throughout your journey, right here & now? This is very important. Healing is a daily necessity. We are designed to Heal. How do you facilitate that process? What if you never get there? Isn’t this time now just as important?

Self~care comes in many forms. Notice that I suggest many different ways to integrate this process. What resonates with you? What doesn’t? Explore it for yourself and use tools that you love. In order for this to work, it has to work for you. So, explore what works for you! Elevate the everyday with rituals. How do you make sexy what others might call mundane? Our daily routines can be beautiful, filled with Joy, Health and Radiance at every turn. This is self~care; your tool kit for being. I personally need a lot of support, so I have filled my day with ways I can Heal myself at every turn.

A practice builds the more we tend to it. More Letting Go will happen in this space, and your practices will hold & support you as you continue.

Even if we know nothing at all, we know how to breathe. So, strengthen that. Start there.

INTENTION : your goals. your motives. what is the reasoning behind everything you do? proclaim your intention & then put it into action. yes, we did this at the beginning, but i believe that you will come to see these Phases in multiple areas of your life. cyclical / micro / macro. you can empower all of the steps you take with Intention. the new moon each month is a nice time to write your Intentions & reflect on them at the full moon. a support system is built within the cycles of nature that we can work alongside of.

BREATHWORK : notice your breath. is it shallow or deep? take a 4-count in through the nose, pause, 4-count out through the nose. work your way up, taking longer counts, if available. pause during the day. notice your breath. ideally, you can start & end your day with a simple connection to this force of life within you.

STRETCH : the purpose of yoga is to prepare the body to be able to sit in meditation. we are setting ourselves up to receive; consistent preparation and adjustments to enable Growth.

QUIET THE MIND : meditation brings harmony to the nervous system. it provides a scope inside and strengthens Awareness. we are able to see ourselves more clearly through this practice and come into to the present moment more often. if this is new for you or if you’re short on time, try 3 minutes a day. sit up in a comfortable position. close your eyes. relax your forehead, your jaw, your tongue. release your shoulders, tension in the wrists, fingers, hips, all the way down to your toes. notice your breath, your thoughts. let them come, then Let them Go. notice your breath.

*moving mediation : when washing the dishes, notice your thoughts, scrub them and rinse them down the drain. incorporating meditations into different lenses throughout the day will integrate gratitude & stillness into our hectic lives.

ALTARS : create sacred space with an Intention ~ what does that look like for you? make the kitchen into an altar of Health : local produce in beautiful bowls, beeswax candles, table set before meals, fresh flowers and great music. the front door an altar to comings & goings : a nice dish for your keys, hidden space to place your shoes. the bedroom an altar to Love & restoration : soft lighting, natural fabrics on the bed, and clear of clutter.

ALONE TIME : speaking of sacred space, make room for you. is there a place in the home that is yours and yours alone? even if only for 5 minutes a day, claim it. maybe it’s a meditation pillow on the floor. a blanket to wrap yourself in while you journal. a cup of tea outside with no phone. get quiet with yourself.

SMOKE CEREMONY : burn incense, a candle or sage to clear a space + yourself. *please do so responsibly. do not inhale the smoke, make sure windows are open & be careful of falling embers. if you’re buying these tools, please do so from ethical sources.

FREE WRITE : with a pen & paper. i suggest doing this for 15-30 minutes every day. do you remember any of your dreams from the night before? how do you speak to yourself & about others? can you shift the perspective or tone, if it’s at all destructive? explore in this space.

GET CREATIVE : we are all inherently creative. expression looks different for every individual. explore your passions & feed your inner child. allow yourself to play!

FOOD : eat nourishing, local foods that are grown responsibly. your weekly farmers’ market + Mindful Eating are great places to start.

MOVE YOUR BODY : every day. however you do it best. walk around the block, stretch, dance, anything that moves you. 

GET OUT : get outside every day.

KINDNESS : be gentle with yourself & others. we never can fully understand someone else’s experience. it’s hard to understand our own. take a step back ~ observe & create Awareness around the situation. how can you respond from a place of Love, instead of reacting out of fear?

LIBATIONS : drink plenty of water. indulge in your coffee or tea ceremony ~ these are very important anchors in one's day! drink from beautiful cups / buy organic beans / tea / milk.

THERAPY : we don’t have to do the work alone. talk with a licensed therapist that you trust who can support you in your process, if you need outside council.

DISCONNECT : i keep my phone on DND + out of the bedroom. if this isn’t available to you, find intentional time in your day to be away from your devices.

MILK BATH : draw a warm bath. add 2 cups milk, a spoonful of honey & some flowers. light a beeswax candle. 

SLEEP : child's pose before bed for a deep slumber : hold for 30 seconds to 3 minutes. no need for a timer ~ do it until you drop in. feel a shift. prop a pillow between your knees & under your head for extra support. once you get that down, do it first thing in the morning, too.

PLS TRY @ HOME :

Choose 5 Healing practices that speak to you from Phase Three. If the above suggestions don’t resonate, use 5 of your own. Over the next month, incorporate these 5 practices at least once a week.

Beauty is an involuntary response to a high-order pattern recognition. Perhaps it is even a glimpse into our mind’s underlying perceptual architecture. As such, beauty is a kind of “enlightenment” that reveals something fundamental about the way in which the world appears to us.

Wabi Sabi : Further Thoughts by Leonard Koren 

PHASE FOUR : RECEIVE

METAL ELEMENT

It is time to Receive what you have been preparing for.

Remember what I said in Phase Three about the purpose of yoga? The purpose of yoga is to prepare the body to be able to sit in meditation. Throughout this process, you have been preparing yourself to Receive.

Notice. What is being Communicated to you? Is it something different than when you first started? Does it look different than you thought it would? There are many ways to Receive information. Find yours and gather it. In the unseen is an energy that can be subtle & perhaps difficult to decipher. But, there is much to discover here.

Just as information comes in many forms, so does beauty. Mundanity holds a significant amount of power and is all around us, at every moment. Awareness. Presence. Communication. Connection. They live here. Tap in.

The Metal Element supports Joy, Communication, Helpful People, Children, Expansion & Creativity. It is reflective. This Phase is one of introspection. Here, we can really experience our connections with ourselves + the outside world.

Our Awareness deepens, as we have been continuously creating space for information to come through. And, not only creating space, but then nourishing that space with our Healing practices so when we Receive something, we are primed for it.

INVESTIGATE : look at your home. do a full walkthrough. is your address easily legible? is your path clear or do you always bump into something? create ease and working order. look underneath it all to figure out what’s really going on. where do you stuff unwanted items and why? is there a part of your home that you avoid? spend time in each room. sit in it and play around.

OPENING & CLOSING : how you start & end your day with yourself + your home. draw the shades, open the windows, make the bed, brush your teeth, stretch, drink tea, journal ~ whatever you do. make it your own, filled with things you love, so you can truly enjoy the acts of getting up and winding down.

MAKE THE BED : an easy accomplishment to start the day.

notice how you feel every time you walk into your room and see that the bed is made. how you feel when you crawl in at night, and it’s made up to Receive you. for one day, don’t make the bed and notice if you feel any different. it’s more information : use your senses and see if there is any difference in your reaction to it when you see it unmade. and then, breathe. you can take action to make the bed or not, at this point. this is an experiment with yourself and why you do the things you do. or not. it is an opportunity to notice & understand how an unmade or made bed feels in your body, pause and then decide how and if you will move to take action or not. let’s say there is one day you don’t make the bed. this isn’t time to punish yourself! simply see it, and then decide how you will move differently. or not. you’re working on building your Awareness, your communication, and how your actions / inactions affect you.

ENTERING YOUR HOME : notice how you walk into your space. because Communication is interactive, right? it goes both ways. you will start to see how the home speaks to you depending on how you treat it. so, if when you enter, there are shoes and bags and jackets all in disarray, notice how that makes you feel. just like with making the bed, there is an interaction happening and it’s up to you to adjust it or not.

SHOES OFF : there is a lot of grime on the bottom of our shoes. set up a place in your entry to Receive your shoes.

BATHROOM DOOR CLOSED + TOILET SEAT SHUT : bathrooms are draining, and they hold waste. keep these energies where they can be contained.

EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE : if something doesn’t have a home, create one. this will streamline your cleaning system & make you more Aware when things are out of whack.

POWER POSITION : this position applies to high use areas ~ especially your desk + bed. the power position gives you command of the room : there is a solid wall to your back, your eyes are on the door + you are out of direct line with the door.

WORKING FROM HOME : create a system so you can put work away at the end of each day to separate work + home life.

FRAMING : beauty lies in the unseen just as much as the seen. take a look at your home from different angles ~ what’s in your line of sight? sit in a chair you usually avoid. if you have one, sleep in the guest bedroom one night. get creative on how you can hide exposed plugs & cords, the trash can, appliances that are on the kitchen counter (do they have to be on the counter at all times?). what if every glance were one of beauty : everything in its place, thoughtful and there for a reason. inspect through a curious lens & see what you see.

SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS : this means you're ready for anything ~ well, as ready as you can be. this goes back to this idea of setting ourselves up. so, safety first, have your checklist fulfilled in case of emergencies. clean the kitchen after every meal. stock your pantry. put your clothes away after changing. if everything in the home has a place where it lives, setting yourself up for success becomes like second nature. what if your most esteemed visitor were to pop in unexpectedly? your home is already tidy. do you have snacks on hand to offer? it all becomes a working system ~ feel it out and put things in motion, so your home begins to work for you, as you do the same for it. if you have systems in place, the home will Communicate when they’re coming off track, need replenishing or adjusting.

CLEAN : love on your space. take care of it, so it can support you. living in a clean environment, to me, has the same benefits that exercise, showering & fresh air do. it is incredibly rewarding & cathartic.

JOURNAL :

How does your space feel? Happy? Energetic? Sluggish? Unorganized? Does something else need adjusting? Feel it out. Talk to it. If you want to rearrange furniture, draw it first and play around with the placement.

Take note of your routines & systems; are they in working motion? How is it going since you integrated 5 Healing practices from Phase Three? The more we practice something, the stronger it becomes; understand what you are practicing & what you Receive from it.

PLS TRY @ HOME :

Move some artwork & objects around, playing with their placement. These things will Communicate very clearly with you when they are happy in their space or not. For example, when an art piece is hanging crooked, it feels off. So, you adjust it back into alignment. Notice how this feels inside your body & how you Communicate with things in your home + how they Communicate with you. If you get the urge to move larger pieces of furniture, I highly suggest doing the journal exercise & drawing out their placement first.

Emptiness is not a state but a way… To experience emptiness is not a descent into an abyss of nothingness nor an ascent into a separate realm. It is a recovery of freedom to configure oneself as an intentional, unimpeded trajectory through the shifting, ambiguous sands of life. To recognize this emptiness is not a negation of life : it gives us a glimpse of what enables anything to happen at all.

Verses from the Center by Stephen Batchelor

PHASE FIVE : WHOLENESS

WATER ELEMENT

Wholeness is you. You have everything you need within yourself. Sometimes, we only need to remember that. And in remembering, we are shown which tools need to be sharpened, in order to guide us further on our Path.

Creation & dissolution. Again & again. It’s a cycle. A process. A death & re~birth.

This Phase is represented by the Water Element, supporting Purpose & Clarity. Your Life Path. In this Phase, there is a death that occurs, which I don’t say to scare you or for you to take lightly. Death happens every day and comes in different forms, as well. I think it’s important to understand that this is part of the process. It allows for the whole process to exist.

What does being Whole mean to you? How do you show up Authentically as yourself? How do you maintain your being, how quickly do you get off track & then return? The further along we get, the more we understand how to sustain ourselves, our presence, for longer periods of time.

Wholeness is what this process is all about : being present. Simply being.

We cycle through again & again.

Creation & dissolution.

From all this, my friends, there arises an insight which the poet must learn through other people. There is no insurmountable solitude. All paths lead to the same goal : to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song—but in this dance or in this song there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our conscience in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny.

Toward the Splendid City: Nobel Lecture by Pablo Neruda