This article "A Clean Slate ? is the second installment of the Enchantress Series. If you're committed to major self-enhancement, this article is going to help. If you missed the first installment, "The Beginning ?, please email me and I'll be happy to send it to you. If you have read "The Beginning ?, then I'm assuming you've gone through your house and your wardrobe and are now down to the absolute basics of what you want to carry into the future with you. If you don't love it, or you don't need it, get rid of it! The next agenda item is the first part of our Enchantress Beauty Program. This first step is to get rid of everything you don't need about the inner you. We want to make as much room as possible for the future abundance that we are going to create in our lives. The idea behind this Beauty Program is there are two points about beauty. Beauty is more than skin deep is the first point. The second point is beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We are concerned with feeling beautiful to ourselves, with Inner Beauty being the definite priority. We'll touch a little on outer beauty in the next article. First, get out your calendar and schedule time for yourself. Fifteen minutes a day if possible and then maybe longer, an hour or more once a week. Go out in nature, or take a nice warm bath, whatever you can do to be alone and in a peaceful area will work. Plan for this alone time to be nurturing and be prepared to accomplish some hard work too! Self-care is never selfish, so make sure and indulge yourself during this time. You deserve to be spoiled for the work you are going to be doing. Lighting candles, listening to music, tea, and/or chocolate are all ideas to treat yourself with. This time will help you begin reconnecting with yourself on your deepest levels. Let's start by taking an inventory of all of the things that have been holding you back in life. This may take quite some time and need additional assistance that is not included in this article. Seek counseling if your issues are very deep seated. Group therapy, or Life Coaching can also be helpful with this. First relax and then start to look at the following: Are you living with guilt, shame, or regret? Do you have beliefs about yourself that might not be true that you've held onto over the years? Do you need to make apologies to people, or come to some other closure about your past? Do you need to forgive others, or yourself, for harm done? Forgiveness is not accepting what was done as right; it's just a service to yourself to let go of the negative feelings that you might be carrying. Are you accepting bad judgments about yourself from other people, even if they aren't true? Are you procrastinating about things in your life that is causing undue stress? Attend to those things as soon as you can so they are no longer a bother to you. Be Strong and Take Action! Our goal with this is to start with a spiritually, emotionally, and mentally clean slate. Make lists of what you need to let go of and how you are going to do it. It might mean making amends to yourself or others, it might mean replacing negative thought forms with positive ones, meditation, and/or affirmations, or any number of tools that allow you to come to terms with the past and move on to better things. As you are letting go of the past, start to practice staying in the present. What is going on around you right now? Pay attention to the sites, sounds, and smells. Keep your focus on that and expect your mind to want to wander. When you notice your mind taking you away from the present, especially into negative self-talk, gently bring it back. Notice how much better you are doing today, because you are taking steps to improve yourself. Getting rid of the stress that we can control is very important. We will talk more about that in upcoming articles. Releasing our negative reactions to stress is what's important to give our attention to now. Staying in the present will help stress reactions immensely. Correcting your negative thought forms about yourself will help too. Acknowledge that stress is a part of life, but it doesn't have to be an emergency. Staying calm and focused on what you are doing is the most effective way to deal with it. Your breath is also important during this time for you. Conscious breathing during your alone time will be very beneficial. If issues come up that are too emotion, or too intense for you to comfortably handle by yourself, go back to your breathing. Breathe in positive energy and breathe out negative energy until you feel relatively relaxed again. Then, please email me, or schedule time with a counselor that can help you get through the harder parts of bringing up difficult issues. The next Enchantress Series article is the next installment of the Enchantress Beauty Program. Please email me if you want to make sure not to miss this article, or if you would like the whole series emailed to you. |
