Philosophical...

I have an amazing life. AMAZING. Things seem to get better and better all the time.

I ran into a friend yesterday who happens to also be a member of my former church. We hadn't talked since before I left the church and she had some questions for me. After our talk, she apologized for things happening the way they did and I told her everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that, even though I question the reasons sometimes. I am thrilled to death with our new church and am so thankful for the opportunity to grow in my faith.  Leaps and bounds.

The other day I commented to a friend that my faith is being challenged.  When asked how, I said I misspoke.  I think more correctly I am being challenged.  Not my faith.  Maybe it's me challenging my faith.  I feel the best I ever have and totally feel home in all my surroundings...at church, with friends and family and in my own home.  Everywhere, that is, except in my head.  It's all mental, I know, and I shouldn't let the little things get to me.  However, it's the little things that are the big things, ya know?  The struggle I am having mentally is taking up far too much of my time.  My energy.  And it's cluttering up my home.  My mental home.  In an effort to "self help" myself, I was reading something that I already really know, but to see it on paper and read the words...{aha!}

"Mental housekeeping is the act of taking care of your mental home. Your mental home “houses” your mind, the seat of real authority that controls your total well-being. We often pay close attention to our physical home but little to the state of our mental home. Considering that our mental home holds the thoughts that can change our outer reality, this can be a real shame.


Your mind, which controls a lot of things about your physical body, holds thoughts that are handed down from the generations before you. Additionally since the time that you were born, you have already received countless thoughts, impressions, ideas, prejudices and judgements. Yet, much of what you have received to make your mental home, is accepted without questioning or further thought. Hence, it can be said that you are really the result of past thinking.


To weed yourself of unhelpful thoughts, mental housekeeping is a necessary process. If you have been feeling miserable and not gotten the success that you have been hoping for, then you will need to look to the root cause: the state of your mind or mental home. About 90 percent of your mental home is directed by the thinking that lies in your subconscious mind. Not understanding this or accessing it for its powers can limit your true potentiality.


1. Clear The Clutter. A home that has lots of clutter, such as toxic thoughts like fear, worry and anxiety, will be built on shaky ground and cannot thrive well. Far from what you would normally believe, it is possible to “sweep” them away to make way for new and more empowering thoughts.


2. Water For Cleansing. After clearing the clutter, it will be a good idea to do some form of cleansing, just like how you would mop the floor after sweeping. Cleansing is a purifying process.

You can also cleanse your mind by spiritually connecting yourself to your faith. When you do this, you are infusing yourself with the healing energies of love, kindness and compassion. You are cleansing away toxic thoughts that do not serve humanity. A Spiritual connection can put you on a higher vibrational energy frequency.

3. Keep Out Unwelcome Guests. Just as you would not allow unwelcome guests in your physical home, you should do the same for your mental one. When you allow unwelcome guests in mentally, you are risking the possibility of getting contaminated by them. You fail to turn the key to lock your door, to prevent the free flow of these unwanted guests.


Because you do not exercise control over who or what comes in, these thoughts can eventually to wear you down. When this happens, they are no longer “guests”. They begin to form your belief system when you take them to be “permanent truths”. With little control over them, they now take charge of your life.


A desired action, from now on, is to guard your mental home fearlessly and faithfully. Only invite the ones that are helpful in and keep out those that have the potential of contributing to a toxic home. Have the courage to kick out those who have managed to enter but who are creating a nuisance.


4. Strengthen With Positive Thinking. After clearing out the negative thoughts, it is important that you next strengthen it with positive and empowering ones. Positive statements include “I can”, “It is easy”, “I will”. The benefits of positive thinking are many. You are likely to be more motivated, feel happier and attract greater success.


5. Breathe in Fresh Air. Good Feng shui practices advocate having a home with a free and energized flow of Qi (“energy”). Hence, just like you prefer to have a home with good circulation, you would want your mind to be the same.


6. Furnish It With Love. A sad and miserable mental home is one that is filled with darkness, shame and guilt. The Qi is negative, dense and heavy. On the other hand, a happy mental home is one that is filled with love and joy. The Qi here is positive, energized and light (as in bright).


7. Nourish With Knowledge. How else would you like your mental home to be? If you have been playing computer games, watching violent TV shows or reading celebrity magazines filled with gossip talk, guess what? You would not have done a very good job of nourishing it, aside from proper food.


8. Fill It With Beauty. You would not hang pictures of violence, glum or horror in your physical home; so why do the same for your mental one? To stay positive and happy, it is important to protect the mind from too much negative imagery. If you spend a great deal of time beautifying your home, then you should spend as much time doing up your internal one as well."

Very informative...some of it is like, "Duh!" and some of it is like, "Oh, duh..."  Either way, I thought I was doing a decent job of keeping it clean, but like with anything else, life gets in the way and I run out of time.  The harsh reality is, sometimes reality isn't as easy as this depicts.  The daily struggle with good vs. bad thoughts is something I do struggle with.  I know it's up to me to work that out.  If you know me, I assume you know I am a good person.  If you know me, I assume you also know that I can be an emotional mess and I strike back if I am hurt to {hopefully} avoid tears...my defense mechanism.  I don't claim to think it's right, but it is a fact of my life.  Walk all over me.  I must like it because I let it happen.  Until I don't.  That's just the way I am.  The irony is, if you know me well, you may know this about me but have never witnessed it yourself because you care about me the way I care about you and we would never get to this point.  Life is a two way street, as is respect, compassion and a slew of other emotions.  "Do unto others as they have done unto you"...unfortunately I live this way more often than I want to.  When it's good stuff, it's great.  When it isn't...I need to work on moving past it and not dwell on the nastiness.  The question is, HOW?