 My t-shirt drawer, after using the KonMari method. The other day I introduced my partner Richard to the KonMari method as I offered to help tidy up his clothes closet. If you’re not familiar with Marie Kondo, she has sparked a worldwide movement for decluttering and tidying up, as she describes the “KonMari” method in her book the life-changing magic of tidying up and her new Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. In a nutshell, the KonMari method invites you to approach different categories of things in your house, like clothes or books, and ask the central question, “Does this spark joy?” As Marie Kondo teaches, you keep the things that spark joy, and you thank and let go of the things that don’t spark joy. So here I was with Richard, going through each item in his closet, from collared shirts to suits to ties. Hist closet was packed and overflowing with clothes. I asked him to hold the first item in his hands, a collared shirt, and to inquire within himself, “Does this spark joy?” When he touched the shirt, he proclaimed, "Yes, this sparks joy!" So we lovingly placed it in the closet. Next, he touched a worn shirt he had for years. "No," he exclaimed, "this doesn't spark joy." Immediately, he tossed it carelessly on the floor. I pleaded, “No! You have to first hold the shirt in your hands and thank it for blessing your life!” At first he gave me a little side-eye, with a look that said “Am I really thanking my shirt???” But, he lovingly complied, thanking the shirt and carefully placing it on the floor. (I’ll tell you, I really do love Richard for putting up with me sharing all my different techniques and learnings with him!) After about an hour, with his closet all neatly organized with the items that sparked joy and cleared of those that didn’t, I asked him to tell me how he felt looking at his closet now. “It looks great!” Richard said. “It feels so nice to have it organized like this, compared to how much of a mess it was before!” Imagine if you opened up your closet and only saw all your favorite clothes. If you're like many people, I bet you would feel exhilarating! As Marie Kondo encourages, “Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.” Ultimately, the KonMari approach is a guide not only for how you can tidy up your home, but also for how you can live your everyday life. Imagine if your life reflected experiences, activities and people that sparked joy for you, and you let the rest go. With your work, how would you feel if you experienced passion and purpose in what you do? With your relationships, how would you feel if you surrounded and infused your life with love, gratitude and deep connections? With your health, how would you feel if you exuded vibrancy, power and intentionality? For every area of your life, you can begin to uncover what joy looks like for you. Here’s a simple first step: Pick an area of your life or home, and ask yourself, “What does joy look like for me here?” Example 1: If I picked an area of my life, I’ll pick my career. Joy looks like waking up, looking forward to work and seeing my co-workers. I feel like I’m making a difference. What I’m doing is purposeful, almost like being of service. I know that I’m using my skills and talents, and that I’m continually learning and growing. Or here's another example. Example 2: If I picked an area of my home, I’ll pick the kitchen. Joy looks like I’m cooking delicious meals. Joy also looks like I know where everything is, from spices to utensils to canned goods, and I can find them and access them easily. The kitchen is tidy with everything clean and put away. I also have the things on the counter that I use the most, like my coffee pot, and nothing else cluttering the space. My refrigerator contains nourishing foods and feels spacious enough for me to maintain freshness. This step of asking what joy looks like for you is an important first step because you’re giving shape to your vision. Your vision is your destination, and it helps to reveal a roadmap for how you get from where you are to where your heart is leading you. Behind today's lesson is this spiritual truth: You are a being of joy, pure and simple. How are you being called to align your life and your surroundings with the joy that you already are? In other words, how can you step up your expression of joy today? Like Richard experienced with his closet, Joy was already there. It was hidden amongst the things that had already served their purpose. He just needed to tune in to the Joy and let it guide him. Here is an affirmation you can use this week to be in greater alignment with Joy: Joy lives as an eternal spark within me. I allow Joy to express in every part of my life, and I lovingly let go of all that which has served its purpose. My life reflects the Joy that I am. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. I’d love to hear if your thoughts about today's post, and how you can spark joy in your life. Let me know by leaving a comment below. The survey results are in from last week asking you about possible book topics for my first book I'll be publishing this summer. We had a total of 68 responses! Yay! And now the results… Drum roll, please…. With 35 votes, the clear winner of the book topic is… “Visioning and visualizing your best life!” (Imagine confetti falling from the sky now, and everyone standing up to cheer…) Here are the total results:  As you can see from the chart above, the runner-up topic is “Spiritual perspectives on different areas of life (career, money, relationships, health, everyday living)” I'm actually planning to write a few different books, which means that I'll eventually get to all these different topics. But I wanted your help in deciding which one to write first. Now that the book topic of “Visioning and Visualizing your best life” is decided, here’s where I can use your help again. I’ve taught different classes and written about this topic of Visioning and Visualizing your best life. But I want to make sure I cover my bases. I’d love it if you can answer these simple questions for me: “What questions do you have about visioning and visualizing your best life? When you think about this topic, where are you stuck and where do you feel like you could use some support? What additional clarity would you like to have? And what would you like to see in a book and a course about this topic?” Here’s a link where you can give me your response: https://goo.gl/forms/C92dGknuehCVn5xI3 Or you can simply reply in the comments below to let me know. Thank you so much for your help with this! And I’ll keep you posted on my book progress because, ultimately, we’re all on this journey together. You are as much a part of this book as I am! :-) Abundant Blessings and Namaste.  Whether you realize it or not, you probably already have a regular morning ritual. You might wake up, use the bathroom, make some coffee or tea, prepare and eat breakfast, shower and get dressed. Maybe you include spiritual practices like morning meditation, prayer, reading or journaling. You see, a ritual is a series of acts that you repeatedly take in a prescribed order. Whatever your morning may include, you already have a rhythm and an order to how you start many of your days. I bring up this idea of morning rituals because some of my clients ask me what tips I could offer for starting a regular spiritual practice in the morning. My question back to them is, “What are you already doing in your mornings? What rituals do you have in place?” If you’re looking to introduce a new activity into your life, it’s helpful to recognize what routines you already have in place. Recognizing your routines does two things for you. One, you realize and appreciate that you already have regular practices in place. Some people think it will be challenging to maintain an everyday practice, like meditating for 10 minutes or journaling. But, in fact, you already have everyday practices (like brushing your teeth or taking a shower), and you didn’t realize these were practices you initially had to learn and had to give consistent energy for them to become a habit. Two, once you recognize what your regular practices are and the order in which they happen, you can decide where you can insert your new spiritual practice and how long you want to do it. For example, say you want to start meditating more regularly in the morning. Figure out how much time you’d like to start meditating. Is it 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 20 to 30 minutes? (For people new to a meditation practice, I advise starting with a few minutes and doing it more consistently, rather than aiming to do an hour everyday, so you first build up a consistent habit.) Then, write out what your regular morning ritual already looks like. In other words, list out the activities just as I mentioned at the beginning of this article: wake up, use the bathroom, drink water, make and eat breakfast, read the paper, watch the news, shower, get dressed, etc. Now, next to each of those activities, write down how much time on average you take to do these activities. Writing down times for each of these activities is very eye opening for some people because you might be needing more time than you thought you used. That’s why some people always feel rushed in the morning, because they don’t allow themselves the time they thought they needed to engage in all their morning rituals. After you list out your existing morning ritual activities and the amounts of time they each take, then figure out where you’d like to insert your new spiritual practice and start testing it out. Do you want to meditate before you eat, or after you eat? You get to choose! (And make sure you increase the total amount of time for your morning ritual as you incorporate this new practice. Sometimes this means getting up a little earlier to make this happen.) Here's the thing. Even if you decide not to introduce a new morning spiritual practice, the exercise of uncovering your regular morning ritual can be wonderfully surprising. You get to learn more about who you are and the morning rhythm by which you operate. If you’d like extra credit for this assignment, see if you can uncover what your evening ritual looks like. Overall, this is an exercise in bringing greater awareness to how you create your life. And once you have greater awareness, you can decide if you want to keep how you do things, or if you want to change it up in any way. Either way, you get to choose how you live your life, rather than operating on auto-pilot. The spiritual truth behind today’s article is this: You are imbued with the divine gift of choice. When you realize that you are always at choice, you can more easily embrace the truth that freedom is already yours. Here’s an affirmation that you can use to support you: My mornings reflect how I choose to start each day. Today I choose to say yes to life. In return, life says yes to me. When you wake up in the mornings, how are you choosing to say yes to life, more consciously and more freely? Abundant Blessings and Namaste. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Sign me up to receive the free newsletterPopular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. |
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