Saucha / Cleanliness ~ by Cynthia Land, LMT, RYT

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How many of you are going through your closets deciding what shirts bring you joy?  The Marie Kondo plan of simplifying is not a new one.  The yogic concept of saucha or cleanliness has been around for millennia and feeds into this idea of austerity.  If you understand the 8 limbs of yoga, much of it is about eliminating suffering. Within the first limb of yoga is the concept of saucha.  Here we find removing clutter also helps clear the mind which in turn helps reduce suffering. 

I need only glance at the mess on my desk to know that it brings me anxiety/suffering.  Where to start is always the issue. I’m tempted to throw everything in a burn barrel and start over. No, that’s not the answer but the solution often seems overwhelming. This has happened to many of us. We have become overwhelmed. We’ve accumulated so many things, whether they be papers, books, cars, shoes or problems that we don’t know where to start. Thank goodness for others who have come up with processes that work. 

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If you’ve ever watched any of the cooking shows, you’ll notice that chefs clean as they go, wiping spills and washing knives right after use. Much of life SHOULD go this way and yet the socks somehow can’t quite hit the hamper. Note that putting the socks IN the hamper takes a millisecond and creates a cleaner space in your room. Are you willing to give two shits for some happiness? Translate this into the dining room after a meal when instead of leaving dishes on the table you instantly put them in the dishwasher, or when you come into your home you leave your shoes by the door and put your keys in a pretty dish where you can easily and quickly locate them the next morning.  

Another process I’ve found useful is the 15 minute rule. “I’ll only do this for 15 minutes.” (Pinterest task list) Completely cleaning off my desk or cleaning my house is instantly overwhelming. But if I can tell myself, I'll just clean for 15 minutes then the task seems manageable. I use this method with a lot of things in my life. Even writing. I like it because I can see an endpoint and I don't feel as though it has to be perfect, I just have to get started. Getting started several days in a row, gets things done. Also, I don't limit myself to 15 minutes. If I want to longer, then I give myself permission to do as much as I like.  

One of the other yogic practices related to saucha is kriya or cleansing techniques. There are a litany of these and I won't go into all of them here. You can see and try a few by referring back to my blog from January. Suffice to say the yogis found living in the corporeal world a little trying. They're were constantly finding things about the body to clean. They cleaned their diet by often being vegan or fasting.  They did intense water cleanses of the digestive, respiratory and excretory systems. Some of these were done around the change of the seasons. All of this was done in an effort to remove any impurities that might hamper their ability to reach enlightenment. Today we learn from these techniques but we don't have to adhere to them.  

When it comes to removing clutter, we might also want to turn the spotlight on our relationships.  How are the people in our lives supporting us?  Do they bring us joy or suffering?  If they are bringing suffering, are we willing distance ourselves from them?  Some feel compelled to keep certain people in their lives because they are family or we've known them since childhood.  But if these people are toxic and preventing from us growing and succeeding it might be time to let them go.  I stopped talking with my dad for about a year when his PTSD got to a point where I could barely have a conversation with him without it turning into a full blown argument.  My parent's home was no longer safe for me.  We both went into counseling in separate ways but were eventually able to come back together and are now closer than ever.  

This spring I tell myself I will take everything out of my clothing closet and keep only what brings me joy, 15 minutes at a time. 

Quality Time ~ by Lesley Bimonte Verbus

I threw my hat into the ring for a seat on our local City Council a few months ago. I thought long and hard about if I had any hours left in the day to do so - but I did it anyway. I didn’t get the appointment and that was probably a blessing. At least I can still fit in a few Board and Commission meetings from time to time. I do love watching my city grow and operate. 

I am writing this post while I am sitting on an airplane flying from Columbus to Baltimore. While I’m sitting here, I am hoping I have better luck than my husband, Scott, did just last week when Southwest decided to give his luggage an extra five day vacation before returning home. This flight today is for a four day business conference for my day job as a Business Analyst for a health care service company. However, before hopping on this plane, I dropped off two weeks worth of work to our CPA in order to file our tax return for the IT company that Scott and I own.

Mild mannered Business Analyst by day - Superwoman Business Owner by night!

Okay, by early evening…this Superwoman has a 10:00 bedtime.

I definitely cannot and will not take even a fraction of the credit for Linear IT Solutions. Scott busts his hump day in and day out (and many nights, too) to keep our company in the spotlight. My job is to keep the employees, vendors, and Uncle Sam paid. Sometimes, Scott will use me as a pretty face at Networking events because there’s no denying that still has an appeal to many businessmen. Last Friday, during the lunch hour, we ran over to the bank to take care of some business for Linear. Knowing that there was more to discuss, we scheduled me to come back in on Saturday. 

“What time would you like to come in tomorrow?  I don’t want you to get up early on your day off.” I laughed at the well-meaning banker and replied, “What’s a day off?” I spent two more hours there on Saturday morning.

      When I arrive back home at the end of this week, I will catch up on my day job (and all the new projects that will inevitably result from this conference), follow up with my CPA, follow up with the bank, and then turn my Susie-homemaker hat on. You see, I am also the Treasurer for my stepson’s Cub Scout pack and we have a Committee Meeting on Sunday. Bank ledgers, expense reports, and Scout accounts, oh my! Fortunately, the year is winding down (only three months left) so all we really have left are a couple Spring events.

      Ah yes, Spring events. Coming soon to a field near you is another season of flag football - because Sundays aren’t busy enough! An hour of practice and an hour of games (unless it is a double header that day). This all happens after a Church filled morning of Mass and Sunday School. I teach 2nd grade Parish School of Religion (PSR). My kids are only six weeks away from their First Communion so we’re working feverishly toward that. Next weekend, my teaching partner will be out of town so I will have all 23 of those angels to myself.

Whatever time that is left on Sundays goes towards weekly food prep. Long ago are the days of Scott and I stepping on bodybuilding stages, but the lifestyle never really goes away.  Two to three hours and we have our meals for the week done and in the fridge for our family of three. Except dinners; I make dinner fresh every night.  

     The time and money spent by food prepping is astonishing. I highly suggest it. In another attempt to streamline our home life, I have made a tidying goal for 2019. While I haven’t gone full Marie Kondo yet, I have been trying to de-clutter...one corner of the house at a time. I’ve already made two trips to the consignment shop and a trip to Amvets. I also found a couple nice websites for re-selling old textbooks and leisure books (SellBackYourBook.com and TextbookRush.com). In one evening of scanning ISBN bar codes, I racked up over $150 in rainy day cash. Scott unloaded some old gym equipment and an old motor and parts to a metal scrapper last weekend and we have some exciting plans to empty out the garage this Spring.  

     What is my reason for the whole house clean out? Well, my number one reason is so when we move to North Carolina in 2028 (yeah I know that’s nine years away, but there’s a good chance this will take until then) I don’t have to move anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Plus, the less stuff in the house, the less there is to clean, right?

      I just took a break here to go hit the fitness center after checking into my hotel, and shortly I’m going to head down to the lobby to meet my day job team for dinner. Tomorrow will start a few days of all day meetings and business cases. When I get back to my hotel room I have some payroll and financial analysis to do for Linear. My schedule is crazy, but I still try to get to the gym three to four days a week (five on a good week!) 

    In a couple weekends, Scott and I are heading to Indiana for Scott to shoot in the All the Write Curves photo-shoot coupled with a couple custom shoots.  We decided to stay in Indiana for a night just to hit the town and take in the evening together.  

     You see, between the day job, the business, Cub Scouts, church, city operations, gym time, athletics, modeling, and whatever our son’s extracurricular activity du jour is, I am still a wife - a completely enamored wife who is crazy about her husband. 

You know that dinner I said I make each night? We sit down, together, and eat dinner. We always sit down, if even just for an hour, each night just to connect.  Every marriage needs that time to reconnect. Scott and I both work from home and we spend literally our whole day together. But spending time together isn’t enough - it has to be quality time.  Life is crazy, life is busy, but no matter how fast the world keeps spinning, we have to make time for those relationships that make us whole. I wouldn’t trade 9:00 - 10:00 PM each night for anything.

Lesley Bimonte Verbus is a well-known bodybuilder and model. Her husband is internationally known cover model, Scott Nova. They reside in Ohio.