Transitional times and spaces

The closing of the year marks a point of transition – from time past that can never again be brought back save through memories, to a new period we try to coat with hope and wishes. If we reflect deeply enough, beyond knowing that the new year carries a different numerical digit, or that the horizon line before us seems hazy, shadowy and unclear, we will find a period which we can use to great benefit for our own transformation.

To begin, there is nothing as simple as looking around you now. How has your physical space become this past year? If you find clutter and mess, junk mail and overstuff shelves, clutter all around – this tells a story that you should try to look closer at. Your surroundings reflect your subconscious. Messes hide things we do not want to face. If bills are piling up, perhaps you don’t want to think about financial problems. Or even worst, you refuse to change your spending patterns. Your closet space may be bulging with clothes you can’t fit into but continuously keep with the hope that you will finally loose the extra pounds you have kept saying you would. Are your drawers full of mementos of past loves, or of a beloved who has passed away? Their presence may reflect your refusal to finally move on, move forward to new relationships. Is that old dusty teddy bear not better off with a little orphan? Or is the comfort of the past too hard to grow away from? Yes, indeed! There are so many stories, so many, many personal stories. And your space reflects all these. These are stories you must be willing to read through the symbols, appreciate their meaning and understand the story you are continually weaving about yourself.

In the light of the new year, one of the greatest secrets to calling forth positive changes is to transform the energy of the old into something new. This desire is often reflected in the need to move things around our personal space, break old habits of collecting, re-assess all our things and keep only those which truly have meaning for where we are at this moment in our lives. Moving and changing things always allow new energies to come in.

And as you move things around or discard some, remember that memories are not in the objects we keep but in the very cell of who we are and continually become.

The first New Year’s resolution I would suggest is to create a new kind of personal space, one that you can call a Sacred Space. It can be a corner of your room where you can arrange all your favorite mementos that give you comfort. Or have a nice table with a candle and incense burner with a favorite sacred or religious object. Found here, too, may be your personal journal where you jot down insights into your growth, or where you keep your favorite books that aid your soul awareness. This Sacred Space is where you can retreat to daily and nourish your soul.

Another New Year’s resolution is to also find new kinds of spaces – those that are transformational. These are spaces which work as cocoons that allow for changes to happen. Such transformational spaces have certain unique qualities in that they make us feel safe and secure, free and challenged to be the best we can be. They also challenge our creativity, expression and experimentation and thus, bring us back to the innocence of childhood and beginnings that promise anything and everything. These are environments that allow for maximum growth, people with constancy that mentor and teach us something deeper and new about ourselves, a spiritual network or group that allows for deeper relationships beyond mere socials. We may intuitively search for such spaces during time of our lives when we are caught in problems or when attempting to align to some internal developmental thrust or direction. They are as essential to our growth as the air we breathe. In this coming year, make a note to consciously seek out such spaces, people and relationships. And discard those that suck your energy, bring you fears or don’t enhance your life at all.

This shift to a new year is always exciting for it marks a fork in our directional paths. It is the point in linear time that reminds us that we are indeed getting older, and that change is the only constant as time moves on. It is that point that holds all potentials and possibilities. A reminder that the life we have been living has outgrown its old form. It speaks of the cycle of perpetual renewal where we must change towards a deepening or an expansion, as sure as the number in the year likewise changes.

As you renew your space, renew, too, your spirit.

(E-mail me at jej1@easycall.com.ph)