The Art of Completion

What project do you have that is not complete? What idea did you have that you started on but now it lies in a box somewhere?    What have you started to de-clutter, or clean or organize or renovate and then got pulled away from and there it is, half done?

“Completion frees up energy”.  This was a concept that my first spiritual teacher, Deb Schubert taught me several years ago.  It is something I often think about and a concept my mentor ship students are working on right now. 

Do you want completion in a particular area ofyour life?  Do you need to free up some energy in your life?  Do you feel that you do not HAVE enough energy?  Start looking around.  Go from room to room in your home or apartment.  Think about each of your relationships-current or past. Think about well meant New Years Eves Resolutions……Look in boxes and find half finished projects…..

Make a list of all of this.  Decide what is still important to you and want you do not care about anymore.  If you started to knit a sweater 20 years ago and now have NO interest in it, that is fine.  Just pass the yarn on to someone else who is still a knitter and clear it out of your space.  Look at everything on your list and make a clear decision about  each one.  Maybe it is something that you  started and then realized it was over your head and abandoned the project……might be time to “phone a friend” (or an expert) and have it completed.   Maybe you were into something but got pulled away by some major life event…….maybe you just have a very difficult time completeing ANYTHING.

Make your list.  Choose something simple so that you can feel successful.  Allow yourself to feel the “energy” of the fulfilled project fill you up.  This energy will then “fuel” you to move on to the next project and the next and the next.

There is a bigger question here.  Why am I not completing what I start?  Where do I believe inside myself that “I can’t have it all?”   Where do I believe that I do not deserve the “whole enchilada”?  What pulls me off my center?

Every unfinished project or intention pulls energy from us.  We walk by these things and they zap a bit of our energy.   We think about them and we get a “sinking” feeling.  NOW we can move through our lists and  GAIN those energy points back into our own energy bank!  Yeah!  Who can’t use more energy points!

Just making the list, getting very clear about what needs to get done will begin to move the energy.  Now you can’t STOP there or the energy will get stuck again.  Once the list is made, you do not need to begin running a frantic, urgent energy of getting everything done immediately.  Just make the list.  Mindfully choose one area or item to work on and put your full atention on whatever needs to be done to complete it.  When that is finished, go back to your list and check it off ( I love that part:) and choose the next area or item or task………gradually you make your way through. 

This will take some time.  Weeks, months maybe years.  It depends on how big the projects are.  That is ok.  Just make the list and begin where you can.  Sometimes we abort a project because we have run out of money.  A room can sit there half finished and EVERY time you walk by it you feel the energy of it pulling at you.  Go back to it.  What CAN you do with that space right now to have it feel more complete?  There is always SOMETHING we can do.  ALlow yourself to be creative.

There you go.  I started doing home improvement projects several years ago.  One day I began to notice that I would get ALMOST finished in a room and then just move on.  I would have some very small things to complete……like a hole to plaster and paint or to go out and  buy a lamp for that space.   Once I realized this, I went from room to room and made a list of what I needed to do in each room and I continue to work on it.  I am very excited to let you know that I am making a lot of progress!  The picture posted is of my bathroom counter and new sinks completed this winter!  I started this bathroom renovation in 2004 and just finished it now in 2011:)

 I am not done with my list and that is ok.  I am in the process and that is making my home and ME feel a LOT better.  The energy in both my home and myself is flowing much more freely and I am completely enjoying the process.

So grab a notebook.  Start looking around.  Start your list.  What do you need to finish de-cluttering?  What needs to be repaired?  What needs to be given away or thrown away?  What needs completing?  Go from room to room.  Once you do this, sit down and think about your relationships.  Is there some “stuck” energy there?  Where and what needs to be completed, what conversation needs to happen?  Think about your goals and intentions for yourself?  What lies unfinished, incomplete?

This is a fun project.  I just finished painting the 2 closets in my healing room.  When I used to paint rooms, I didn’t think about the closets.  I find that interesting now.  I wasn’t paying attention to the inner places of my home.  Now I want to tend to all of my home and all of me.  That which is visible and that which is not.  And so I am practicing the “art of completion”. 

Tomorrow I intend to walk from room to room again and see what I see now.  What I am able to see changes as I continue to grow and evolve and so from time to time I need to make a new list.  I have made so much progress and yet there is still much to put my attention on.  Some of the things I can do by myself, other things I need help with.  But I CAN make the list by myself:)

Grab some paper and start.  Start small and build on that.  Start small to allow yourself the joy of seeing and feeling something completed. 

It is not about having EVERYTHING on the list complete.  In truth, will it ever be?  There will always be things to add to the list.  But that is ok.  This is our life and everything we do has an impact on us and our own energy.  Just start.  You are going to love this practice!

Happy completion to you:)  Melanie