SGM April 2012 Bonus Weekly Message: “Spring Cleaning Your Sacred Space”

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Welcome to our SGM April 2012 Bonus Weekly Message. I’m Kevin Schoeninger. It’s good to have you with us. Since April has five Sundays, and we like to provide fresh content weekly, we add this extra message to our April edition.

Spring is in full swing. This time of the year, we are infused with an energy of growth and expansion. As a result of that, you might feel the urge to get outside and absorb the nurturing rays of sunshine, listen to the birds, and take a walk in the natural world. You might find yourself more talkative than usual or more geared toward your TO DO list. You might feel the urge to create something new in your life.

You also might feel a little jittery, anxious, or nervous. You might find yourself agitated, argumentative, or in conflict with others. You might find yourself fighting off “spring fever.” The influx of spring energy may run into resistance inside and around you. This is natural, too, and part of the reason that we have the concept of “spring cleaning.” Spring cleaning clears out the old to make space for something new. In this Week’s Message, we’ll explore how you can practice spring cleaning “internally” and “externally.”

In qigong (“chee-gung”) or energy meditation practice, spring is acknowledged as an ideal time to sweep our lives clean on the inside. Spring is a great time to let go of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and habits that no longer serve you, so that you can infuse your inner life with what you truly want to grow and experience. Qigong meditation is a great foundation for this inner work. In fact, this Saturday, April 28th, is World T’ai Chi and Qigong Day in recognition of the fact that this is an opportune time of year to do just that.

In qigong, you learn to feel what is happening in your internal energy system. You discover that you can identify the feeling of resistance in your body and use your conscious awareness to release tension and facilitate smooth energy flow. This not only relaxes you, but it also feels great. It connects you to a relaxed, positive, clear, and integrated Core Energy State. Through practice, this inner state becomes a consistent background experience that carries over into everything else that you do. Qigong is a daily, inner, spring cleaning to release tension and open up the natural flow of well-being.

If you’d like to learn more about qigong meditation, you can check out this link to our Learn Qigong Meditation program: http://www.qigongmeditationsecrets.com

Another way to do inner spring cleaning is the “Clearing Your Inner Space” meditation which was last week’s “Meditation of the Month.” As you practice this type of inner body meditation, it’s possible that emotions will come to the surface. For example, one of our members said that she felt sadness and tears started to flow.

Sadness and tears signal “letting go.” We may have been taught that sadness is a negative state to be avoided and that tears mean that “something is wrong.” However, there is sadness that is appropriate and beneficial—that has a positive purpose. The natural function of free flowing sadness is to help you let go of what is past so you can make space for what is present—for what is ready to happen now.

Likewise, there is anger that is appropriate and purposeful. Anger can alert you that something or someone needs protection. It can give you energy to set appropriate boundaries.

Fear, too, can be appropriate and purposeful. Feelings of fear can alert you to action you need to take. It can motivate you to learn, expand, and grow into your fuller capacities.

So, if uncomfortable feelings arise when you relax and focus inside your body, allow them to come. Turn toward, welcome, and accept them. Allow them to inform you. Seek to understand the messages they carry.

Emotions arise with a purpose and energy to accomplish that purpose. As you listen to their message and take appropriate action—whether that is an internal action such as “letting go” or an outer action such as expressing something that is important to you—your emotions will resolve and flow through you. You’ll feel refreshed inside and ready for what is happening next in your life.

This season is also an opportune time to spring clean your outer personal environment. It’s a great time to go through the stuff that has piled up over the winter and get rid of what you don’t really need. We all save stuff or let stuff pile up because we think we need it or think we need to do something about it. Sure, sometimes we procrastinate over things that are truly important. However, often we procrastinate over stuff because it’s not a real priority. That’s stuff we can let go of. Over the years I’ve noticed that when I get rid of stuff, I rarely miss it. The clearing out just makes room for what is more important right now.

So, here are some suggestions for spring cleaning your outer environment. These are just a few options to get your mental wheels turning. Use them to discover what is most important for you to clear out. If you do even one of these, I think you’ll feel a little lighter and less cluttered.

Here are some suggestions:

Spring is a great time to sweep your desktop clear, the real one and the virtual one. Clear out your INBOX and commit to keeping it clear of everything except what you really need to respond to or are really interested in exploring.

It’s a great time to clean your closets, your cabinets, your drawers, your basement, or your garage—all those spots that store stuff out of the way.

Or how about clearing out the spaces that you live in every day, such as your bathroom, your kitchen, your “frig,” your living room, or your bedroom. In this process, let go of anything that doesn’t really add something important to what you do in that space.

If you haven’t used something recently, it’s highly possible that you don’t really need it. If you really, really want to save something, store it neatly somewhere with a label on it so you can find it.

If you don’t really really need it, maybe someone else could use it. The library loves to be given books and videos. Goodwill loves to get clothes and accessories. Homeless shelters love blankets, coats, and extra unopened canned and dried food.

When you clean your personal environment, notice how you feel.

Now, of course, many of us have others who share our home or work spaces. Your family, roommates, and co-workers may not be “onto” your “cleaning frenzy.” If you aren’t able to get them into the spirit, do what you can to create a little “free and clear” personal space. Clean up any space, no matter how small, that is “just yours.”

To inspire and guide you in doing this, on the inside and the outside, what if you think of your personal space as “sacred space.” What if you re-framed your personal space in that way?

What if your daily meditation, prayer, or quiet time was a time to clear your inner sacred space so that your soul-felt inspirations have room to come through? What if you view your body as a sacred temple for your spirit to dwell in? How does that shift what goes on in that temple?

What if your outer environment supported your sacred inner space? What if you arranged your outer personal environment to reflect what is sacred to you on the inside? What if you setup your physical environment to support inner peace, love, clarity, and purpose? How could you do that?

This week, I invite you to choose one way that you will create, support, or maintain sacred space inside and around you.

Enjoy your practice!
Kevin