Necessary Endeavors of the Spiritual Practitioner ~ Shedding and Cleansings

This blog was written by a real life friend of mine. I wanted to share this with the rest of the world who is not on MHS. This is a beautifully written piece. One that no matter what your spiritual life is, you might be able to follow and have remarkable results with.
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Sometimes life is just like a muddy river, things just don’t move the way you would like them too. And sometimes no matter what you do, you just can’t get very far for all of the muck you have to wade through.
What do you do then?
How do you clear things up and move forward??
Most would say a cleansing is in order…I agree, but what if you are the practitioner?
How do you decide what type of cleansing?
How do you determine if that is all you need??
I know from experience that helping clients with these issues can be very beneficial to their health, wealth and well being.
I tend to put it off, I have found that helping myself seems to be the last thing on my list of things to do.
I am not sure why, but the spiritual worker can often get so caught up in what we do for the outer world that we forget what it takes to keep ourselves straight.
I can confess that this is often a problem of mine. I may keep a clean house and office, but my own personal power gets laid by the side and can become tattered and muddy.

My best action at that time is to seek out the correct spiritual worker to help me.
Someone I would trust, someone who is wise, and someone who is powerful. This can be quite a dilemma, I do not trust too many people, especially spiritual workers…lol…(that I do not know)…
So putting this off and putting it off, easily becomes a bad pattern/habit.
This is not good folks, let me testify to that!!
You just keep saying “It’s Ok, everything will be alright.” but it is not alright…even if you let the joyous rays of the sun shine on you to bring strength and joy…the heat of that sunshine dries up the river bed and you get stuck “baked in”, your flow is cut off, and you are not going anywhere.
Things will get hot and troublesome, and ultimately you may very well burn out and wither before the river current returns and revives, cleanses and refreshes the cooling flow of energy into your life. By then it may be too late. A river can be turbulent and overpowering if you are stuck in one place. Water energy run amuck can bring lots of mental and emotional trials. Our feelings of helplessness and depression come crashing upon us, and once again because of our delays, we are handicapped.
Cleansings are important. Letting go of things that mean very little to us is imperative. If we choose not to release and clean out our environment and physical, spiritual and mental self we ultimately become buried by attachments that serve us no purpose. It can accurately be compared to being buried alive. There are several different degrees that this can take place in an individuals life, but can also end up affecting friends, colleagues and family members increasing the negative affects in our own lives and those we spend time with regularly.
I am sure most of you have seen or heard of the television program “Hoarders” this documentary series shows the extreme conditions of people that have or are dealing with the effects of not being able to let go of attachments in their lives and the effects that it puts on them and their familiars.
It can be devastating. These case profiles are definitely at the extreme end of the situational and mental processes, but my point is to help you see that cleansings and shedding are important and should be taken seriously if we are going to help ourselves physically and spirituality.

I want to define two terms before I move forward. First lets look at “shedding”.
Shedding is just as it sounds…basically it means to “cast off“.
Just like the winter coat of a furred animal or the shedding of snake skin. Leaving behind what no longer is necessary or what can be come counter productive to the livelihood of the being.

Every year, sometimes twice a year, I do a shedding. I go through everything in my home and environment and get rid of whatever no longer addresses my immediate needs.
Every drawer, every closet, every box is gone through and items are delegated to their appropriate disposal, whether that is trash, yard sale, or donation of the items. If incorporated into a spiritual practice this can become empowering and reveal a great deal about what has been going on in our lives, and lends itself to decisions about what we need and what we don’t in the future.
A shedding can also be very rewarding as well. The quote “One mans trash is another mans’ treasure” comes to mind.
We can use this opportunity to share with our community, because there is always someone out there that needs something, and being able to share what does not fit into our lives anymore may be a blessing beyond our imagination to someone else.
Another aspect of shedding is to let go inappropriate thought processes. This gives us a chance to heal issues that directly connect to mental and spiritual situations that affect the way we process the world and people around us.
To accomplish this I start by recalling all things that have been said or done to me by others, as well as what I may of said or done to others.
Most people would make a list, I personally draw a picture of all of these issues. Nothing fancy, just something that verifies that I have brought these things forward and recognized their power in my life.
You don’t have to write a book or do a fine art painting, but just create something that addresses an issue by putting it down on paper, canvas or whatever you choose. Even one word can strike the head of the issue. This type of work is meant for you alone so it does not have to fit any specific pattern it just needs to recognize a powerful source in your psyche.
I call up all of these situations, create my work, and prepare it for the healing that I want to take place. I start by taking the creation and affirming that these ideas and thoughts are unnecessary. I mentally and ritually take away their power. I transform them by giving them up and destroying the attachment they have in my life.
Me, personally, I like to burn them. Being a Leo, I am all about fire. But you could give them to a river or the ocean. You could bury your concerns, asking the earth to take them and transform them. There are many ways to accomplish this, I have a friend that has what she calls the “Sacred Shredder”, it may seem funny but she uses that little piece of office equipment in her magic, and it really does seem to be quite effective.

So in review, shedding is important physically, mentally and spiritually. Cleaning out the wounds and disturbances in our lives, allows us to open up pathways leading to our healing and empowerment.
Shedding is definitely the personal aspect of a thorough cleansing. It needs to be completed to allow any headway in the process of a cleansing for a person, and bypassing this step can cause whatever cleansing work you do to be diminished by a great deal.
Now lets turn our attention to the term or act of “cleansing”. The definition I find the most appropriate for this discussion is: to wash clean, purify, refine, revive, restore, purge and absolve. To spiritually take away the conditions that affect us.

This can be done in a number of ways, and for many reasons. A cleansing can be very specific or general in its nature.
So the issue of the client must be identified and addressed. This is where having a qualified and knowledgeable practitioner to assist you is necessary.
One who is excellent at examining, evaluating, and divining the conditions present.
It is definitely a multi layered process.
It could be counter productive or ineffective to allow someone to just apply an egg cleansing or a bath without knowing what is being dealt with.
That is why I never recommend that a client just go on the internet or to a shop and buy a prepackaged condition product. Divination is always required, and assures that we are focusing at causes and conditions that pertain to us as an individual. Knowledge, experience, wisdom, and trust are all aspects that need to be examined when finding the practitioner that will help you best.

Many of you are aware that my life has been very chaotic lately. The situations in my life had taken over and have effected me both spiritually and physically. My recognition of this has been ongoing for quite sometime. But instead of acting upon the issues, I let them override my life, and eventually paralyze my health, well being, and spirituality. I can testify that it is no use trying to help others when you are in need of assistance yourself. And given that this is my passion, to assist others and to channel inspiration through my art and associations. I had to make a decision to get myself straight. But what? And who? How was I going to accomplish this, being as I know very few practitioners of the caliber that I needed in my immediate area. I had some decisions and work to do. I did a shedding and it is on going. I am having to move from where I now reside. So this has fit right in with shedding. My porch is filled with items that I have available for sale to weekend yard sale seekers. The trunk of my car is filled with clothing to be delivered to the Goodwill station here in my town. I have confronted issues that have been destroying me emotionally and physically by resigning my position at a very toxic work place. And I have thrown up my arms and engaged spirit to move me forward and return the magical flow back to me in my life. With the world situation at hand and the economy being as it is, this was a tremendously scary action, but I made up my mind that I wanted to LIVE, and not suffer any more at the hands of what was affecting my well-being. It was time to get “UNSTUCK”. And I needed help.

As of today, life is moving again, things have broken open and opportunities are revealing themselves, and although my physical body is still stiff, sore and painful. Pathways to healing and reviving my life are coming into focus and are within reach.
Although at this moment I may be broke, I am not “poor”. I am asking the universe for funds and monies, and they are arriving. I am still in great need, but I have little fear, and with out the fear, I am not stifled or paralyzed, allowing me to work this energy and move forward accepting only the positive things that come my way.
I am empowered and powerful, I am clarified, I have returned to right thinking, and by asking for help I have acquired the assistance of powerful spiritual allies.
What did I do??
What choices did I make??
I want to tell you all about it, so watch for my next blog. I will reveal some very powerful things. Thank you for reading and joining me on this journey. Blessings and Light Mariah

I have been humbled by my friends here and the prayers and blessings that they have applied to my situation and I do want to take this opportunity to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.
And for those of you that may consider a shedding, please take a look to see if there is a Free Cycle group in your area.
This is a great way to share what you don’t need with your community, and if there is something that you might need at this time, you may find it available on this site for no charge.
http://www.freecycle.org/
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The original of this blog can be found here  myhoodoospace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/necessary-endeavors-of-the  All words and images are copyright of Mariah.