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'Cleanliness is Next to Godliness'
I've often heard this growing up, most notably from the teachers at one of the Christian schools I attended. Then, I suspect they just wanted to coax us into cleaning our rooms more efficiently and obediently, but reflecting on it now, it rings truer than ever.
I've come to believe that God cannot live in a dirty space.
In this context, I take God to be the great force behind all of creation, or what some people may call 'Source' or 'The Universe'. That to which our spirit comes from and to which it connects. I believe all spirituality is an attempt to align our own spirit (the truest part of ourselves) with that Godly spirit. I believe also that the Godly spirit is pure. It is clean.
So within so without. A pure spirit requires a pure space.
In this post, I discuss why it's important to clean your environment to invite the pure light of the universe so that it may illuminate your path, uplift your spirit, and power your manifestations. Please keep in mind that these are my personal views. They may or may not resonate, but they are fun to share.
'You' Extends Past Your Body to Your Environment
Zen Philosopher, Alan Watts, was the first person to introduce me to the concept of 'me' going past my physical body and extending out into my environment, within a metaphysical frame. He argued that the being and the environment are one, with each giving rise to the other.
It was a radical idea for me when I first heard it but at the same time, it rang true. I believed it then and I believe it now.
The Energy of Clutter
Everything is energy. So in the case of your immediate environment, everything within it is vibrating at a particular energetic level. Clutter has its own vibration, that of stuck energy. When this stuck energy becomes the dominant vibration in your life, it can manifest in several ways:
Feeling Stuck
This can look like metal blockages, an inability to push through an entire thought and grow it into an action that can yield any sort of result. This can take effect in any (and every) area of your life, be it school, work, family situations, relationships, etc. All of this in turn results in stagnation.
Poor Stocktaking
Not knowing what you have or don’t have can result in wasting energy getting things you already own but just can’t find. This is true in the case of physical cleaning- if your house is cluttered, you will have a difficult time finding things and more than likely will end up buying more things that you already have, which will only add to the clutter.
However, this principle extends past the physical into every sphere of your life. Not keeping track of your ideas (mental) or projects (work/ school) can lead to them being lost and force you to start all over, thus wasting time and limiting your progress.
Clean Your House
Cleaning your living space is a simple and effective way to bring flow into your life. A deep clean (no stuffing things into closets) will help you to see the true state of your home. It will make you pull out everything you've stuffed into a dark cupboard and bring it into the light.
Then, you scrub the cupboards and prepare them to house only the possessions you wish to keep. With the cupboards clean, you will then neatly pack all that you wish to keep. The rest will find its way into a garbage bin and be discarded, or be lovingly given to someone whose life it will enhance.
In a spiritual sense, this is you taking stock of all the junk you've accumulated. This junk can take the form of limiting beliefs and poor habits that have gotten you to where you are now, but may no longer serve you in your next phase.
Make Space for your Manifestations
If you are calling something new into your life, be ready to receive it. This means letting go of whatever previously filled that void in your life so the universe can do what it does best and fill it. Cleaning, physically and energetically, is a way of preparing to receive so when your manifestations come, they stay. Make space for the new by getting rid of that which no longer serves.
How Cleaning Translates to Manifestations
You may be thinking: Okay, this is all well and good, but what does it have to do with my manifestations? Well, to implement these same ideas about cleaning your physical space to your energetic space can look as follows:
1. Spiritual Stocktaking
This will give you an awareness of the energetic pollutants in your life, such as your limiting beliefs around your abilities, money and abundance, relationships, etc.
2. Spiritual Cleaning
Having identified these limiting beliefs and all the ideas/ situations that leave you feeling low (sad, stuck, unsure, insecure, depressed, etc.), you can work to remove them so you can be energetically and spiritually ‘clean’.
3. Higher Vibration
Finally, you can start working to lift your vibration and frequency to align with that of all the wonderful things you desire through meditation, visualization, journaling, and whatever other tools and techniques work for you.
4. Manifestation
As we all know, when it comes to manifesting, like attracts like. A maintained increased vibration matching that of your desire leads to the manifestation of that desire.
It's All About Flow
I believe that flow is the secret to life. In my own life, I've found myself frustrated in situations only to find, upon deep meditation on the frustrating circumstances, that the root of all the distress was a lack of flow, caused most often by my blocking it.
Often this looks like hanging on to things I should be letting go of, things whose time has been served and that I need to graduate from in order to flow into the next phase of my life.
This can be a job, a relationship, a lifestyle habit- it can be anything, but the result is the same. When I fail to let it go, it becomes stuck in place and brings stuck energy into my life.
I suddenly feel like I'm trapped in place, no longer moving forward. I feel drained and anxious, even depressed. I can fail to see where these feelings come from, which is why introspection and a deep connection to self are important.
Find The Root
When there is stagnant energy in your life, it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause because the outcomes of this energy can manifest in different ways.
For example, if you cling to a job that no longer serves you, you may think that the outcome will be frustration within that job. While this is logical, it doesn't always hold.
Why? Because we are dealing with energy. What's true is that stuck energy will manifest in your life, but how is open-ended. Energy can take any form. So, clinging to a job that no longer serves you can create stuck energy that manifests as a clogged sink.
We should learn to recognize a lack of flow and not get hung up on the physical manifestations. Failing this, you'll fix the clogged sink and stay in your job without realizing what the universe is trying to communicate with you. Which will only make the universe try even harder, maybe this time in the form of a broken down car.
How the Spirit of Cleanliness has Manifested in My Life
This is certainly a new development in my life. I now clean all the time. Willingly. I’m upset by cluttered spaces and I find true, deep joy in decluttering them. I like to deep clean too, not just the surface-level ‘this looks clean so it’s good enough’ type of thing that younger me used to do.
I feel that my environment is an extension of me. If it’s dirty, I’m dirty. If it’s messy, my thoughts are jumbled. When I clean it, my mood lifts, and when it looks beautiful, I feel beautiful.
I've started to see myself as a vessel for the creative force of the universe. All that I desire seeks me, but it needs a clear pathway to reach me. I see cleaning as the creation of this pathway. Physically and spiritually. It’s wild.
Cleanliness and Spiritual Growth
While it is wild, I also feel this shift in perspective is a natural part of spiritual growth. My idea of ‘me’ has expanded to include my immediate surroundings. I think as I continue to grow spiritually, this idea of what ‘me’ is will also grow to include more until finally, it encompasses all of life, such that everywhere I look, I see myself.
All is one and one is all. Is that not what Oneness is?
Well, I can’t claim to know the answer to such a big question, but I am very keen to search for what can pass as an answer. Until then, I will continue to clean my house.
Sending love,
Nonjabulo
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