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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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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When in Rome

Posted on27. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“Respond to every call that excites your spirit.” -Rumi
I just returned from a glorious two-weeks in France and Italy, compliments of dear friends who invited us, and many frequent-flyer miles that were just waiting to be used.
Less than three weeks ago, this trip was not even in our dreams as a possibility.
The ease with which [...]

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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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Homes are Like Us (They Respond Well to Love)

Posted on29. Jun, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

When I read the Preface to a wonderful little book called Being Home by Gunilla Norris, I realized that my love of doing repetitive housekeeping tasks, like washing the dishes or putting away the same things in the same places every day, wasn’t me just being a hopeless anal-compulsive as I might have believed (and [...]

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Calling all Spacious Friends

Posted on25. Jun, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Everybody is invited!
….To take this moment to stop, take a nice, easy breathe in… and a slow emptying breath out…
…and consider that…

With just one click you can help me raise awareness about why most clutter clearing efforts do not last.
With just one click you help transform clutter clearing from a tedious exercise in [...]

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Secret to Clearing Anything

Posted on18. Jun, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“We can only clear to the degree that we are willing to feel our feelings.” –sbv
If you took a workshop with me, you ‘d learn that to clear anything – from a messy desktop to the disturbing influences of an ecological disaster – you would have to enter a sometimes scary zone called feeling.
This [...]

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Living the Answers

Posted on25. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This is the last in a series of posts on reinventing ourselves,* excerpted from Your Spacious Self. Enjoy!
Quitting the career and job that defined me for two decades detailed in the last three posts* led to a long period of fumbling in a foggy netherworld I call not knowing. I still find myself visiting that [...]

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Connecting the Dots

Posted on21. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This post is the continuation of a series on reinventing ourselves. It follows this last one: “Making Friends with Not-Knowing.” **  Enjoy this excerpt from Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are:
Just days after this big moment of clarity, a book about clearing spaces was delivered un-beckoned to my front door [...]

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Making Friends with Not-Knowing

Posted on18. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This is the continuation of my previous post: “Stepping Out of Comfort into Not-Knowing,”  which tells the story of how and why I quit a successful teaching career of twenty years – on purpose.
What happened next? In today’s post I share the goodies that could only be revealed to me by hanging out in the [...]

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Stepping Out of Comfort into Not-Knowing

Posted on14. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“There is a grief that occurs when who you thought you were begins to disappear.” – Ram Dass
As I prepare to pitch my book and my message to the folks sponsoring the Next Top Spiritual Author contest, I’m being reminded of the moment my life took a radical turn that led to my becoming an [...]

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Coming Clear: Confessions of a Packrat

Posted on11. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“I want to shed my waste with quiet reverence like the pine…
Keep me mindful of what I take into my home, the items brought to substitute
for real living…Help me slowly to surrender all excess.”
–Gunilla Norris, Being Home
I’m a packrat.
There, I said it.
Yes, squirreled away in the dark recesses of my house I still have boxes [...]

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Managing Paper, Piles… Overwhelm

Posted on30. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“Every time you feel overwhelmed, reduce the task. Every time you feel overwhelmed, stop and feel.” – Your Spacious Self, p.99
A really good question I received in this blog recently:
I have a question I have wanted to ask for  a while now. I am doing the practice of clearing one thing each day and I am still [...]

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Gathering Your Clearing Mojo

Posted on23. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

What needs gathering in your home or life that you can do in one minute or less?
My spring newsletter might inspire you.  The theme this quarter is about “gathering” – as in loose ends, all those papers cluttering up your desk, the clothes that you no longer need or love…
Gathering steam… gathering your self.
Click [...]

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The Next Top Spiritual Author

Posted on16. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This just in!
I am pleased to announce that I’m being considered as the Next Top Spiritual Author. It is a contest sponsored by James Twyman and Robert Evans, designed to showcase and bring new talent into the spiritual arena. The grand prize is a book contract with Hampton Roads Publishing – and, of course, a golden opportunity [...]

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Simple Rituals of Clearing and Letting Go

Posted on12. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“To the unconscious mind, ‘real life action’ and and ‘conscious intentional ritual’ are the same thing!” –Your Spacious Self
If you think of dreams as the way that your unconscious mind communicates to you in special symbolic code while you sleep, ritual is one way you can consciously communicate back to your unconscious while you’re awake. To [...]

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Extreme Clearing vs. The Slow-Drip Effect

Posted on02. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“Change happens slowly, then all at once.” – Unknown
Thanks to Mother Nature and major flooding in our area, we got a head start clearing the junk in our basement this year. Not easy. Not pretty. Not ideal. This form of “extreme clearing” is not worth waiting (or hoping) for. It’s too consuming and jangly.
I favor the [...]

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