Tidying your Energies the KonMari way

Marie Kondo is a tidying expert, best-selling author, star of Netflix's hit show, "Tidying Up With Marie Kondo," and founder of KonMari Media, Inc.

Even though she published those best-selling books in 2014, I only got to know more about her method through her Netflix series that started in early Jan 2019. That led me to read her first book and I am in awe of how she applies energy healing concepts to tidying our physical belongings. 

She has this trademark practice of encouraging us to hold each item with our hands to determine if each item sparks joy for us. There are many people who scoff at this simple practice, especially when she advises us to do the same for our books too. This practice of using our hands as Joy Detectors really makes sense to me, because our arms and hands are an extension of our Heart Energy Center (or Chakra). Our Heart centers help us detect what brings our Joy, and so naturally our hands, being an extension of our Heart centers, help us discover our Joy too! I have experienced holding books I have not read before, and feeling so moved by the pure energy of the books that I had tears in my eyes. And it was true that I had some profound experiences reading those books.

After immersing myelf in the KonMari method for the whole of Jan 2019, I felt guided to do an energy healing visualization that's inspired by her method, and I would love to share this simple visualization with you here:

1. Sensitize your hands by rubbing your palms together, placing them slightly apart, and feeling the energies between your palms. You can vary the distance between your palms to feel how the energy between your palms might change.
2. Imagine that there is an energy field that surrounds your body and it's bigger than your body such that you can feel the boundary of that field around 10-20 cm away from your actual body. 
3. Think about all the things that are stressing you out and /or don't feel joyful to you at all. Imagine how your body reacts to each of those things. For example, you may feel butterflies in your stomach when you think about a project you need to complete really soon and you are not even close to finishing it. You may get a throbbing sensation in your forehead as you think about your job. You may feel tightness in your jaw as you think about your child constantly throwing tantrums and going out of control. 
4. Move your hands such that they are helping you pick out all these energies from different parts of your body that respond to your stressful issues. Continuing from the previous example, you use your hands to take the butterflies in your stomach, the throbbing sensation in your forehead, and the tension in your jaw. As you gather these energies, imagine that they are added to this growing energy ball that is right between your palms. 
5. Feel how as you are picking up these energies, your body actually feels lighter and more joyful! The stressful energies are now gathered between your palms, outside of your physical body. This energy ball is akin to the pile of clothes that do not give you joy and you need to discard it.
6. Now, feel this energy ball in between your palms, and thank it for knowing you no longer need it anymore. For this step, I use The Wonder Method (an energy healing modality) to observe with wonder till the tension in the energy ball seems to feel much lighter than before. 
7. At this point, there may still be some tension that is not quite gone from the energy ball. This tension may feel oddly comforting, like an old sentimental keepsake, such as an old family photo that feels hard to discard. I call this limiting beliefs or habits that we keep for sentimental reasons haha (see below for a mini-poster)! One example of a limiting habit for me was this tendency to overeat just because my parents and relatives laughed and called me cute for overeating as a child. This overeating habit was kept for sentimental reasons because I associated it with feeling liked by my family. Now that I no longer feel I need to overeat just to feel loved by others, I can let it go. 
8. The energy ball would feel like it's no longer there. Congratulations! You have successfully discarded it! Gently shake off your palms, and use your fingers to gently "comb" your energy field surrounding your physicaly body. Thank yourself for being aware of your own presence and joy again! 

I do hope that you've enjoyed this little visualization exercise to spring-clean your internal energies! Please do share your feedback in the comments below if you have tried this exercise for yourself!