As I mentioned in this post, over the past three weeks I’ve been participating in the Stratejoy Holiday Council. Along with approximately 160 other fab ladies, I’ve been dreaming, scheming and plotting on how to make 2013 the most awesome year ever. I’ve made written down intentions, filled out worksheets, visualized, meditated, created vision boards and mind-maps. I’m doing all these things that 5 years ago, I would have written off as being “corny” and I’m totally loving it.
Around the holidays I find it’s really easy to feel lost – especially as we head into the new year and we start evaluating (as I always do) everything that’s happened over the past 12 months. Between readjusting to life in BC, fighting off the flu and trying to get a bunch of work projects completed before the end of the year, the past few weeks have been nuts. I’m so glad I took this time to invest invest in myself. Listening to Molly‘s lessons once a week and participating in the Holiday Council challenges have kept me feeling positive and motivated during a time of the year when I might normally be losing my shit.
One of the first Stratejoy Holiday Council challenges was to “honour the Awesome of 2012 & let go of the pieces that no longer serve you” Part of this challenge involved letting go of stuff, purging and cleaning your physical space to make room for new, positive things to come into your life. As some of you already know, one of the blogs that has had a huge impact on me over the past 3 years has been Jess Lively’s blog formerly known as Makeunder My Life. In the past she has challenged herself to get rid of 50 things from her home and either recycle, donate or give them away. For the cleaning project I decided to kick things up a notch and challenge myself to do the same. I’m already fairly minimal when it comes to my possessions so I thought it would be difficult to find 50 things to let go of, however it was actually way easier than I thought!
If you’re the kind of person who enjoys looking at other people’s trash, here’s what you might find if you cleaned out a freelance writer/sex blogger’s bedroom:
(clockwise) A hairdryer that smells like burning whenever I use it, a bathing suit cover up that no longer fits, a pile of socks that I believe belong to my cousin that he never came to pick up (I found them stuffed inside my Miu Miu bag. See, this is why I am taking a course with a life coach), luggage tags, bronzer that’s past it’s expiry date, broken umbrella, a bra that doesn’t fit and a bunch of random catalogs.
My pink beer cozy from Bloggers in Sin City (given away to friend), sex toy catalog, multiple promotional USB keys, lone bra strap, ear buds that have seen better days, coaster, keychain, sticker, erotic fiction that I’ve already plowed through (no pun intended), broken sunglasses, an apple shaped stress ball and a bag of clothing that includes a pair of shoes that although pretty, make my feet cry out in agony.
They say reading a lot helps you become a better writer. However, that doesn’t mean you have to keep everything you’ve read – especially if it was written by Snooki. These are all getting traded in at the used bookstore.
After I exfoliating these 66 items (yay!) from my life, I unpacked some of my boxes from Toronto. I really thought I’d pared down my possessions when I moved, however once I opened those boxes I found more stuff to give away.
I put together this bookcase and filled it with my favourite books and objects. I hung up the bulletin board I purchased months ago and tacked up reminders of some of my favourite moments from 2012. You can’t really tell from the photo but I also added in text that represents my values for 2013. They say things like “Sparkle” “Be Courageous” “Have adventures” “Tell Stories” “Be Healthy” & “Be Foxy”
This bookcase is faces my bed and this is what I wake up to every morning: my favourite stories, words and reminders of sparkly moments. It’s kind of awesome.
After letting go of the physical stuff, it was time to let go of the emotional stuff too. Part of this challenge was not only to honour the awesome stuff that happened in 2012 but to also make a list of stuff you want to let go – the difficulties, the disappointments, the challenges, the painful moments – and destroy it. For this part of the challenge I decided to include a really good friend of mine. The other night we grabbed some coffees, drove down to the beach and while sitting in her car facing the water, made a list of the best and worst moments from the past year. After we read our lists out loud to each other, we cut up all the bits we wanted to let go out, got out of the car and proclaimed “I joyfully release you!” before chucking them in the Pacific Ocean. (This is how we do on the West Coast)
It was so nice to share this moment with a friend. It was cathartic & a little bit magical. Tuesday night will go down as another favorite memory from the past year.
The whole process was so inspiring that I came home that night at 11pm and decided that I would finally put up the floating shelves for the accessories/boudoir area I’ve been wanting to create in my room. I got out my drill, screwdriver & hammer and JUST DID IT. I think it looks pretty good considering it was 11:30pm on a Tuesday!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a vision board to go work on before my date tonight.
(Don’t worry – I don’t recognize myself either these days.)
What would you like to let go of from the past year?
