Letting Go Experiment: Month 6

It has now been six and a half months since I began my year-long Letting-Go Experiment. This means that since June 15th, 2006, I have released almost 200 material or non-material things from my life. I keep a daily log of what I have released, and it is impressive. In fact, I have already released enough things so that my list is filled through mid-January. Yet, when I look around my still-full four-room apartment, I can hardly tell the difference. This says something about the amount of either clutter or excess unnecessary items I possessed last June and still possess today. I wonder what will be different when I reach the one-year mark in mid-June. Will my home look significantly less cluttered? Will my non-material life also be less cluttered? Perhaps I will need to continue the experiment for a second year?

The big thing I am noticing about this experiment is how the process of releasing material things from my life is carrying over into my life in other ways. Take Christmas, for example. This experiment had a big impact on how I chose to spend the holidays this year. Read my Blog article, A Different Kind of Christmas, to see how this experiment changed the way I experienced the holidays this year.

This extended de-cluttering activity is an aspect of Feng Shui in the Chinese tradition. In the eyes of a Feng Shui practioner, de-cluttering your environment allows energy (known as Chi or Qi) to flow more freely through your space, thereby unblocking the stuck places in various aspects of your life. The very act of releasing all the excess "stuff" from your life extends naturally from material items to non-material things, such as releasing extra activities from your schedule, unnecessary or toxic thoughts from your mind, excess pounds from your body, old behaviors and habits no longer useful, and other such "deadwood" from your life.

For me, letting go of material things is getting easier and easier, as I come to understand more and more that I don't really need most of the things I own. I like many of them, enjoy them, appreciate them. But I don't NEED them. As a young mother, I used to go camping with my family a lot. We camped very simply, with a small tent and the bare necessities - only what we could fit in the trunk of our car, for three people. (No RV, camper wagon, TV, bug zapper, etc.). I remember thinking then, "this is all we need for survival. The rest is just gravy."

The act of releasing all these things is also bringing me closer to the Buddhist practice of non-attachment. The purpose of non-attachment, in the Buddhist tradition, is to help us live in the now, in the moment, without attachment to the past or to the future. This also frees up our energy to respond authentically in the moment. As I let go of more and more things, habits, thoughts, behaviors, and the like, I am beginning to get much clearer about what is important to me and what is not. I am not yet at the point where I live consistently in the moment. I don't spend much time in the past. It is over and I have, for the most part, let it go. But I do love to live in the future, in a world of possibility. For example, I do play the Lottery, dream of winning HGTV''s 2007 Dream Home, and imagine myself as a successful published novelist. Letting go of the attachment to the future is my biggest attachment challenge.

What about you? What are you attached to? What is easy to release from your life, and what is more challenging to release? And how do you feel when you finally release a significant piece of Life's clutter? I hope that by de-cluttering your life and practicing non-attachment, you will feel freer, lighter, more spontaneous and authentic, more connected, and more joyful.

Happy New Year! Here's to a year of letting go!

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Email: connie@conniekomack.com
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