SpaceClear Reflections

It’s Only Weather

Posted on07. Sep, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.” –Pema Chodron
I often use the metaphor of the weather to teach a key principle of letting go I call spacious detachment. It tickled me to see it being used in the very same way by a world-renown Buddhist teacher.
Enjoy this beauty of a message:

How to [...]

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Let There Be Light

Posted on03. Sep, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Guess which window was the first to get cleaned today after an embarrassingly long period of time (read: years)…?
Imagine how much more of the world might be available to us with a little bit of loving up (and elbow grease). I’m thinking I should change my tagline to: “Clearing a path to your true nature–one window [...]

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Starting Over

Posted on31. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

September. It’s my favorite month of the year.
More than just it being one of the most beautiful and bountiful months in New England where I live, September has always been a time of shift and new beginnings…
An invitation to show up, regroup, renew, start over.
But you don’t need to wait until September or New Year’s [...]

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Remembering

Posted on27. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I came across this poem recently tucked deep in a file on my computer I called “Remembering.” I know nothing about the author Jonathan Leavy,* or how this poem found me. It must have been one of those emails that went around the block a few times. Written on the morning of the famous 2004 [...]

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The Spacious Ways of Lincoln and Einstein

Posted on24. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“Once we change the very way we see, we may begin to experience the connections that tie us all together.” –Lynne McTaggart
What do Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, William James,Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Schweitzer have in common?
Lynne McTaggart, author of The Field answers this question in a blog post entitled “Transcending the [...]

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In Praise of Spending Time Alone

Posted on20. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

If you could have a day or a weekend just for your self, what would you do?
After spending a weekend watching my two selves battling each other – i.e. delighted self vs. worried self [that I've lost my social mojo] – someone posted an affirming video link on Facebook called “How to be alone.” It’s [...]

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Making Friends with Food & Eating (= Clearing)

Posted on17. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“It’s the desire—not its fulfillment—that nourishes you, because it’s the language of your heart. When you listen to that language, you hear your self.”–Geneen Roth
If you saw my little One-Minute Clearing video clip, you might recall my saying this:
“Here’s the thing about clearing: It is really not about the “doing” at all. It is [...]

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When Clutter is Too Much to Handle

Posted on10. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I received this note from a friend on Facebook the other day:
“What do you charge to come out and HELP!!!??? I don’t even have time to read your book (which I DID buy) or the blog. And to that the 30 boxes I moved in of my dad’s crap and I am drowing in it!!!!”
My [...]

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Praise for Your Spacious Self

Posted on06. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I love pleasant surprises.  I got a really nice one the other day in the form of an unsolicited review for my book.
This one is by someone named Austin S. on Goodreads. I don’t know who Austin is, but I’m grateful for the time he took to write about my book, and what it has [...]

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Deb’s Story: Releasing the Log Jam

Posted on03. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Sometimes you need a friend or family member to keep us on task. I got this email from my friend, Deb, sharing what happened after a little organizing support from her (non-attached) daughter:
“I thought of you again recently when my dear daughter Julia helped me to tackle my kitchen desk area which had turned into [...]

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Managing the Mountain of Mail (or Whatever Burdens You)

Posted on30. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Another good question came the other day:
I am following your practice of clearing one item each day. My question for you is what about the stuff that comes into your home- like mail? I can never seem to get through it and it piles up – then if I clear only one thing, a [...]

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Self-Storage or Storage of Self?

Posted on23. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Dan Pink, best-selling author of A Whole New Mind, confirmed this staggering statistic I’d heard some years ago as part of my research for Your Spacious Self:
“The self-storage industry is bigger than McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s combined.”*
Ouch.
Whether this fact is still true or not (I wouldn’t be surprised if it were), it still shocks me.
Then [...]

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Airing Out The Heirlooms

Posted on20. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Just read a terrific New York Times article about the effect heirlooms have on on our lives entitled “How to Lose a Legacy” by Ellen Lupton. Humorous, colorful, timely – this article does a good job of naming the behaviors and beliefs that keep us holding on to dusty relics of our past.
Some of my favorite lines:

An [...]

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One-Minute Clearing Practice

Posted on16. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Try this experiment: Watch the 3-minute video below and see if adopting a simple daily practice in home tending doesn’t help bring new energy into your home and  life.
Even better: Set an intention before you begin your one-minute practice and repeat the exercise every day for a week. See if it doesn’t lead to creating new openings in [...]

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Expanding and Contracting

Posted on13. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I adore this line by the poet Rumi:
“Your deepest presence is in every small contraction and expansion, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.”
As it relates to clearing the clutter in our lives, it resonates so much for me. So I went online and found the poem. Enjoy!
Birdwings
“Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a [...]

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The Science of Clearing Spaces

Posted on09. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

If you caught my last  post “Clearing the Residue of Previous Occupants” and saw me walking around with a strange piece of wire identifying disturbed areas in a home, you might have wondered what the heck I was “doing” exactly. You might have found my short and simple reply to that question even more puzzling:
“I’m [...]

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Clearing the Residue of Previous Occupants

Posted on06. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

How many times have you gone into a big warehouse store feeling just fine and come out totally depleted? Or, maybe you’re standing in the checkout line of your supermarket and suddenly feel a wave of emotion, like depression, worry about money, anxiety—something you weren’t feeling before? Perhaps you walk into a room and feel [...]

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