Yeah! It's Feng Shui Friday.  It's been a good week because the Spiritual Sharing Group invited me to return as a speaker (decluttering last time) to talk about feng shui.  What a special gathering of women.  Preparing what I wanted to share kept me focused for many days on how everything is connected and the spirituality of feng shui - body, heart, mind and spirit. 

Also, this week I am most grateful for all the generous feedback from many readers.  Your thoughtfulness touched me and I can feel my energy shifting.  I find myself moving forward, making decisions, and following through in areas that have felt stuck for a long time.  Thank you all for your healing energy.

It's an inside job.  This over-weight is killing me.  I'm obsessed with it.  I tell myself "I'd do anything not to be this fat."  But I don't......do anything.  Well, that's not totally true.  I get motivated and count calories and buy healthy foods and avoid processed foods and prepare more meals at home and fewer meals in restaurants, take an exercise class...and then I get busy or sidetracked or bored and forget to pay attention, and stop.  So I went to the doctor to get her advice and to retest my low-thyroid.  I want there to be a magic pill.  I told her I need a psychiatrist.  I think I'm crazy.  She assured me I'm not...darn.  Why couldn't I just check into the closest asylum?  It's maddening.  And I know it's an inside job.  It makes no difference whether it's physical clutter in our basements or closets, or if the clutter is body weight, deciding if and when to LET IT GO is part of our process -- the journey.  I'm beginning to identify the changes I want to make inside to reflect the changes I want to see on the outside.  Do I have the strength to bloom?   "...and the time came when the risk it took to remain in a tightly closed bud became infinitely more painful than the risk it took to bloom." -Anais Nin

We are what we eat.  We are what we say.  Because I believe so strongly that everything is connected, it's no surprise that what I put in my mouth shows up where I can see it.  And just as important, what I say also shows up.  From my mind and heart I say "I hate myself".  That's mind and heart junk thrown at my body junk.  In an interview publicizing the Hay House World Summit (October 12-18), Louis L. Hay was asked if there are common themes among people asking for her help and if the solutions were similar or different.  She said everybody had basically the same five problems: health, money, work, relationships, and creativity. She discovered "there is just one thing -- it's magical -- and that is loving yourself and to concentrate on that one thing -- releasing self-hatred."  Too often we are raised with "no and stop and do what I say, and we don't know who we are and we're trying to be something according to the rules."  She said we have to clean out that garbage and realize we are pretty wonderful just the way we are and that when we change ourselves with love the changes will be possible.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.  Even though it seems like a long road and I stray or detour from time to time, I feel like I'm making progress because 'teachers' are appearing. The doctor gave me a list of options (most covered by my insurance) from coaching and support groups to dieticians and liquid meal plans.  While I've done all of this a hundred times, it feels different this time. I feel ready to come at this from the inside out and have made appointments to further discuss these options.  Thanks to my inspired friend Carol, I'm using the words "I love myself, no matter what" whenever a negative thought or head games show up.  And in the same Hay interview when asked what we can do to start saying things differently, she said, "Be Aware."  She suggested that on waking, even before you open your eyes, think about your first thought of the day and make it a positive one.  Her routine is to thank her bed for a wonderful night's sleep, and when her feet hit the floor, she knows it's going to be a good day.  Then first thing every morning, look in the mirror (the second thing besides releasing self-hatred that no one wants to do) and say "'Kathie, I love you. I really really love you', and then pee".  

I hope you'll join me this week for all the amazing speakers on-line at the Hay House World Summit -- it's FREE.  No matter what kind of clutter, we can be inspired -- in spirit -- to look at things differently, be kinder to ourselves, and welcome the teachers who appear because we are ready to clear our clutter from the inside out.