I’m often watching how many of my friends who are parents mindfully swap their children’ toys around so that their kids can remain stimulated and interested.

I notice that as an adult, I have to do the same for myself, and this is primarily why I try to cultivate a life that is as minimalistic as my multi faceted personality allows.

Having a home office can make this tricky, but the space I work and reside from keeps me honest because of its limited space, and the fact that I don’t share it with anyone else right now.

My friend Lynne interviewed me about my personal style about a month ago and when she asked about all the clothes I was likely to have for my wedding celebrant business, she was surprised to find out that I don’t have that many.

I’m the girl who doesn’t need to put away her summer and winter wardrobe when each season ends, and has everything organised according to season, style and colour – including the colour of the hanger.

Oh God.

{Cue inward groan}

I just realised.

I’m not that girl.

I’m THAT girl.

The arrogant, smug, over organised freak that makes you feel self-conscious when your magazines aren’t stacked neatly / according to size / and colour.

But I’m also that hippy who reads about the effects of solar eclipses and clears every scrap of rubbish on a new moon to ensure there’s no energetic block obscuring the safe arrival of the goal / intention / desire that I’ve got manifesting my way.

Because God forbid the excess paper or plastic recycling stays in my apartment, instead of the big bin outside for a second longer than it needs to..

So when a new moon, solar eclipse, birthday & autumn equinox event all fall within a few weeks of each other, I’ll be damned if I don’t read every single article I can get my hands on about the astrological powers that are bound to influence my brand new personal year.

And I bring this up NOT because I want to give you my own astrological forecast, but because I discovered that the first of these eclipses occurred in March of last year, and for me personally, I can’t help but notice that it’s around the same time that some excess ‘stuff’ crept into my life.

The backstory is that my Achilles heel has always been related to my books, as well as ‘important files’ in my filing cabinets that include precious notes from numerous yoga teacher trainings, topics for future blog posts, amazing vows for beautiful couples, guided meditations that I’ll make into a CD one day, and the list goes on.

Ironically, one of the gifts that I received for my birthday was a book all about decluttering from Marie Condo, a Japanese organizing consultant who is even more hard-core than I (like to think I) am. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing gave me the inspiration / kick up the backside / impetus to recycle or donate the files / books that I don’t need.

Marie Condo Decluttering

If you’ve been following my musings for a while now, you’ll know that I am a huge advocate of this, especially as it energetically allows the space for new people, opportunities and situations to land in your life.

As we approach the Autumn Equinox and the days progressively become shorter, our energy is preparing to go more inwards in preparation for the colder months.

As we ease into this new way of being, the Equinox is a potent reminder of this changing of seasons, temperament, intentions and times. It’s one of 2 days in the year (the Spring Equinox is the other time this occurs) when day and night are equal before we slowly ease into the next season.

It’s an auspicious time to get rid of what you no longer need physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually by editing the story around a person, situation or even an event that is no longer serving you.

Remember earlier when I mentioned how I noticed myself accruing ‘more stuff’ around a year ago? This was around the time I had decided I no longer wanted to move to America and had thrown myself into my work. The last thing I wanted to do was organise the files and photos on my phone and laptop that reminded me of such painful memories and people.

Fast forward to more than a year later and not only am I happier than I’ve ever been with a whole new crew of people in my life, but that old ‘story’ is well and truly outdated, much like my laptop’s operating system, along with a messy desktop that took 9 hours to clean and organise and an IPhone that was storing 5600 pictures. (!!??!)

So that smug girl you met earlier in this post is now more like a woman obsessed with deleting, organizing and refining all her computer related systems.

I also noticed a lot of online noise that was deafening and distracting in equal parts (goodbye countless Facebook groups and 3 separate folders titles ‘Read Later’). I was starting to feel confused about what was actually important versus the mess I had become accustomed to navigating around.

And what I’m starting to notice coming back into my life, is a sense of clarity. Unimportant things that impact how I want to FEEL no longer distract me.

Clarity is showing up as me making decisions a lot quicker instead of stewing on confused indecision, and it’s also manifesting in clearer boundaries with my friends and contemporaries.

Given that so many of my intentions from last Autumn Equinox have more than manifested, including quite a few that have already come to fruition from the Spring Equinox only 6 months ago, I’m looking forward to shedding what I no longer need.

Til next time, Patty x

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