THIS WEEK – Take time with friends and family to chat together
about their and your true priorities. Try discussing which of your
traditions are the most meaningful to you; which activities give
you the most joy.  Think about what would you like to do
more of THIS year. What do you really want to share together in
December 2007?

Let it be an experiment… Your decisions can be for just this one
year. Try something different. See how it feels.

And now, my heartfelt thanks to each of you for the priviledge of
communicating with you. I love having the chance to try to help make
life easier.

In addition to time pressures there’s the pressure of STUFF- perhaps more than at any other time of the year.
SO how to make a bit of space? How to slow down just a tad?

Here’s SPACEMAKING TIP #1  ONE LESS TASK

Take a deep breath and search for ONE thing you are doing that you will deliberately let go of for the next 6 weeks.
One activity that you will specifically put on the back burner for the next six weeks. And then reassign THAT pocket of time for YOU!
Rest assured that the people in your life who are counting on you will benefit from your IN-ACTION.

(It would be super to hear what you choose and how it goes. Want support? Check the Breathing Space blog to find out
what and how others are doing with this.  www.breathing-space.com

SPACEMAKING TIP #2     The SCOOP METHOD

There’s that pile of stuff that is driving you nearly crazzzzzzy. You can’t bear the thought of dealing with it.
When you imagine trying to sort it out your shoulders scrunch up,your jaw tightens and you want to do ANYTHING else
but that! So you do your best to ignore it but still it’s there nagging at you.

Get a free cardboard box from the grocery and SCOOP that pile! JUST SCOOP! Almost pretend your eyes are closed
because it’s crucial that you DON’T deal with the stuff at this moment. Toss it ALL in the box and immediately write on the box
SCOOP – the location where the pile was and the date. You have probably moved stuff out of the way “for company” other times in your life. This has a slightly different edge– you are doing this for your own sake AND you have marked the box
in BIG BOLD letters with a date on it which will help you track just how important the stuff is that went into the box. If you don’t look at it for half a year it’s going to be either saesonal stuff which you will be rady to use again OR
stuff you really don’t use – so no wonder it was in a pile!

Yes- now you have to put the box somewhere and yes- sometime soon it would be good to sort the stuff and get it where it
belongs but if you have marked the box you are already in better shape than before. You have begun to give yourself some SPACE.
The specific steps for dealing with the SCOOP are outlined in Decluttering 101. Available at www.breathing-space.com