Stephanie Bennett Vogt's Blog

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Bedouin tent, Wadi Rum, Jordan

“The world is a book. People who don’t travel read only one page.” ––St. Augustine

138 days. That’s how long we spent on a ship traveling around the world this year. This was not our first extended rodeo, mind you. It’s our third. (You can read about our last global adventure five years ago in my “Love Letter to the World” here.)

As much as I’d like to think I’ve got this travel thing down, reentry does not get easier. Not when you come home five months later so utterly filled up and expanded by the experience.

So how does one begin to unpack it all? (And I don’t mean clothes.)

Where does one even begin?

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Rainy season. Bora Bora, French Polynesia.

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Milford Sound, New Zealand

I could describe the magic of sailing the fjords of New Zealand, the engineering marvels of the Panama and Suez canals, and the winding tributaries of the Mekong Delta.

I could go native and describe what it was like to commune with lagoon sharks in Bora Bora, nesting penguins in Australia, and Komodo dragons in Indonesia.

I could talk about the (white-knuckle) thrill of riding on horseback through the high mountains of Java and traveling by 4×4 jeep through the desert canyons of Wadi Rum (and having tea with Bedouins afterwards).

Yeah, as I reflect on what we’ve gone and done, it would be easy to imagine experiencing one of those things in a lifetime. But all of them!? How does one even wrap their brain and heart around all of it!?

Time traveling [image error]

Temple of Karnak, Egypt

There’s a whole other dimension to this adventure story: time travel.

I could talk about the fact that humans have occupied the planet for thousands of years and their presence (and ‘stuff’) is still with us. Yes, the past has left its dizzying imprint everywhere – massive overlays of wonder and ruin –– for us to stumble on, swoon over, and ponder.

Gives a whole new meaning to the concept of “time zones.”

From Mayan, Egyptian, Hindu, and Etruscan sacred sites, to the fanciest 1st century villas in Ephesus and Pompeii, to the oldest cathedral in Britain, architectural wonders in Barcelona, and battles fought at Pearl Harbor and Normandy – going on a deep dive of places and events that have shaped our world was such an awe-inspiring privilege and revelation. Not to mention trippy!

And we drank it all up!

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Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Old City of Jerusalem

And there’s the Holy Land – a place where the spigot was so strong it knocked us off our feet.

I would need pages to capture the powerful (and cleansing) impact that visiting Bethlehem and the Old City of Jerusalem had on me. From the spontaneous singing of Silent Night at the site of Jesus’ birth, to placing my written prayers into the Wailing Wall in the Jewish quarter, to taking in the hauntingly beautiful Muslim call to prayer as we slowly traced the steps that Jesus took to his death.

It was positively surreal.

How is it possible that three of the largest religious traditions can take up so much space in such a small space, all at the same time?

So much still to process.

Shifting gears [image error]

Sunset over Spain

Then there’s ship life. I could fill a book about sea days. My favorite days.

I could talk about the mesmerizing effects of traveling at 15 knots, the endlessly fascinating seascapes, sunsets, and wildlife that swoops unbeckoned to take your breath away.

I could talk about the food that I could not resist.

I could describe my squirmy, tortured encounters with Bridge, a new game for me that challenged every fiber in my head. How can learning something as seemingly innocuous as a card game bring up so much unprocessed, inner crap?  (Did I mention that the clearing journey never ends?)

Making connections

And of course, there’s the people you meet.

I could talk about fellow passengers, kindred spirits who share the same passion you do for travel and are willing to put their lives on hold for five months.

I could go on and on about the crew; how they hailed from every corner of planet; how they made our day, every day, by touching our hearts in a million different ways.

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School girls, Kerala, India

I could tell stories about the people we encountered at every port – from tour guides, bus drivers, shop keepers, kids on the street… you name it – all of them so kind, so eager to share their world with us, so grateful for our presence. (And PS, big shout out to the woman in Rhodes, Greece, who noticed that I had forgotten my purse on a park bench and raced to return it to me.)

I could even go existential here and talk about the extreme conditions that millions have to endure just to survive: the chaos, heat, noise, poverty, injustice, bureaucracy, effects of climate change…

Raw and painful sometimes, there is no escaping the undeniable truths – the struggles, contradictions, mysteries – that traveling the world offers up (and urges us to embrace).

Stepping outside of ourselves(to find ourselves) [image error]

Taormina, Sicily

In the end it all of this boils down to the question of travel itself, and why I travel.

You could say that most people travel to leave home. I choose travel as a way to come home.

Let me explain:

Travel is disruptive (in a good way). It disrupts the usual (and sometimes stuck) patterning of things. It can turn everything on its head, change how you see things, surprise you in ways you never imagined… (Yes, that is really us hanging by the rafters )

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Upside-Down Museum, Georgetown, Malaysia

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Rain on ripe, Moorea

Travel awakens. While adapting to changes that mess with our need for comfort and routine is not always easy, it is the very messiness — and surrendering to it — that turns up a light. It engages the senses. It enlivens. You realize that it doesn’t take much to awaken to life’s simple pleasures: a sudden rainstorm, a stray mango that drops in your path, a kind stranger stopping to offer directions.

These things have magic powers, if we allow them, to lift us beyond ourselves.

Travel humbles. Travel has a sneaky way of making most small, petty concerns recede or fall away. It also has a way of showing how blessed we are that we get to live in a country that enjoys the kind of peace and prosperity that many nations would kill for. And do.

Travel clarifies. There’s no better way to know what we value than to be away from it for a while. Coming home will do that. It isn’t until you walk in the door that you see (or feel), with sometimes painful clarity, what fits and what no longer fits into your home and life (read: clutter). You may also realize, as I often do, that clearing it is a breeze when you find yourself saying: “I can live without this [thing, issue, relationship] because, wait, I already have!”

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Saigon, Vietnam

Until I unpack some more, here’s one more thought to consider:

People who’ve traveled into outer space and seen our beautiful, fragile planet from a distance say that it changes them to their core. They will never be the same again.

I would wager that something similar happens any time we step outside our world and enter another with an open mind and a spacious heart. When we can do that, when we can experience the world as it is, not as we think it should be, we have changed. We will never be the same again.

We will be lighter and freer and more spacious. And I daresay the world will be a bit lighter, and freer, and more spacious, too, as a result.

Tracking changes, making memories

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If there is anything that has helped me find greater meaning in the journeys I undertake, it would be through photo taking and video making. It helps me make connections, reflect more deeply on what I see, and “remember” as in to call back and gather all the scattered parts of myself.

Anything you do to record an experience will elevate it and you.

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Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Would you like to experience the world as we did in real time? You can view my chronicles @spaciousway on Instagram. With photos, reels, and stories (marked “World 1, 2, 3…” in the highlights), there’s plenty there to transport you.

You can also watch the short video below. It is my ode to the journey and to the best traveling partner one could ever ask for (my husband, Jay). Getting to do this with my beloved was the biggest blessing of all!

Your turn

Where do you want to go? Is there a place that calls to you? A place where you can down-shift, create memories, surrender to what wants to be revealed, reconnect with what makes your heart sing?

In the end you do not need to go far to turn your mind on its head and experience some spacious shifts in your life. You can start stepping outside of yourself right now. Set aside a few minutes today and go for an awe walk. You may just come back feeling lighter than when you started. Here’s how.

HAPPY TRAVELS!

(VIDEO: Be sure to turn up the sound)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Stephanie Bennett Vogt (@spaciousway)

 

The post Why I Travel appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[image error]No time to slow down?

Q: You talk a lot about the importance of slowing down. But I don’t have time to slow down. I need help clearing fast! How do I effectively use your programs when I need to tackle things more quickly?

SBV: “Tackle” is not where it’s at with this work. And you cannot rush letting go. Sorry. We need to go slow to go fast. If this seems contradictory, let me explain: We cannot release stress and clutter when we are in a constant state of alert and overwhelm. Sure, you can go on a clearing binge of your living spaces and see where it gets you. In the end you might discover that fast-tracking works against you. It won’t make a dent on clearing the patterns and habits that got you stuck in the first place…

nor lead to lasting change.

 

The Brain

You can blame the brain.

You see, every time you feel overwhelmed, it means that an ancient part of the brain, called the amygdala, has been activated. This is the part of the brain that goes into fight-flight-or-freeze. When fight-or-flight is triggered, it floods the body with stress chemicals. Once these chemicals are unleashed, overwhelm has hijacked you. It has taken over your life (and biochemistry), and won’t let you go easily.

Here’s the good news: While you cannot shut off the lizard brain that goes into fight-or-flight, you can manage it. You can reduce the cascading effect of stress by slowing down and simplifying; by reducing a task and repeating it; by dialing back on the activity that is causing the overwhelm in the first place.

As Dr. Robert Maurer writes in his excellent little book, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: 

“Small, easily achievable goals — such as picking up and storing just one paper clip on a chronically messy desk — let you tiptoe right past the amygdala, keeping it asleep and unable to set off alarm bells. As your small steps continue and your cortex starts working, the brain begins to create “software” for your desired change, actually laying down new nerve pathways and building new habits.”

Why stress yourself out when you could choose ease instead?

 

Small steps, big changes

Taking smaller steps may not feel very effective or satisfying at first, but if you stick with them they will work their magic to calm the nervous system, charm the part of the mind that gets rattled, and rewire the brain to grow new habits that last. Whether it takes you three days or three weeks to bring your fridge into the clear, or manage the insanity in your closet, you won’t care because of how good you feel when you invite ease into your practice.

In the end, it’s not how much you can cram in a shorter time frame, but how much ease and spaciousness you can bring to the experience.

It’s a quality of being––not quantity––that will change your life forever.

So next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, take it as a sign that you’ve stepped into the red zone. Use it as a memo to self to dial it back. And keep repeating until it becomes second nature.

 

Where to begin… and keep going

If you could use a more directed approach to clearing, I have made it easy for you: I have mapped out a simple 3-step pathway using my books and courses as a guide. This pathway is called the Spacious Way. 

Whether you prefer to clear on your own or as part of a “clearing circle” book group, this guided approach will give you an easeful and lasting way to play a much bigger game. You can CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Consistency is key

Whatever approach you end up taking, my advice would be this: Follow the books and/or courses as they were designed. Do the exercises. Only think about today. Take it one step at a time and allow the process to work its magic. 

Before you even realize it, you will have lightened your load in less time. You will have released more stress and stuff than you ever imagined possible. 

This 3-STEP PATH can lead the way.

 

The post Go Slow to Go Fast: Clearing the Spacious Way appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[image error]If I were to summarize in the simplest way what I do when I’m space clearing a home, it would be this: I shine light on stuck places and bring them back into balance.

In other words, I find disturbances and love them up.

If that sounds mystifying, think of a light on a dimmer switch. Anything you do to love up your home with awareness and compassionate detachment – whether it is clearing out a drawer, putting the dishes away, taking out the trash – turns up the light. When you lead more with the heart (instead of the head) you’ll notice the energy magically shift (and lift) in a space. Truly. Though subtle, if you were to measure the ambient light after a space clearing, it is brighter.

Ultimately, it is the frequencies of the heart that change the game for good.

If all this still sounds too woo-woo, there is plenty of scientific research from the Heartmath Institute to back it up. For our purposes here, I’ve transcribed a short excerpt with a beautiful meditation that cuts to the chase. [You can also just scroll down and watch the video clip below* where it comes from]:

A study done in 1997 in Germany at the University of Kassel measured how many photons per second were emitted from an average person’s chest. Photons are little parcels (packets) of light information are how we communicate with other people; how every cell of our body communicates with the other cells.

The higher photon count, the higher light we emit, the more coherence and health we have in our system.

They measured that the average person was emitting around 20 photons of light per second.

They then asked the volunteers to meditate specifically on their hearts and send out love to the world. The meditation lasted about 20 minutes. They were asked to close their eyes, slow their breath, imagine that they’re breathing in and out of their heart; make their exhale longer than their inhale.

Then they measured again and the number of photons on average had gone from 20 to 100,000 by sending out heart-based love to the world!

If you can remember that everything in the world is vibrating energy and frequency and pour it out to the collective and do it in numbers, boy can we shift out the less positive energy in the world.

–Pam Gregory – [from video clip below*]

If a heart-based practice can be so effective at shifting the energies at home, imagine what can happen when you direct those same frequencies out in the world!

Let’s turn up the light, shall we?  Instead of steeping in more bad news that sends us spiraling down the proverbial rabbit hole of worry and fear, consider five minutes a day of conscious loving-up. It is something we can do to take our power back, make a difference, and lighten the load for everyone!

It costs nothing and can change everything. It is certainly helping me!

 

*Note: Disregard the date on the screen. The clip you see here is a sidebar from the reading. Pam Gregory’s eloquent reflections on the power of the heart are timeless. They’ll inspire no matter when you tune in.

The post Turn Up the Light, Change the World appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[image error]“Instead of thinking about the myriad negative feelings you want to avoid and the myriad things you can buy or do in service of that, think about a single organizing principle that is highly effective at generating positive feelings across the board: Shift your focus outward.” –Sigal Samuel

Is it too late to wish you all a Happy New Year? With the culmination of a much anticipated wedding in my family, I feel like I’ve spent the past couple of months floating in some kind of alternate universe.

Yes, after two years of extensive planning and one postponement due to the pandemic, our daughter and son-in-law finally got to say YES in one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in Mexico. On what felt like a most auspicious date of 12-11-21, the whole thing proved to be nothing short of a miracle – a divinely-held and inspired bubble of love that couldn’t be touched by any gremlin, covid or otherwise.

I even made a 3-minute video (see below) that will give you a taste of the magic that it all was leading up to, during, and after.

And now what? With all the heart and soul that went into anticipating, hosting, and experiencing something as epic as this was, the question for me has become how to keep up that joyful energy going forward.

How does one stay expanded when the music stops, the proverbial party is over, and it’s back to life as usual?

Keeping the momentum going

It doesn’t have to be some big life event like a wedding, mind you. It could be staying true to a big vision or creative idea; maintaining a daily meditation practice or clearing that closet once and for all. The challenge of keeping the momentum going when we contract – when we lose heart, focus, our center – applies in much the same way.

While navigating the swings of expansion and contraction has been the focus of my work and attention for years, there is one thing that usually helps me find my way back into balance when I get lost. It’s called awe walking. This is a practice where I step outside of myself (literally) to find myself.

Taking a beauty break

Here’s what it looks like: Every day, rain or shine, I put on my sneakers, grab my iPhone, and head outdoors in search of beauty. It could be a leaf, a cloud, a crack in the sidewalk – something ordinary that wakes up the spirit of curiosity, wonder, awe. I photograph whatever catches my eye. When I get home, I immediately cull out the best ones to post on my Instagram feed and delete everything else.

The simple act of photographing and posting images is profoundly grounding. It helps me overcome inertia, stay fluid and present, and connect with something bigger than myself.

Benefits of Awe Walking

I didn’t realize until recently that this daily practice I’d adopted for my own emotional well-being had a name and studies to back it up. Here is an excerpt from Vox:

“…a study recently published in the journal Emotion investigated the effects of “awe walks.” Over a period of eight weeks, 60 participants took weekly 15-minute walks outdoors. Those who were encouraged to seek out moments of awe during their walks ended up showing more of the “small self” mindset, greater increases in daily positive emotions, and greater decreases in daily distress over time, compared to a control group who walked without being primed to seek out awe.

“What we show here is that a very simple intervention — essentially a reminder to occasionally shift our energy and attention outward instead of inward — can lead to significant improvements in emotional wellbeing,” said Sturm, the lead author.

So, bottom line: When the world between your two ears is as bleak as the howling winter outside, shifting your attention outward can be powerfully beneficial for your mental health. And hey, even in the dead of winter, a 15-minute awe walk outdoors is probably something you can do.

–Excerpted from “How to make this winter not totally suck, according to psychologists,” by Signal Samuel, Vox

Awe Walking the Spacious Way

Since I published this post, there have been countless articles written about the benefits of Awe Walking. If you’re serious about trying it, the New York Times just came out with a terrific article that introduces a simple process you can try.

In “This Kind of Walk is Much More than a Workout” author Jancee Dunn invites you to adopt some principles into your practice, including two that nicely match those you’ll find in the Spacious Way approach to clearing: “Start small” she says, and “Pay attention to your senses.”

I might suggest that all five S’s of the Spacious Way –– slow down, simplify, sense, surrender, and self-care –– lend themselves nicely to growing some awe.

There are infinite ways to keep the joy level up and the heart open when the music stops, of course. What helps find your center when you get stuck or lose your way?

Let us know in the comment thread. We could use all the inspiration we can get.

My December: A Feast for the Senses

If you could distill a month into one-second slices that includes an extraordinary wedding with the people you love… throw in brilliant colors, music, holiday lights, festive glamour and natural beauty set in the heart of a 17th-century colonial hill town in Mexico… this is what my December 2021 looked like…

 

The post Awe Walking: Step Outside Yourself to Find Yourself appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[image error]“…an old No Fear ad campaign says, ‘the one who dies with the most toys still dies.’ But instead of heeding this simple wisdom, we continue filling our pockets with rocks and walking, quite happily, into ever deeper water.” –Edward Readicker-Henderson, How to Get Rid of Stuff

We did it! We emptied our entire attic. We have not seen it this way since we moved into the house nearly 30 years ago.

If we’d wanted to keep living in our 1875 home with poor insulation and no chance of upgrading to a more eco-friendly heating and cooling system, we had to do it. Everything had to go.

As motivated as we were to clear out the space, however, let’s just say this was no easy task. Our attic (shown in photo above) is a royal pain to get into. It has one of those pull-down staircases, and really low rafters, so getting up there to retrieve anything, or move things around, or even just see what what you have squirreled up there, is a huge production.

Like opening an Egyptian tomb, the job was going to take time, be messy, and require care, thought, and attention. It would also prove to deliver many pleasant, and not-so-pleasant surprises.

If you’re curious to know what we did exactly to empty the space, process the stuff, and reduce the overwhelm, keep reading. In this post I will outline what we did in the best way I know how: via the Spacious Way.

And PS, the system we used applies to any cluttered space you are dealing with – be it an attic, basement, garage, closet, or any other overstuffed, funky, or neglected area of your home.**

Useful tools to get started

First, to make the process as quick and efficient as possible, it was helpful to have a few things on hand:

a brooma large heavy-duty trash barrela recycling container for paperclear plastic stackable containerslarge post-its and markers to label boxesa cameraSet manageable goals

To ease the impact on our relatively clean and clear living spaces, it was helpful to have an outdoor space we could drag the dusty old crates, boxes, and trunks out to. Our back patio became our dedicated processing center.

To manage overwhelm and fatigue, we set doable goals and expectations: work in short stints with smaller batches, drink lots of water, stop when we start to feel maxed-out, drained, or gross.

Work with Piles

[image error]We had a system: my husband would haul the stuff down and bring it outdoors where I could process it using my trusty four-pile method: Stay, Go, Throw, Don’t Know.**

The throws were easy. As soon as the boxes came down I would sweep off the cobwebs and layers of dust, discarding extraneous plastic and debris as I went. Stained containers and stinky cardboard boxes long past their useful life were set aside to either discard or collapse and place into the recycling bin.

[image error]We moved some of the nicer go items out to our curb – like artwork and furniture I’d saved from my early years as a teacher. Most of these goodies got scooped up the same day by early birds who love free stuff. Anything that didn’t get taken, we drove over and donated to our local Goodwill.

[image error]For more meaningful, sentimental items that we were no longer keeping (like this sweater that had been made with love by a friend), I would set them aside to photograph later (before they too were blessed and released to Goodwill).

Once culled, all the stays and a few don’t knows went into the clear, labeled, stackable plastic bins, to be put into our temporary storage: our dining room. My husband’s things went into one corner, mine into another, some of our daughter’s things we are storing in a third. (We weren’t sure all would fit, but they did!)

[image error]We will have to live with some chaos (and no dining room) for a while until the attic is ready. It’s not ideal, but it’s cheaper than paying for storage.

And finally, when the time comes, we have promised ourselves that ONLY what is absolutely essential will go back up into the attic – useful things like suitcases, seasonal clothes, and a few keepsakes that don’t fit into our 1875 closets.

Your turn

Is there something that could use some fluffing up, or freeing from the dark recesses of your home?  Let us know in the comment thread. Just naming it builds the energy, gets the ball rolling, and lightens the load for everyone.

Happy clearing!

Want more?

**For other ways to apply the the Spacious Way method, visit these posts:

Books: Taming of the Shelf

Purse: What’s In Your wallet?

Drawer: Beautify a Drawer

Clothes: Taming the Clothes

 

The post Clearing Out Years of Stuff: How We Did It appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

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“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” –Mary Oliver

No, I don’t plan to talk about Moveable Feast – the book in the photo – which I’ve never read and don’t plan to. Along with a slew of other books, we donated it to our local library in last month’s massive round of decluttering.

What I want to share with you instead is a different kind of moveable feast: a new-found love, passion project, and daily practice of sorts – courtesy of a free mobile app a friend told me about called “1 Second Everyday.” This tool allows you capture and record your life in one-second increments. Think: visual diary… (like in the video below).

How it works

Basically, here’s how I play with it: Every day I upload a photo or a video clip into the app. It could be a thing of beauty I encounter on one of my daily walks, a video highlight of my day, or a special moment in time that feels significant or memorable.

These daily snapshots by themselves don’t telegraph much. They don’t always add up or make sense or follow a particular chronology. It isn’t until you view them as a whole that interesting themes and revealing patterns start to emerge.

Woven together, these daily impressions give me insights about what I’m choosing to focus on, for example, or what I love and care about, what matters and what doesn’t.

A daily practice

[image error]But more than a fun tool for me, it’s a practice that helps me tune into the dailiness of my life; to reflect and appreciate those small, ordinary, rich, and sometimes messy moments that can easily get lost in the noise of daily living.

My August footage – which highlights my latest clutter clearing spree – turned out to be quite a feast! It showcases what a month (of processing, pondering, laughing, and releasing) looked like in our household. You can watch it below.

What would a month in your life look like if you took a moment every day to mine (and mind) it?

There are infinite ways to cultivate a daily mindfulness practice, of course. If clearing is a priority, there are some good ways to fold conscious awareness into a daily practice, which, if you ask me, can change the game for good!  These guided steps can help you get started.

And PS, If you missed reading about my latest personal adventures with clutter clearing, you’ll find them by clicking on my post “From Attic to Bookcase: A Clearing to Remember” HERE.

Best with sound. Note: The app is free, but if you want to add enhancements like music, as I do here, you need to upgrade for a small fee. (And PPS, in case you’re wondering, the folks at 1 Second Everyday did not pay me to talk about their app )

The post One Second Every Day: A Mindful Practice appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[To remember]: At its essence, it means to call back all of our ‘members’ — those aspects in ourselves that we’ve neglected or have scattered or gone missing — and return to the truth of who we are. –A Year to Clear

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My matchbook collection dating back to 1970 (before pruning)

My husband and I have spent most of a month going through years (read: decades) of stuff — some of it squirreled in the darkest recesses of our attic, some of it hiding in plain sight. This latest round of clutter clearing was prompted out of necessity: a need to prepare the attic (read: empty it completely) for a messy insulation project that will bring our 1875 home into the twenty-first century.

And why stop there? The bookcase, which takes up an entire wall in our house, wasn’t going to clear itself. That took another week.

And what a reveal it has been! From old passports, travel diaries, and keepsakes (like my matchbook collection) taking me back to audacious romps around the world; to bulging binders of student notes taking me back to inner, metaphysical romps in my early years of space clearing.

It takes time to take it in

It takes time to process and savor the moments and the milestones; time to consider what stays, what goes, what matters, what doesn’t; time to photograph the things you want to remember before they go out the door.

And I’m not even close to being done yet.

It would have been easy just to toss the whole lot and called it a day, but I would have missed so much.

I would have missed the illuminating opportunity to remember my strengths (the things I love in myself) — like my spirit of adventure, my resourcefulness, my love of beauty, my eagerness to grow and move outside my comfort zone — much of which lay buried inside some of these mementos of my past.

I would have missed out on the opportunity to marvel at how powerful it is to consciously let go. With love.

I would have missed out on the opportunity to name and feel my discomfort in real time — to free myself, once and for all, of patterns that are holding me back.

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My matchbook collection, after

I’m happy to report that the bookcase stands clear and spacious, as do a host of consciously curated treasures that get to shine more brightly. The shifts, both subtle and dramatic, are palpable. Like a lighthouse, these things beam their sparkly energy throughout the house now, guiding us back home to ourselves, again and again.

The attic, well, it’s not quite lighthouse-ready. It remains a work in progress.

What are you ready to dive into from your past?

What would you like to re-member that will bring you back to whole self, your spacious self?

Just asking the question is a great place to start. Even if you don’t get a clear answer, do something anyway: take one simple action step towards a goal today. And when you’re done, ask again tomorrow, and repeat.

And keep going.

Yes, watch what happens when you clear one small thing, pile, or area, every day for a week. It’s magic.

How we did it

If you could use a little nudge getting started, or are simply curious to know how my husband and I tackled the bookcase (yes, we did have a system and a set of guidelines that made the process much less overwhelming), I lay it all out in a post I wrote called “Taming of the Shelf.” It is here where I put on my space clearer’s hat, break the process down into smaller steps, and share some of my best tips on sorting and clearing efficiently — be it a bookcase, a shelf, or any small grouping of stuff.

And PS, if you want to follow along my clutter clearing adventures in real time, you can find me @spaciousway on Instagram. To view previous story postings, click “Clearing” in the header.

Happy clearing!

The post From Attic to Bookcase: A Clearing to Remember appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[image error]It all began with a wonder question posed by my husband as we contemplated what to do with the cluttered bookcase that takes up an entire wall in our 1875 home: Why would we keep a book?

This question was quickly followed by another: Do we really need to own it?

Hmm, I’d never thought of starting a project like that, but that’s how this latest round of decluttering began.

We could have followed Marie Kondo’s directives of moving all the books to the floor, holding each one, and asking if it sparks joy.

What we opted for instead was my slower, Spacious Way approach, supported by the list of guidelines that we’d generated earlier in the day. We decided together that…

We would keep a book if…We planned to read itIt lifted our spirit – even if we never read it againWe felt a sentimental attachment to it, like a vintage childhood bookIt offered reference material that was easier to reach for than the InternetIt was a thing of beauty

With those guidelines in place, we went to work. It took us several days – clearing one shelf at a time, and stopping as soon fatigue, brain fog, and/or overwhelm began to set in. Our goal: get the books out of the house as soon as they were boxed, and ferry them to our local library in time for their sidewalk sale.

We also took some steps that made the process much less overwhelming. Here’s what we did and you can do too:

Clearing steps (one shelf at a time)…Gather some essentials to have on hand: a camera, a few sturdy boxes, a recycling bin, a trash can, a vacuum cleaner, and a pair of scissors or a black Sharpie (to remove names and inscriptions)Take a “before” photoChoose a shelf and vacuum it and each bookSort books into piles and clear them using my trusty “Four Pile” method (outlined below)Clear for beauty: thin out picture frames and art objects; move books around until the shelf or bookcase feels unified and beautifulTake an “after” photoStep back and revel in the lightness: notice how much brighter the room looks (it is palpable!) and how much more energy you feel

Four Pile Method of Sorting and Clearing

Whether you are culling books or other possessions, the four pile method will help you improve your efficiency. As I say in A Year for You, while this process was originally designed to help you move through your stuff quickly and efficiently, like a card dealer at a casino, I might suggest a different, slower approach: notice what happens when you attend to your piles more mindfully reverentially and beautifully.

Here’s how the Four Pile method can be applied to clearing a bookshelf or bookcase:

STAY: This is the pile of books you are keeping. Group them by theme on the shelf (e.g. Health, Home, How-to, Children’s, Spirituality, Coffee Table, Travel, etc.); and/or simply move them around to refresh the space.GO: This is the pile of books you are giving away. Take a photo of any book covers or inscriptions that you want to honor or remember. Remove any identifying names and inscriptions before placing in boxes. Bless and release them on the way out the door.THROW: This is the pile for any books or items you are discarding or recycling. Anything that is longer useful or is stuck inside books, like tattered old brochures, business cards, notes, or sales receipts used as bookmarks goes into this pile.DON’T KNOW: This is your “dilemma” pile. If, after a few days, you still can’t decide whether these books stay or go, keep them for the time being and place in visible location where you’re likely to see them. Be sure to give them a new shelf or “home” to mitigate potential “stuck energy.”

Moving stuck energy

Most people who know me as the expert space clearer, are surprised when I tell them I am not clutter-free. (Yet.)  Yes, I still have squirrel tendencies. I still find it hard to let go of some things (and judge myself for having them). I still feel some of the less charming side-effects of clutter clearing: my feet still ache, my clothes smell, and I get wiped out.

What’s different here is that I’ve had a lot of practice. I can read the signs and I attend to these disturbing effects as soon as they come up. I know that all that stinky, smoggy mess of clearing is a sign of stuck energy getting unstuck. And like with detoxing, clearing stuck energy doesn’t always feel very good.

I also know that what is waiting for me on the other side of fog and discomfort, is a sublime clarity and lightness of being.

The sparkling afterglow!

[image error]What can I say? With three giveaway boxes delivered, one huge recycle bin gone, and a lot of musical-chair book placing and replacing, I feel like I’m floating. Everything feels amazing.

I walk into the room several times a day now to stare at our sparkly bookcase. I marvel at the beauty of fewer objects placed with love; book groupings with room to breathe. I love pulling out a book and cradling it like it’s a long lost family member.

It never gets old.

Clearing is the best mood elevator I know.  And it costs nothing but a little time, energy, and a willingness to “go there” – to move through the thoughts and feelings that are encoded in our things, just waiting to be loved up and healed.

Your turn…

What are you ready to clear this week, today, now? Tell us in the comment thread. We’d love to know.

And PS, If you could use a little daily conscious clutter clearing support, get a copy of Your Spacious Self and work with one chapter a day for 6 weeks. It will inspire you and help you gain some traction.

Happy clearing!

The post Taming of the Shelf appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

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“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” –Henry David Thoreau.

It’s not every day that you get invited to sign copies of one of your books at ground zero of the simplicity movement: Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

It is here where, in 1845, Henry David Thoreau lived intentionally for two years, two months, and two days. (And PS, can I say, it’s as if he never left. His presence is still so very much alive and palpable.)

[image error]While I’m still processing the experience, signing copies of Your Spacious Self in this holy of holy places was very special, fun, even mystical. It felt like the man himself had a hand in getting me there, cheering me on, and winking from the other side – right over my shoulder.

Also fun was the short video I made of the experience (see below). With some new (to me) editing hijinks on iMovie, it captures more of a playful burst than a mystical vibe.

Yes, what you don’t see in the blur of this short video segment is the good-juju energy coursing through my hands as I held each one of my books. Was the light coming from me? The man? The place? I can’t say for sure. All I know is that time stopped, my awareness amplified, and I felt high when it was over.

If you have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Walden Pond; to commune with clean-burning spirit of Thoreau; and experience the timeless and nourishing beauty of this sacred place, let it be your first stop. Or just pick up his book, Walden. You may come away feeling as I did: more lit and spacious than ever!

PS, A special thanks goes to Corinne Hosfeld Smith, manager at the Shop at Walden Pond, for inviting me in, and kindly taking over camera duty.

More photos on Instagram here…

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Stephanie Bennett Vogt (@spaciousway)

Photos: Stephanie Bennett Vogt

The post Your Spacious Self at Walden Pond appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

[image error]“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” –Henry David Thoreau.

It’s not every day that you get invited to sign copies of one of your books at ground zero of the simplicity movement: Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

It is here where, in 1845, Henry David Thoreau lived intentionally for two years, two months, and two days. (And PS, can I say, it’s as if he never left. His presence is still so very much alive and palpable.)

While I’m still processing the experience, signing copies of Your Spacious Self in this holy of holy places was very special, fun, even mystical. It felt like the man himself had a hand in getting me here, cheering me on, and winking from the other side –  right over my shoulder.

Also fun was the short video I made of the experience. You can watch it below. With some new (to me) editing hijinks on iMovie, it captures more of a playful burst than a mystical vibe.

Yes, what you don’t see in the blur of this short video segment is some potent good-juju energy coursing through my hands as I held each one of my books. Was the light coming from me? The man? The place? I can’t say for sure. All I know is that time stopped, my awareness amplified, and I felt high when it was over.

If you have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts; to commune with clean-burning spirit of Thoreau; and experience the timeless and nourishing beauty of this sacred place, let it be your first stop. Or just pick up his book Walden. You may come away feeling as I did: more lit and spacious than ever!

PS, A special thanks goes to Corinne Hosfeld Smith, manager at the Shop at Walden Pond, for inviting me in, and kindly taking over camera duty.

More photos on Instagram here…

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Stephanie Bennett Vogt (@spaciousway)

 

The post A Thoreau Book Signing appeared first on SpaceClear | Home to Your Spacious Self | Stephanie Bennett Vogt.