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There are few books in my life that have so transformed my physical, mental and spiritual well-being at the same time, that even to this day, if you ask me why I act, choose, or do things the way I do, that it remains to be about the principles talked about in a book, like The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up that I read 3 years ago.
I think it is safe to say that I had a spiritual revolution after reading this book, and my friends and roommates at the time thought I had gone crazy, first cause they were weird-ed out by the fact that I read a book about how to tidy up, and second, the way I talked about this book literally seemed like I read way too much into it that it didn’t seem real. I have absolutely nothing to do with the KonMari method, other than being the lovely recipient of a personal life-changing experience, and I share this book with all of my integrative yoga therapy clients as a means for their own wellbeing as well.
Although The KonMari method is for absolutely everyone, this blog is mostly to illustrate how incredibly useful I think it would be for mamas and papas-to-be to read and practice this book before your bun in the oven arrives, for the 3 following reasons,
1# It will teach you how to prioritize joy
There are 6 basic rules of tidying up in the KonMari Method, which are the following,
1. Commit yourself to tidying up
2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle
3. Finish discarding first
4. Tidy by category, not by location
5. Follow the right order
6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy
Although sparking joy is the last rule, it is really what I feel the entire basis of the method, to set up your life to experience the maximum amount of joy possible, starting from the things you have total and absolute control over – the possessions in your life. The outer reflection is a reflection of your own inner state. The quote by `Abdu'l-Bahá is the greatest quote to illustrate how important joy really is in our lives and how to prioritize it,
When a baby comes into your life, your usefulness needs to be 100% because a life is entirely dependent on you. You need all your bodily functions to be in tippy top shape, your brain needs to be working acutely, you need to be good at problem solving quickly, and when you have a human-life placed in your hand, it’s easy to get flustered quickly if anything goes wrong,
Therefore to be joyful, is actually the first and foremost responsibility of a parent to help your offspring live –often this is the first thing that parents ‘sacrifice’ in and of them selves to be ‘good’ parents. The definition of sacrifice we are using here is giving up something lesser for something greater, however, given the traditional definition of simply ‘giving up’ something, it is notably not coherent with the goal of our lives as parents to have thriving, healthy children – first you need to make sure that you are joyful so that your brain works its best to even know how to take care of your children!
The basics.
Your happiness equates to your child’s happiness, not the other way around.
In summary, not only is it important that you personally, are joyful, to have your home wired in ‘spark joy mode’ by the things that you own will set your entire life up, as the primary frequency in the home-sanctuary environment. If there is anything you want to do to prepare for parenthood, get your house wired to joy, a.k.a KonMari the hell out of your house!
The way the book details out Rule number 2#, of how to imagine your ideal life didn’t quite help me to the extent that I wanted to dive deep into it, like diving deep through all layers of the human body that I know now, which include the physical, energetic, mental/emotional, witness/observer, bliss bodies. That’s why I created a meditation for you to FULLY envision your life, not just as a conceptual idea, but also to imagine your ideal life through your felt sense! Visit my shop to find out more!
Tell us! Have you read the Life Changing Magic of Tidying up? How has your life been changed by it? Let us know in the comments below, Yoga Avec Moi would LOVE to hear your experience with it!
Continue on to Part II of 3 Reasons Why You Should KonMari Your Home Before Your Baby’s Arrives ________________________________________________________________
Nahal Haghbin is an Integrative Yoga Therapist in training from the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy and a globally certified Yoga Alliance Yoga Teacher based in China. She conducts lectures, private and group asana and consultations on Yoga & Integrative Yoga Therapy in person and online. She works with menstrual disorders and with female health and wellbeing. Book an online yoga session with her.