empathy Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Life Coaching by Christine Gipple

Soul Space Decluttering

Soul Space…

Spaces where you find what you want when you want it.

Where you have what you need at your fingertips.

Space to think, to be, to feel, to connect.

To feel alive, to breathe deeply, have restful sleep, connect with yourself, and those you love.

To realign with what matters most…

Three of my core values are for Order, Ease and Simplicity.

When those needs are met, I’m calm, present, connected. I’m aligned. It’s easy to follow through on commitments, take action toward what I want, to say yes when I mean yes, and no when I mean no when my actions are internally aligned with my values and needs.

One way for us to stay aligned is to consistently reevaluate what we keep.

So yesterday I did a challenge (Link at end) to Declutter 100 items in less than an hour. The intent of this challenge is to set your timer for 60 minutes and go room to room gathering 10 items, 20 items etc, from each space until you have 100. You don’t stop until the timer goes off, or until you have 100.

I didn’t do it the same way as recommended, not by design totally. My somewhat OCD self – not really, but kinda – needed to have order amidst the self-induced clutter clearing challenge.

I started in my kitchen. And stayed there for 60 minutes. I cleaned, wiped, and organized as I decluttered – not part of the challenge. When the timer went off, I wasn’t done, nor did I have 100 items. So I set it for another 30 minutes, and this time stopped cleaning, organizing and wiping, kinda. I really am “Monica” from Friends, so it’s my own niche to clean, sort & organize as I go. But I did make it out of my kitchen, and into my bathroom. This time, when the timer went off, I had 160 items total and I even managed to find two missing items that had fallen underneath a drawer and were laying at the bottom of a cabinet. So 90 minutes, 160 items, not too bad. Still, I’ll redo the challenge and do it as designed.

There’s two lessons here: 1) it’s so easy to throw ourselves off track, and 2) it’s just as easy to bring us back when we have focus, awareness and intention.

Ease. Order. Simplicity. Life isn’t always easy, orderly, and it’s certainly not always simple. Which is why it’s critical to create soul spaces in your home, and habits. Self-care, yoga, working out, eating well – whatever it is that nurtures you and keeps you feeling connected and alive – that’s what needs to be in your daily rituals.

So where do you need to create more space? Is there a certain room? A certain spot within a room? Maybe a specific relationship needs a clear boundary in place? Maybe your mind wishes for quiet so you can actually hear your own thoughts and inner desires? What’s on your wish list? Your #50Desires?

Does this sound fun to you? The idea is to create incentive to let go, and to have fun in the process. Hop on over to https://bemorewithless.com/decluttering-burst/ for Courtney Carver’s Declutter 100 Items in Less than an Hour Challenge. Let me know what happened for you. 🙂 #bemorewithless, #100DeclutterChallenge.

Enjoy the process. Life’s too short to stress over our stuff. Learn to let it go!

Sending love,

Chris

xo

By Christine Gipple|2017-08-20T17:37:09-04:00August 20th, 2017|Uncategorized|0 Comments

How fiberglass curtains and salsa reminded me to choose peace

Last night my daughter had a sleepover. As parents, we believe in giving children choice, permission, and freedom. We trust that with our guidance and their intuition, they’ll make wise choices that’ll give them the best learning experiences.

So when I went into the living room after the girls were all set in her room for the night, what I found surprised me.

On the wooden ledge of the futon, there was a soaking wet Handi-Wipe filled with Salsa rolled up in a ball. As I started moving pillows and blankets, I noticed a huge wet spot under one of the blankets where salsa was cleaned up, along with a few straggler chips.

I was annoyed. She knows better. Wood ledges – water drenches wood and warps it. She knows this. Food was left out in the kitchen.

As I reminded her of these things, after walking in her room with the Handi-Wipe evidenced full of salsa, she cowered, apologized. She’d tried to clean it up the best she could. She felt bad. Still, I reminded her of what I knew she was already told – water ruins wood and it’s important to clean up messes – when they happen.

Her dad stood by and listened and I saw something in his eyes that I was missing. “She tried”, he said. And she did. She’s 10.

I immediately was catapulted back to my Fairview kitchen and was 10 years old. I’d been in school all day and couldn’t wait to get home to remove my intensely itchy white uniform shirt. I didn’t know what was wrong, but all day it was burning and itching against my skin. As I stood by the washing machine in our kitchen – scratching, red, and in tears – my older brother walked in and asked me what was wrong. As I shared my day and told him about my shirt, I shared how I’d washed my shirts with our living room curtains the day before.

The living room curtains were made of fiberglass.

Ouch.

I’ll never forget his reaction – it was like, “Duh! You don’t wash fiberglass curtains with anything!

What did I know? I was 10. I just needed clean shirts for school. Why not multi-task? Yes, even at 10, I was like this.

Last night, I saw myself in my daughter’s actions. She was given the freedom to choose and she did what she thought was best. She’d cleaned up the spilled salsa and just forgot to move the rag and the wet blanket.

I was reminded of how little she is. I was reminded how delicate each learning experience can be. And how our experiences can often imprint on us for years to come.

I stopped to snuggle her, share the curtain story, and assure her I know she did her best – because she did. I hesitated because she had a friend sleeping over – but this is what we do – talk and snuggle it out.

So the next time your child does something that triggers you, I invite you to remember how little they are, and how often they’re coming from their best place of experience as they know it. They look to us for guidance on how to handle situations.

We’re not perfect. But we can create perfect relationships for us and our families, through empathy and seeing things through another set of eyes.

We just have to be willing to see.

How about you? Is there a place you need to soften? A place where you and your family could benefit from seeing something a little differently?

I’d love to hear your experiences! Share your comments below and if you liked this article, please share it!

xo

By Christine Gipple|2017-04-22T19:37:35-04:00June 18th, 2016|Lifestyle, Parenting|0 Comments

Are you resisting the flow? Or riding waves with ease?

I wasn’t in the flow today.

I’m not sure what tipped me off first – the guy abruptly backing into my car while I waited at the stop sign, or my windshield wiper flying off as I drove down the Black Horse Pike – in the rain. But I was definitely NOT in the flow, and felt my day spiraling into chaos.

Maybe it was the meltdown that came before I left my house after getting an upsetting call, reminding me of the conflict I feel about a decision that must be made, soon. Or being woken up by outrageously loud saws, music and voices coming from my next door neighbors roof as men installed fascia on his home. Or when my vacuum cleaner spit OUT the items it was supposed to be taking in. Maybe it was when the water spilled all over the paperwork I needed to take with me when I left the house. Or the torrential rain and winds that took down a tree near my house, causing me to drive down a different street, placing me at that stop sign so the kind gentleman could smash into me in the first place.

Yeah, it was all of that. One after another, things were happening, reminding me to stop. To slow down. To pause, and feel the emotions flooding through me.

I knew it was time to get quiet.

But my intention was clear when I woke up. We were driving to North Jersey to see the documentary, Vaxxed. “My plan” was to get out of the house – despite the prediction of rain later in the day, despite my car needing to be dropped off for service, despite seeing unfinished signs to be made for a yard sale, despite dishes in my sink, despite my printer needing fixing so I can get it to scan, despite my home needing attention, and “me” needing attention.

I wanted to stick with “the plan”.

But my daughter wasn’t embracing spending a chunk of the day in the car, which would’ve been the case. Honoring her needs as well as mine is a core value to me. So I amended the plan. But I didn’t really want to. I was all in my head thinking how important this film is, and how we can only make change if we all see the facts. I’ve seen the film in NY but my daughter hasn’t. My real resistance to cancelling our plans though had little to do with the actual film, and more to do with the mayhem I felt inside. I needed order, and going with the plan allowed me to feel in control – of something.

Here’s the truth.

Our “plan” really has no place in our day. We can plan, sure. And, we need to be aware, (for me, much more quickly), when our plans need amending. It was one of those days – I wanted to do what I intended, and I didn’t feel like being flexible.

How many times have you had days like this? Where things weren’t lining up the way you wanted, where you were resisting, and received constant blocks trying to redirect you? What will you do next time this happens?

I know what I’ll do. I’ll get on my yoga mat and meditate. Or write. Or breathe. Or cry. Or all of those.

There’s a time to plow through and stick with the plan, and there’s a time to allow things to unfold naturally. When those blocks come, it’s a reminder to slow down, to pause.

It’s not time to plow – it’s time to allow.

Because sometimes we need to allow stuff to move through us before it can leave us.

I’d love to hear what you do when this happens for you. How do you reset yourself? How do you tune back in? I often will organize or clear clutter, but that just wasn’t in my energetic field today. The universe had other plans.

Leave a comment below, and if this helped you, please share it!

With love and blessings,

Chris

By Christine Gipple|2017-04-22T19:37:36-04:00June 8th, 2016|Holistic Health, Intuition|0 Comments