We are winding up the 2018 affirmations tomorrow!  I hope they have been helpful or at least interesting.  I know I have learned a ton, just from writing down my thoughts.

Here is that list of affirmations we have been working from:

• Who I am, right now, is enough.
• I make great choices.
• I have all I need, in abundance.
• I am creative.
• I am loving.
• I am strong.
• I am kind.
• I am grateful for this life I have.
• My heart is open.

 Today’s Affirmation:

I am grateful for this life I have. 

Gratitude 

Three years ago, I decluttered my house using Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up. It’s be a pretty popular way to declutter and for me it really was life changing.  I am  tidy, and happy, and have never looked back.  

I would often hear though, how people would really struggle with the part about thanking their belongings before letting them go. To our western way of thinking, I guess it didn’t make any sense to talk to an inanimate object. 

Maybe because my nephew is totally absorbed in the Japanese culture, or because I have been interested Native American beliefs for a long time now, or because I’m just a little odd, but talking to my stuff resonated with me. 

Being surrounded by tons of my family’s inherited stuff, and my own “maybe one day, I’ll need this thing for some reason,” odd bits,  had been stifling. It made me sad, and angry, and frustrated.  I was embarrassed about how my home looked.  

You know, for a bunch of lifeless stuff, they evoked powerful emotions in me. Who was I to say they weren’t alive, in their own way?  

It gave me closure to talk to my things and figure out why I had kept them. I was able to let go of the guilt, by putting it all into perspective.  Thanking my things for teaching me that I no longer needed them was eye-opening and paved the way for a new-found freedom in the way  I looked at those things that I did decide to keep. 

It was all about taking the time to recognize everything that I allowed in my life was a choice. My choice. It was about learning to appreciate them, even the bad memories, because they had taught me to be who I am.  

I love living in a guilt-free home. I love using what I have. I love the people who are in my life. I love being aware of what is truly important to me and what my values are. I love my life.

It was all about being grateful.