Making My Life Work for Me – Week 5

“Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” ~ Daphne Rose Kingma

“There’s an important difference between giving up and letting go.” ~ Jessica Hatchigan

Welcome to Week 5 of our six week Making My Life Work for Me Program. (If you’ve only just stumbled upon us, pop back and read the very first post so you can gather the materials we’ll be using today and catch up on prior activities.)

Our focus this week is on empowering ourselves through ‘letting go’ of people, possessions, attitudes and the not-so-great-past; all those things that hold us back, weaken our self-belief and self-esteem. It’s time to have a clean up, and take out the trash!

Instructions:

We follow the same format each week.  Read through this entire post before you get started. You can do the activities all on one day, or spread them put over the week – whatever works best for you.

Meditation:

This week’s meditation exercise is a moving meditation. It is a Qi Gong form called Shower of Light, and this simple exercise combines breathing, movement and awareness.  It allows you to consciously ‘scoop up’ energy and push it through your body. It will balance and energise your chakras, and help clear your energy field. It’s one of my favourite things to do.

To start, sit or stand and hold your crystal, draping your scarf or shawl around your shoulders. Close your eyes and offer up the prayer or intention that you release trapped energy and emotions within you, that you ground strongly into the earth, and that you re-energise and nourish your body with Universal Energy.

When you’re ready, put down the crystal and scarf, and perform this gentle series of movements.  You can follow along with the video, or observe and then perform the exercise barefoot outside in the garden or on a balcony facing nature.

Set aside ten minutes for this.

Visualisation:

Do this straight after your meditation, when you are ready and open for receiving! Close your eyes and use your imagination. See yourself the way you want yourself to be in the world.  See yourself filled with clarity and purpose, enjoying healthy relationships where you are loved, valued and respected. See yourself expressing yourself in the world in ways that are authentic and aligned to your core values.  Really put some energy into this.  You can repeat this step again this week (even daily) if it feels right.  Thoughts are things, and this is how you manifest in the Universe!

Using Your Journal:

Go back to the front of your journal and read your Pledge out loud.

You’ve committed to making a better life for yourself.  A better life means respecting yourself, clearing out the clutter, letting go of the relationships and situations that no longer work for you, and freeing up your energy to channel towards new opportunities. Value yourself! Forgive the past and move on. Value your time, your ideas and your surroundings. Be open to letting go in all its forms as you work with your journal this week.

Feel free to use your paints, coloured pens, glitter and stickers to make your journal visually attractive.

Card of the Week: 

Let’s start our week by selecting some reflective spiritual Guidance.  Take your deck of positive cards, or your rune bag.  Close you eyes and offer up a prayer for the Highest Good, and then quiet your mind.

Randomly select a card/rune, trusting that it will have a message to guide you this week.  Write down the name of the card/rune and the message.  Feel free to add any additional thoughts or insights you might have.

I’m not surprised at the message of this week’s card.  We hold on tight to things sometimes, and that holding on so tightly stops our sense of flow. Lack, fear and doubt, poverty consciousness and anxiety can fill our cupboards and our minds to bursting with things we no longer need – broken things, old things, things that don’t suit us anymore…

Use some of your energy this week to play this simple game. It’s called ‘Just One Thing’. Open a draw or a cupboard or a file. Choose just one thing to throw out, give away, or even to sell. During the week, do this at random in different areas of your home and workplace. If it feels right, choose more than one thing each time. Allow yourself to be lighter and clearer – ready for new opportunities, relationships, ideas and energy to flow your way.

Week 5 Journal Activity:

This week use your stream of consciousness around the question Who or what do I give my power away to? Allow your mind to travel far back into the past, as well as sitting in awareness about your life now, and any fears or concerns you have that are draining the energy out of your future. Who has eroded your confidence? Who needs forgiving, including yourself? What stories do you tell yourself that limit you?  Who saps your confidence and makes you feel small?  Draw pictures or mind map if you feel like it.

And this week’s creative activity is:

Collage – What I need to let go  This collage will help you to understand what you’re ready to release, including any behaviours, foods or other things that sabotage your health, energy, happiness and success.

Take your pile of old magazines and place them in front of you.  Holding your crystal close your eyes and say out loud “Universe, I am open to all Guidance and my own Higher Wisdom to help me understand what I need to let go of in my life.”  Take a moment and sit in that energy, really feeling yourself connecting into and opening to all that your soul is ready to release.

When you’re ready, open your eyes and start flicking through the magazines.  If any pictures or words appeal to you, cut or rip them out and place them beside you. When you have enough images cut them up neatly.  You can also use photographs, if that helps.

Draw or create an image that represents you, in the middle of your page.  Now make some lines of various distances, radiating out from you. Use your own words and wisdoms, as well as your collected images, to anchor your images of what you are ready to release at the end of each line.  You’re already creating distance between you and these things by stretching them away from you with these lines.

If your journal isn’t big enough, feel free to use a sheet of cardboard. Glue your images to the page and leave it open to dry.

Come back to this later, and look carefully at what you have created.  Then in your imagination, take a big pair of silver scissors and snip each line. As you snip, say to yourself I forgive you, I thank you, and I release you. Let any emotions come to the surface, honour them, and let them drift away too.  You might like to go for a cleansing walk when you’re done!