My background has been in the Hospitality and Hotel Accommodation Industry working as a Hotel Executive Housekeeper, in Interior design, Managing and Building hotels, and as a professional House Cleaner, cleaning homes. The quality of cleaning I would offer was always very high, but nevertheless there was something missing.
In my experience working as an Executive Housekeeper, I was always feeling pressured for time. With every task that I did I had a very high expectation of myself and others. In order to achieve all that was needed to be done for the day, I would start very early and finish late in the evening, without any breaks. I always put the guests and all the other staff first before I considered how I myself was feeling, or what was truly needed. Later I realised that this way of going about my job was connected to the fact that I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked – never bothering to stop or eat lunch. I had become a slave to my work, being obsessed with being perfect in everything I did, and always putting others’ needs before my own. Even my children called me a martyr.
I would help the room attendants to clean the rooms to be ready in time for guests, because I was afraid I would get into trouble with my manager and CEO if the jobs were not done and the guest complained. No wonder my day was so long and exhausting – I was constantly afraid of getting into trouble and never had enough time to do my job because I was doing other peoples’ jobs! I felt anxiety, stress and tiredness to the point of being numb in my body – but I kept pushing myself to the limit.
Living this way meant that my body suffered the consequences with stomach problems, migraines, back problems, anxiety attacks and heart palpitations. I ended up with blood poisoning and thrombosis in my right leg and had to spend 3 weeks in bed: after that I had to give up work. This experience showed me how I had being working and living all my life.
This pressured and stressful behaviour was also happening in other areas of my life, including my own house cleaning – something that in fact could have been a lovely, nurturing experience. I had come to live in a way that was just ticking one job off the list before I launched into the next. Before I even started to do my house cleaning I would get anxious a day before because it felt such a task to do. I could feel body tension in my arms, legs, back and neck and I would program myself so that the cleaning could be done by a certain time. My body would ache and feel exhausted and I would get frustrated and angry with myself for allowing myself to get to a point where I just wanted to go to bed and shut myself away from the world and sleep. There was no joy in my life, only pain and sadness from not being able to stop myself from this workaholic way of living. And it stands to reason that the quality of cleaning, and everything I did, was compromised because of how I was feeling.
Since I started work with Universal Medicine I have truly realised how I had been living and working. I began to feel my body and to know whether I was being nurturing and loving towards myself or not. I am now aware of the way my body communicates to me about how I am being and living. The more I connect with my body the more love I feel. The more love I bring in my body, the more I become aware of the way my environment feels. I could feel that if I was tired and did the cleaning in a pushed way, the quality of the cleaning and the house reflected that back. The house might have looked clean, but you could feel and tell that I had rushed my work and pushed myself to get it done and nothing that I had cleaned felt right or in its place.
Now I am more aware of the way I clean mine and my clients’ homes. I prepare myself each day in a loving way – preparing my body by starting earlier in the morning, not rushing in getting ready, and having a nurturing breakfast so when I start to do the cleaning, vacuum, clean the bathroom or place a piece of furniture, I am aware of not pushing my body. I work gently and my body knows where and how to place things so that the room feels harmonious. I love to do the little things that make a difference.
In the morning I love making my bed and being playful. When I finish this job it feels complete. This way of being supports my body and creates a beautiful welcoming feeling in the home; everything in the home feels loving and in its right place. I have discovered that it is not about ‘what’ or ‘how much’ I do, but the quality in which I am doing it.
Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease. I feel light and there is a flow in what I am doing.
When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do and I can feel that this way of being is acting against myself and against time. My body then becomes tired, aching and exhausted.
When I stay connected to my body I have more clarity and I know how to be; time is no longer an enemy. Nothing is too big or too small for me to do. Listening and honouring my body not only supports me in everything I do, it also supports those around me. Life has become simple and fun. I enjoy the quality of cleaning services I now offer at a whole new, amazing level.
By Kathy Avram, Melbourne, House Cleaning Business
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
This blog was timely in that I’m moving homes after many years being in one spot and the imprints of stress are coming through. I cannot stand chaos and mess yet I am not the best at cleaning up too. I loved reading that the connection to your body brings more awareness to everything around us. And I love that more can be done when we are not in tension of ourselves, as in that tension it puts a strain on the body so there is no flow.
It’s amazing how we can change a perspective around when we truly connect and feel our bodies. Wouldn’t life be different if we did this more often?
Hi Shushila
Thank you for the beautiful expression of the response to the blog
I have moved many times in my life and each move felt very unsettling to me and packing felt too much
Until I came to the loving understanding that it was not about the moving but how I came from my body and what quality I brought to each movement in the purpose of what was so beautiful to pack each item in love and clean with the purpose in imprinting that divine love for the all in the space as one to receive
We always make it about the doing and not about the purpose and so we get caught up in the doing and drama
Much love
Kathy xx
I agree, it’s not how much we get done, but rather the quality in which we do things, ‘Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease. I feel light and there is a flow in what I am doing.’
We place so much emphasis on getting things done instead of doing it with that quality that bounces back to you like a boomerang. You certainly can feel the difference…
So well said Elizabeth – we must ask if what we offer is superficial and hence empty on the inside? Or perhaps truly coming from an endless source of love from within.
Universal Medicine is a business that supports people to take deeper responsibility in their own self care, which essentially is all about looking at the quality of how we live. I am superbly blessed to have come across Universal Medicine, Serge Benhayon and all the Esoteric modalities that have supported me to re-ignite my love for myself and a life truly lived.
Nothing we do should ever compromise how we feel or who we are. Now this is an easy statement to say as words, but to live it in full is a huge learning.
Amazing blog which really shows there is so much more to cleaning that things just looking clean from the outside!
“Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease.” So true, when our mind is not busy distracting us our body flows with the movements of the task in hand.
Thank you Kathy, I could feel the fun, lightness and play in your final paragraphs with how you now are with cleaning, very different to the compression on yourself when you lived in stress and fear with work. The fun and light way you now clean with is simply you being able to be you.
If we put our body first, making sure that it’s feeling supported in its activity, our life experience would be so different. No reward sweeter than this.
‘When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do and I can feel that this way of being is acting against myself and against time.’ Spot on Kathy and a beautiful reminder for us all, the connection to our body is key in bringing a certain quality in everything we do.
When we are connected with our body, we can feel the quality of energy that we are choosing.
I can really relate with this as this is something I used to do but more than it being about an anxiety I can see for me it was a form of control of wanting to do things my way and not trusting what other members of the team could bring. It was quite arrogant. ‘never had enough time to do my job because I was doing other peoples’ jobs!’ It is, and feels amazing when we let this go and as you have discovered start to love ourselves more.
Putting others first is a pattern of movement we can bring into different realms of life. Although it may appear as if there is just generosity in this way of moving in life, there is only self behind. A hurt self that needs the outside confirmation to keep going.
Perfect timing to read this today Kathy, as I’ve been feeling the push to get things done and struggling with that, a classic ‘When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in’ moment as you note. And the thing I’m learning now is it doesn’t work to stop the mind, I need to come back to my body and become aware of it and how it feels and when I do there is more space and a rhythm in how I can do things no matter what they are. Great to be reminded again of this, thank you.
Monicag2 thank you for your sharing how our thoughts can distract us from being present in our body. It is so beautiful when we allow the body to show us what is true, bringing in the moment what is needed to be done without a struggle but in the ease of everything we do in joy.
Usually I have a cleaner who comes every week and she tends to do the majority of cleaning in the house. Right now she is ill so until I find someone else I am on my own. As a friend pointed out the other day this gives me an opportunity to deepen my relationship with my house. I can bring more love to what I am doing and a freshness to the act of cleaning, like starting anew and possibly decluttering along the way.
When we leave ourselves out from whatever we are engaged in, no matter how well done the job might appear, we are left empty, needing reward.
This is so true Fumiyo and yet it is something I fall for time and time again – it is a process to learn to live this on a daily basis.
Another point I find really important with cleaning is to do it as soon as I feel to do it or the thought crosses my mind – it’s easy to have that impulse and then think – “I’ll do it later, or tomorrow or whatever” – but I find if I do it the moment I think of it then there’s an ease and enjoyment to it, yet if I delay then it becomes a chore.
That workaholic way of life is one I know so well, but am in the process of leaving behind. That perfectionism, obsession with wanting to be perfect and fear of being told off.. all of that can only happen when we go off into our minds and leave our bodies behind. When we stay connected to our bodies, there is no need to be perfect and nothing to fear – we know we are amazing before we even start doing anything, and that is both amazing and very simple to feel, when we allow it.
Staying connected to our bodies, allows us to listen to its communications, ‘I began to feel my body and to know whether I was being nurturing and loving towards myself or not. I am now aware of the way my body communicates to me about how I am being and living.’
Yesterday I went to my friends place for lunch and as I drove in the front yard it felt really light and spacious – and it turned out her husband had done a big clean up. So I understand exactly what you are saying Kathy about quality for its amazing how much we can feel when we are open to that awareness but in the rush of human life to tick the box we are on we can all too often miss or even ignore.
I loved what you have shared Kathy and all the comments on offer , it is a great reminder for me to really stay present with loving attention to how my body is feeling and the quality I am in as I go about my cleaning today.
Behind perfection, there is world that is not so perfect, an attempt at conquering/controlling life that discourages paying attention to life itself and what is true about it.
Eduardo, thank you for your great response. Perfection is very much about controlling life and it debilitates you, always keeping you to achieve a higher goal in making it more perfect, which never works and only takes you into exhaustion and trying to get things right. Life is never enjoyed but seen as hard work.
A beautiful way of cleaning out the old way of ‘doing’ and bringing a sparkle of magic in the way you are during the day.
For me it is about holding the connection to myself and doing what needs to be done in a rhythm that supports me with no regrets about what I should have or not done. It is having the willingness to love and nurture myself in the process of doing.
The more I surrender to my body the less ideals and rules there are to live life by. In this, life feels far more open and free to just express who I am.
‘ I work gently and my body knows where and how to place things so that the room feels harmonious. I love to do the little things that make a difference’. Love is in every detail when we work like this.
I find the more I discover or explore what it means to tend to the little details, the more I realise just how how much of life is determined by our attention to the smaller details in life.
I’ve found for me when I have pushed myself to get everything done it has come down to a lack of self worth and doing it for recognition. I’ve been seeing also how much we can set ourselves up as soon as we go into a role or even say I’m going to do this now and it is going to be a massive job. Our body knows what that means from past experience, and starts to feel exhausted at just the thought of what is next.
Thank you Kathy, reading your blog again today I can see an enormous pattern we are all part of that places what we do ahead of people. Many systems of life are also based on this. We don’t value people, instead we place value on getting the job done and how well we get it done. Because we don’t value people we don’t care what happens to the body nor the being that strives to get the results, whether it’s work or education, or running our lives, we give ourselves away to the task in front of us – and we are even celebrated for doing this. We are literally taught to do that in school as well, nothing matters but the mark or exam result. The work of Serge Benhayon is so vital as at its foundation we begin with caring for the body and our being and then taking that to the world to do whatever is needed. Even more than this is exploring and deepening into the amazing qualities we do have as beings, which we cannot re-connect to and live and express from when we reduce ourselves to just getting things done, and often at any expense. It’s a huge thing to undo the patterns of “doing” over being, I’m still working on it so it’s always very helpful and inspiring to read what you’re now living.
Melinda as women we have been programmed to do many tasks in keeping up with what has to be done for the day as this has been a reflection from one generation of women to another and that putting everyone first is the way life is and that it is normal to live in this way.
We are blessed to have someone like Serge Benhayon presenting and teaching the true way of the Livingness to come back to the truth of how sacred our bodies are and to treat them with great care and responsibility in bringing the quality of our beingness in all that we are.
The awareness of how our body feels when we work is something we all like to dismiss. We like to put the outcome of the job at hand before our body, but without our body the outcome cannot be achieved, so the body must come first, and self-care can assist with that.
Its never what we do but about the quality we do things. It is always felt by others, when we leave loving imprints either at work or in the home. Being connected with ourselves ( our bodies), our movements are gentle and all the details get taken care of.
“I had become a slave to my work, being obsessed with being perfect in everything I did, and always putting others’ needs before my own.” I can relate to this completely, I had allowed it to have a control on my life. It was very exhausting and mentally draining. This all shifted when I started to reflect and look at how I was living and started to take more care for myself. It has been a journey and awesome one too as I have learnt so much along the way.
Your story shared so beautifully that just doing more is not going to ease the tension we might feel in ourselves if we are not giving our all to something. Yet the answer lies in caring for ourselves in every way equally as to what we need to do.
Lieke, thank you for your lovely reply. It is so amazing how much our body can share with us when we stop to listen and feel what is truly going on, allowing the space to read in the doing and how much that it can effect us not only in the way we work but also energetically how we are cleaning.
Caring for ourselves deepens the quality in which we live, then our movements are more aligned with truth and there is no space for tension.
What a fantastic blog in how honest you have written exposing how you were living and working and putting all others before yourself which led to your illness which was a blessing in disguise. I lived and worked like this too in the past and it is the body that suffers the consequences and just like your body, my body brought me to a stop also through illness which supported me to change my ways along with the support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
Thank you jacqmcfadden04 for your lovely response. We are blessed to have the loving support that Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine brings. Serge is a great reflection, allowing us to come to the true way of living in honouring our body, coming to a loving understanding of the truth and what that brings to self and others.
The things we can do to ourselves and others when we are in the ‘need to just get it done mode’ goes further then the eye can see. When we make life about what we can do then eventually it all leads to the same place, usually exhaustion of varying degrees. It makes no sense when you are doing it and even part of you knows that it doesn’t support you and yet you keep choosing it. It’s like you are trapped in a way but then you are introduced another way which you realise then is your way and the way you always knew it should be. It’s like the more we do something and the more people that join in it makes it harder to see and or stop. Universal Medicine is supporting us all to see that there are things we are doing that are hurting ourselves and in this awareness we can choose another way.
“When I stay connected to my body I have more clarity and I know how to be; time is no longer an enemy. Nothing is too big or too small for me to do. Listening and honouring my body not only supports me in everything I do, it also supports those around me.” This is powerful. What a change you made to your job by simply honouring yourself first and foremost and it all begins in the connection with your body and not your mind.
Our house reflects alot back to us if we are willing to take off our everyday glasses and take a long hard look at how we are actually living. And its not hard to change it either… to introduce some space and love can be as simple as wiping a surface, setting a flower, burning a candle.
So true Simon, our house does reflect back so much to us if we just press the pause button and really take the time to look around and walk around our own house, so much can be communicated for example, a piece of furniture that needs to be removed, cleaning out a drawer, unpacking a box at the pack of a cupboard, or just a good clean, whatever it is when we follow the impulse, the house always feels different.
So true our house is a beautiful reflection, the more we nurture our home with simple movements the more supported we are as we go out into the world, as we take that quality of movements out to others.
When I’m in my head striving to get the house cleaned or a project done, a million and one other urgent jobs creep into my thoughts and I feel overwhelmed. I then chop and change and nothing actually gets completed. On the other hand, when I’m connected and with my body and focus on what needs doing in that moment, everything else fades away into the background and I’m left to just be.
Thank you Aimee for the beautiful sharing. I can relate to striving to get things done in house work and everything else that needed to be done. In the past I would make a big list and try and tick everything on that list by the end of the day which would be overwhelming. You could feel the frustration in all that I was doing not only with self and others. This harden my body through the exhaustion in the pushing. At 63 I now am wiser within and allow my body to guide me in all that I am doing by the impulse of what is needed for the day which is receive in a flow of energy that is so divine and gorgeous to feel with joy and harmony.
This is great to hear Kathy and very inspiring, ‘Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease. I feel light and there is a flow in what I am doing.’
Thank you Lorraine for your sharing, it is amazing when we are aware of how our body feels in our movement, bringing everything we do with an ease and flow through the connection from within, nothing is too big or too small it just is which brings the detail and divine love.
Kathy, thankyou, I really enjoyed reading this again. I am going through another cycle of awareness currently of how I let my mind (because of pictures and ideals) drive my body, and time based deadlines are a huge trigger for this too. This has shown me again how vital it is to deepen my relationship to my body and check in more consistently and allow my body to take the lead. This is a great line which I have found is true for me too as I explore my body connection “The more I connect with my body the more love I feel”. All the love we are is in the body, not the mind!
Thank you Melinda for your lovely comment. It is so lovely when we have great awareness of the pictures and ideals, keeping us in the cycles of our patterns and behaviour so that we cannot feel our bodies. Being in a consistence relationship with our body, we start to lovingly understand our connection in what we bring through energetic responsibility in divine love, together body and mind aligning with all.
So very True Melinda – ‘the more I connect with my body the more love I feel’. When I am walking I am feeling all of my body and as such I feel so expanded, so light, and I feel so very held, held by myself and by the grandness of the universe and perhaps that is the true meaning of self-support and of self-appreciation.
When cleaning body awareness is essential as otherwise you can do yourself a lot of damage as it can then become a very physically taxing job. In my experience I taught myself to clean as if it is a dance where not one step is taken that is unnecessary and thus no energy is ever wasted, where time expands and all is well. Thank you for sharing your process back to your own dance Kathy.
Kathleen thank you for the lovely expression of ” I taught myself to clean as if it were a dance as each step was taken so as to not waste unnecessary energy and time expands”. In this you can feel the movement of the body in divine love bringing the joy in expression in cleaning, without a thought but a true flow of body and movement together as one.
Nothing is a chore or work, only a movement in all that you bring, divine love or a struggle of thoughts.
I love the symbol of making cleaning a dance. We associate dance with fun, and freedom of expression, so what a lovely way to feel into cleaning and clearing.
Amazing all-round Kathy! What we a capable of is mindless literally. A quality you have described and how to attain it very well through-out your blog. There is too many to quote but I advise to read your nourishing blog. Cleaning is a simple example of this quality in application that can then be applied to all we do.
Thank you Rik for your lovely response. When we truly connect within, we have the awareness to bring the quality in the all of life, which brings the harmony, joy and love for all equally with ease and simplicity.
Our body is our true home and everything else is a part of life to observe and respect self and others in the choices we make in all that we do.
So true Rik, if we can only keep our own space clean then all else is superfluous as it follows into the rest of our life.
Starting with our own space and surroundings we take this flow into everything else. It becomes a ritual a rhythm a natural flow.
Spot on Amita, it becomes a part of our Livingness.
This is a belief that has been passed down the generations, it was one that was active in my family, ‘ I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked’, it is very damaging and debilitating for those who take it on as you showed with your symptoms.
Living within a time so that you are in anyone else’s rhythm definitely is a drain on our energy and causes all kinds of emotional turmoil. This is not rocket science as we all feel the pressure of someone else rhythm being imposed on us. Working with a Love and dedication of being a humble student who is a servant for all humanity so that our work is a joy and not a chore.
Is working for the pleasure that our body feels so that we are in full respect of what is felt and not the distractions that can be caused by the things that are happening around us, always brings a ‘connection’ that is simple to maintain.
I have not realised this so clearly before but now I can see how draining it is when I allow another’s rhythm to be imposed upon my own, and what is really revealing is that the reason I have done this is to avoid embracing the responsibility of attending to my own.
So true Irena, living our own rhythm is a Loving responsibility we should all embrace.
It makes sense that if we put everyone first and then run with the pictures behind this, that we can then go into pushing to get a task finished, and then feel the pressure of running out of time – running ourselves like this has a whole different feel than being fully aware of our movements and doing the task from that place.
When we clean we are leaving behind far more than a clean home, we are leaving our lived way. A great clean starts well before we pick up the cleaning cloth.
I too am finding how important it is to stay connected to my body and be aware of how I am doing things. When I make this my focus, everything else seems to flow with ease from there.
Being present in the body when we work steadies us, and lets us work in a way that whatever we are doing, our work and our focus are one. Through that we are no longer like a cork floating around in an ocean of pressure from others, but instead we have our own rudder and power.
Loved how you expressed your experiences of cleaning, it is easy to drop into getting the job done, and how through pushing our way through we become exhausted because we are fighting against our body’s natural rhythm, when we actually take ourselves in full to the task in hand, in full connection with ourselves we are able to do a quality job quicker and with plenty of spare energy left.
Sally, thank you for your response and the realisation of dropping into getting things done can take us to a place of not being connected from within, so that our mind can keep us busy in our work, not allowing ourselves to want to feel the body where it is at.
When we let go of our expectations, ideals and beliefs , there is no exhaustion or pushing, we allow the body to bring the quality, rhythm and flow in our work with simplicity and love.
In connection to our beingness we are able to reimprint any space with our own quality of love that will support and hold others to be more of who they are, this is huge!
This is beautiful Kathy and takes cleaning to a whole new level of responsibility and true care, when you clean it’s not about function and ticking boxes it’s about bringing a quality and presence that imprints the home for others to feel supported and blessed by.
What a ‘pull up’ it is when our body itself brings us to our knees, so to speak – showing us that the way we’ve been can be no longer, that it’s time to look at undoing what has driven this and consider the possibility of our own healing…
And how profound it is to have the work, teachings and Esoteric Modalities that have been brought through by Serge Benhayon, to reflect to us that yes, we can indeed work hard and ‘do much’ in this world, but it is as you’ve shared so beautifully here Kathy, all about the quality in which we go about EVERYTHING.
An awesome and deeply inspiring blog, thank-you.
Kathy, this is one absolutely remarkable transformation – wow… The patterns of driving oneself and putting oneself at the end of the pecking order are so strong for so many – I would say most will relate in some way to all that you’ve shared in this regard.
That you have experienced the turn-around you have is deeply inspirational and beautiful – reading this, I cannot but feel how the woman that you are has truly come alive, as you’ve shed the ways that, as your body so strongly revealed to you, were not sustainable, let alone supportive.
I love also to do the little things around the house, as it does make a difference being aware of the detail and the what I call, ‘the art of placement’. Intuitively feeling when something has to be moved and placed somewhere else or even put out as it dulls the energy of the room…. everything counts!
‘The more I connect with my body the more love I feel. The more love I bring in my body, the more I become aware of the way my environment feels’. This is gold, in its simplicity to just connect with our physical vehicle the body and honour it in everything we do, and when we do this, we move differently and all the old movements begin to drop away providing the space for more love to be expressed.
How very beautiful Kathy that life has become simple and fun. I love, and deeply appreciate, the level of responsibility and choices you have made to bring true love to yourself and others. Thank you for your inspirational sharing.
A women of my movement Kathy, I can so relate to what you have shared. Cleaning is now a trust in my movement, I get my ‘self’ out of the way and offer my body over as the vessel it is to be moved in a way that provides evolution to all I clean for. In this a true service is provided.
I find the way I prepare for my day makes such a massive difference to how my day actually goes. It feels amazing to have a rhythm in the morning and remain committed to it, if I ever get lazy or skip bits or don’t take as much care or rush my whole day is majorly effected.
Such a lovely blog to come back to. I can feel how I am projecting a ‘life’, or an image of life to be more precise, away from the body that is actually living it. Sometimes I feel like I am making ‘being gentle’ an ideal of some sort, telling my body to be in a certain way, rather than letting its true quality arise. My body is the one that is in movement, and it is the quality the body is in that will be communicated and expressed through whatever I do with it.
Fumiyo, thank you for your lovely sharing. If we allow ourselves to let go of control and allow to feel the body, it brings through the impulse of what is needed with ease from within to do what is needed without the doing, just being in present consciousness it brings the true quality in the all that we express in our everyday livingness
And thank you for the gorgeous reminder that making my bed can be done with a natural joy which can continue to flow into everything I do throughout my day.
Tamara, thank you for your loving response, Everything does flow so beautiful when we start our day in appreciation and joy of self in the quality we bring with ease setting our day in harmony
“And it stands to reason that the quality of cleaning, and everything I did, was compromised because of how I was feeling.” This realisation is pure gold Kathy.
Leonne it is all about the quality we bring in our work which brings love and all feels complete in harmony and joy to be in. Our body is our loving vessel when we choose to connect through, to bring the impulse in what is needed without going into overwhelming in the doing. It is not the quantity it is the divine quality.
A brilliant blog for me to read after a very busy day in the office. I am reminded that bringing a loving quality to what i do starts with loving me. If I make it all about quality there can be no overwhelm as the task is always simple and achievable.
Coming to a place where you can recognize the benefits of connecting to and working with a true quality rather than ignoring that for the sake of ticking boxes to get things done is revolutionary. So many of us get lost in the latter thinking we’ll feel better with less on our list but as you have exposed it is in the connection and awareness that we get to experience and embrace the lightness of body from being in a flow that supports us to do whatever needs to be done in the space provided.
Samantha thank you for your great response. Our body is a great marker when we are cleaning, if we first connect to our body before we start our work, brings the awareness in the quality of our movement in the body bringing divine love in our work. Everything we touch feels complete in joy and harmony allowing to support everyone in the space and home.
I always used to hate cleaning, it was such a chore for me. Only because my whole life it was drilled into my head that because I am a girl I should clean. However, since I’ve started cleaning for myself, because I want to live in a clean home, this “chore” has become so much more joyful and pleasant that I actually look forward to doing it!
Viktoria it is amazing that you find cleaning joyful after coming to a loving understanding that house cleaning is not a chore but to honour you first in bringing love within your home by enjoying having a clean home to live in which in turn reflects how you feel from with in.
Thank you Kathy. There are a few chores I have been putting off and I have been feeling down on myself for being unable to make a start. I can now see that this is just a smokescreen that gets me focused on the idea that there is something wrong with me when in fact the way I feel is a result of the energy I have chosen and the quality I am expressing. Your blog allows me to feel that housework can be an enjoyable experience if I connect to purpose and listen to my body.
Leonne thank you for your lovely response. I feel that house work has been made and taught to be a chore instead of what it truly means. It is first connecting to the body and the purpose bring order within your space and home and allowing to feel what is needed at the time to clean. There is no right or wrong in cleaning, having the impulse to clean what is needed to support you with bringing the love and quality from with in, in everything you do.
It’s super-simple isn’t it…. All we have to do is allow ourselves to be guided by our body and we can’t go wrong.
There’s such a big difference between cleaning when you’re honouring your body, and cleaning in a rush – I know both super well – one feels amazing, complete and you can feel the imprint of that loveliness and the other is just exhausting… what a choice!
So true Meg, I used to go into a lot of drive when I had to clean my house so I could do it quickly and then have a break, but I would exhaust myself in the process and you could feel the house had this unsettled feeling to it for there was no beautiful imprint or quality left in the house to feed me back.
Funny how we can so easily turn a hard work ethic (nothing wrong with that), into being a martyr and literally sacrificing ourselves for something else.
I used to work as a cleaner and I would push myself all day. I would even eat lunch while driving to the next job and not even stop for 10 minutes. One day I started taking the time to eat my lunch in a nearby park and having a short walk. I stopped creating so many time pressures that were purely self imposed. When I began to care more for me I realised the responsibility I had walking into someone’s home to clean it for them. If I showed up racy, exhausted and rushed, that was what entered their home. Likewise, if I showed up steady, feeling cared for (by me) and present, that was what each home received.
Sometimes I struggle with what my body feels and how my house feels, as the two can feel disharmonious with each other. But I am learning that this tension is no excuse to dull down what I feel, to dull down my awareness, nor does it mean to push myself so hard to get the house up to reflect how I feel. In fact, what I am learning is to allow myself the grace of imperfection, knowing that no outer place can ever reflect the grandness that I feel in my inner-heart.
openheartletters thank you for your great reply. Everything we do comes from the body, it is the choice we make in what energy we choose. When we come from within we bring love, beauty and grace in everything we do and the inner heart brings joy in everything and feels complete.
Kathy thank you so much for your honest blog. “Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease.” I find this insight very useful as it showed it very clear that we do have a choice of how we feel in the evening – exhausted in a bad way or just tired and satisfied because of working hard physically but with presence and joy.
Thank you Ester for your beautiful reply. When we always come from our body we bring all that we need to do with the loving quality, clarity and ease. Everything we touch and do feels complete in harmony.
‘ I love to do the little things that make a difference.’ Becoming aware of how important these little things are is only possible when we are true to ourselves, when we are anxious or stressed we don’t have an eye (or better say feel) for details because we are not busy with the whole but only with ourselves getting the job done.
Annelies thank you, it is the little things we do that brings the loving detail when we come from within our body and not allowing the pushing to drive us in getting the work done.
It’s interesting how we push ourselves to meet the expectation, trying to deliver something of high ‘quality’ while neglecting our own body, thinking that ‘quality’ can be magically manifested without us not even having it as a lived quality. Thanks to Serge Benhayon, I can now see how this makes no sense at all.
Fumiyo it is interesting how we push ourselves in our expectations through our ideals and beliefs that it is about doing more and not the quality of how we do things, which drives the body in anxiety, exhaustion and stress. Serge Benhayon is a great reflection on how to live in our quality of our essences and bring that quality in all that we do.
Your experience is nothing short of miraculous Kathy. It also highlights the power and magic of self-love and awareness and how absolutely important quality is in everything we do. It is the body that needs to preform and do everything, so keeping the body loved and cherished makes sense for everything we touch to carry that same loving imprint.
Thank you Rachael for your lovely comment. When we have self love and awareness it brings more understanding how precious and sacred our body is and through that love brings the quality of loving imprints in everything we touch and in our work
Elizabeth thank you for your lovely response. Love does change everything when we come from the inside out and bring divine love in our true livingness in the quality of our essences and allowing our body to express in that quality
“….I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked – never bothering to stop or eat lunch….” so many of us were brought up to put everyone and everything before ourselves. In my family we had a saying FHB – family hold back – if guests were present. It took me a wee while to understand that caring for myself first wasn’t a selfish act at all, when i first came to Universal Medicine presentations. However, how can we love and care for others if we don’t do the same for ourselves first? By doing so we offer a reflection for others to be inspired by. Otherwise its just ‘do as i say not do as I do’, which is how most of humanity operates. Serge Benhayon presents the real deal – true integrity and love – which inspires me every day.
sueq2012 thank you for the reminder of putting self first is a great reflection for the All. It’s truly beautiful how Serge Benhayon presents the real deal in true integrity, love and energetic responsibility about the quality of energy we choose and bringing that in our work and the way we live
Linda thank you for your beautiful expression of the understanding when we stop and take the opportunity we realise that the way we live has a impact on our body. When we connect and communicate with our body we bring a deeper level of understanding in our quality and bring love to life and our work.
As I read your article Kathy, I realised that I have been having few breaks for myself at work too. I am fit and healthy, I use that as a belief that I don’t need to stop. This is very arrogant and not showing respect to myself. I know exactly what is needed, a walk or even a lie down or joining others for lunch or even a tea break. Why can’t I do that during a break time? Which of course I can absolutely. This is something that I feel will not only support me but others who may be in the same routine of working through breaks, eating at desks etc. Even though we are designed to work, it’s not about working or doing anything at the expense of our body. Thank you Kathy.
Jennifer it is amazing what we do to ourselves and our bodies when we do not realise what impact it has on us when we do not take care and listen to our bodies and seem to push through the day feeling that everything needs to be done and that time is of an essence in all that we do, only to keep us on the wheel of the doing and not stopping to rest, take a break and allow ourselves the space to just feel what is truly going on within our body. Thank you for your lovely response and coming from a beautiful understanding when we stop and enjoy our break with others or take a rest it is showing others to also honour themselves.
Embodying the understanding that it is not about how much we get done in a day that matters the most but is the quality of being we choose to do things with that sets the quality of living is empowering and freeing at the same time as we no longer have to seek approval from others just the permission to be ourselves.
Francisco thank you for your lovely response to how it is about quality not about how much we get done. As Serge always presents it is all about energy and everything is energy, which shows that everything we touch and clean and everything we do is a choice to bring divine love in the way we live and work
Thank you Kathy for sharing your experience of bringing love to all that you do. Interesting that you say “Even my children called me a martyr.” So often others can see and feel our disregard of ourselves before we do, and often do not accept it until our physical body speaks loud and clear.
Mary thank you for your lovely reflection of how others can see and feel our disregard for ourselves before we pay any attention to how our physical body feels, and speaks. Until we come to a point in life that it no longer can take the abuse that we stop to listen because we did not what to be honest with self and accept the truth of what is truly going on. We often forget to appreciate and love our body, it is our divine home that we live in each day
Kathy,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. There is a lot for us all to ponder on when we bring the quality of our work back to the quality we are in whilst doing it.
Thank you Leigh there is much to ponder on what we truly bring in the quality of our work whilst we are in the doing and how important it is to have conscious presences in our everyday living in the all, it is not about the doing but the quality we do it in
Thanks to Serge Benhayon bringing the way of the true Livingness in that all is energy and the choices we make that brings the quality
Kathy it’s beautiful to read about the different life you have now from simply listening to your body. It’s the same for me too when the mind comes in “driving me in everything I do and I can feel that this way of being is acting against myself and against time.” Life does become a joy when we listen to the body and make choices based on love for ourselves – everyone then benefits from the way we live and the quality of energy we live in.
Melinda it is beautiful when we realise how much our body truly shows us in the way we are working when we come from the mind, our movement is very harsh which makes the body feel tired and exhausted. We do not realise how powerful our bodies are when we come from divine love and understanding the joy it brings in ourselves and all that is around us, this reflects the quality of our choices we make.
I have never loved cleaning (or any physical task) so much since becoming aware of connecting to my body, and feeling how every movement I make magnifies the next.
When I stay connected to my body there is a certain quality that comes with everything I do, when I lose this quality I then go into my mind and I am then at the mercy of what ever, my voice is a good indicator for when I have lost myself and coming from my head as it comes out more higher, more strained and more superficial.
Yes, you can tell [feel] the difference when you walk into a room that has been cleaned with care. Thank you Serge Benhayon for confirming all the things i have felt but not trusted myself enough to express.
This is beautiful Kathy! I can understand how the ” quality in which I do it” is the most important part of the whole job , bringing in the beautiful harmonious atmosphere that makes the difference. A great way to work and share that energy with others too!
Thank you Roslyn for your lovely response it is all about quality we bring in all that we do instead of feeling that the more we do the more we achieve in the day and forget about what is truly happening to the body.
Thank you Kathy, this is such a simple yet powerful reminder, to bring this level of care and quality into anything we do is not only very honouring and supportive for our own bodies but also for everyone else as well.
Anna thank you for your response to the blog. Honouring our bodies first and allowing self to bring the quality from within in our work and living brings the love to all
There is a great point in this blog about time no longer being the enemy and how this can affect everyone’s enjoyment of the day, which makes sense because who wants to hang out with a stressed-out over-worked exhausted person? I am finding that relationships and the beauty of them can be enjoyed all of the time, even when there is massive amounts of work to be done. So time is no longer the enemy, because it is because of time that I get to hang out with the people in my life.
Shami thank you for the response to time in the blog. We have been brought up in a society about how time matters in everything and working against time. If we just choose to be with self and allow time to just be a marker for what is needed in the space of time we would all bring harmony and joy in our work and the way we live.
It is amazing and beautiful to live with this level of care. What I do in this harmonious, loving energy becomes like a dance of movement that is joyful and not stressed. What a difference this makes. What an awesome change you have brought into your life and into your body, Kathy. It just goes to confirm that the way we live with our jobs and environment is the way we live within our bodies.
Amanda it is beautifully expressed about the loving energy becoming a movement that is joy. The body is our vessel in the way we live and all that it brings in our life by the choices we make.
I can feel the high pressure of your job Kathy It is very time structured with many details and guests at the door steps.
Concetta thank you for your response on how jobs with high pressure is all about getting things done in time and forgetting about how our body feels.
Its been interesting reading a whole series of blogs on stress, and the common theme is the intense pressure that we feel from the outside world, and allow that to shut down how we feel on the inside. Over time that builds up and there are a multitude of problems, both physical and psychological that result from living like this. Its clear that we have an inner knowing of how to live and what supports us, and the outside world is much better served if we listen to that first, and then attend to our duties!
Simonwilliams8 thank you for your lovely comment and that we have an inner knowing how to live, of what supports us in all that we do when we come from within first. This allows to bring the love in all that we are and do with clarity, harmony, joy and ease in our body.
What an amazing turnaround from the mind driving the body into physical breakdown to listening to the body and bringing presence into every aspect of living and thus infusing a loving quality into not only your environment but everyone else’s you touch. Thank you Kathy you have inspired me to look again at refining how I approach caring for myself and my home.
Cleaning is such a great example of just how much impact the quality that we are in has on the things we do and on the quality we leave behind in our wake as a result.
Thank you Cathy for your lovely response. Cleaning has been always seen as a chore instead of truly understanding how lovely it can be when you come from a space and place of enjoying the quality you clean from the body and not the mind.
Thank you Kathy for a timely sharing, I am planning to do some house work today and already feel my mind going into drive to get it all done, like the way I have worked most of my life. So back I come to my body and stay with what I am feeling as I am now writing. I am looking at how I can support myself to stay in my body and bring a loving imprint to all that I do today.
Jill thank you for your great response. Everything we do comes from the body and the body shows us what is truly happening when we choose to feel in all that we do. Staying connect to our self and body assists and supports us to bring in the divine love in all what we do. It imprints the all in divine love bringing in the loving energy to everything we have touched, placed and cleaned and at the end of the work if you have stayed connect to self there is a clarity, ease, beauty and joy you feel within.
‘Now I am more aware of the way I clean mine and my clients’ homes. I prepare myself each day in a loving way – preparing my body by starting earlier in the morning, not rushing in getting ready,’ Kathy this is so important, when we do this we respect ourselves and our clients and offer them the best quality of work. When we rush, or are distracted our quality is impaired.
Sally thank you for your loving response. It is so important how we prepare ourselves each day so that we can be supported in everything we do to bring the quality of our divine essence through imprinting divine love in all that we touch, walk, work and say for all equally.
Kathy I loved reading your blog, and what you shared. ‘With every task that I did I had a very high expectation of myself and others. In order to achieve all that was needed to be done for the day, I would start very early and finish late in the evening, without any breaks.’ When we take on expectation, we are no longer working in a loving way, and as a result we are just exhausting ourselves.
When I read this blog I connect to how delicious it feels to do absolutely anything without being ruled by time. Cleaning with love feels amazing and this then becomes a supportive foundation that loves us back. Amazing to feel that it could be this way with everything that we do.
Leonne thank you for your great response. It does feels great when we do not work against time and allow self to build a foundation of love that supports us in all that we do and allowing the reflection to show us all that we are.
Wow, Kathy thanks for what you have shared, I am beginning to realise the enormity of the ills of how so many work places are run, based on stress deadlines and fear, and threat of getting into trouble. The culture is so often promoted in an attempt to control and manipulate employees to squeeze as much work out of them as possible – but this extremely shortsighted and callous strategy only backfires with increasing rates of disease and broken down, depressed and anxious workers. We can start though with taking responsibility for our own part and bringing a different quality to our work, and maybe this can begin to transform the places we work in as people and employers get to feel a true quality of working.
Thank you Annie for a great comment. There is so much more to be done in our work places to bring quality in our work. As you expressed we all can start by reflecting our truth in all that we do so others can see that there is another way. When we take responsibility for self first it allows us the space to do everything with ease, clarity and harmony without the tension, anxiety, depression and disease.
Thank you Kathy for a great blog, I have noticed lately that when I fold my clothes there is much more care taken and this feels lovely and supportive, your blog has highlighted for me that the love I leave behind in my clothes will come back to me when I again wear them, and this includes everything I do for others as well.
Thank you Jill for your lovely comment. It is amazing when we do everything in the quality of love, it brings love and joy in the way we express and the way we do things imprints everything we love and it is shared with all.
Thank you Linda for your lovely comment on the blog. The quality you clean is what truly shines in the love that you bring when you a connected to your body.
‘I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked’. Sadly, this is a widely held view across most societies, cultures and continents. Religions, families, schools – all promote a position of putting others before ourselves – and then we live that out to the detriment of our bodies. It’s fascinating how life has us believing we’re selfish, self-centred and up ourselves if we’re choosing to put the care of ourselves and our bodies first. And it’s disappointing that people just don’t get that you can’t support others if you’re not living from a fully supported self. Anything less than that is a disservice, literally, for who are you bringing them if you are a lesser version of your full self?
Cathy thank you for your great comment. It is amazing how the ideals and beliefs can keep us in our thoughts and not allow us to truly feel what is happening in our bodies.
To honour oneself is to honour all. Being told that we have to put everyone else first and that it is selfish to think about self is the ideal and beliefs of others that want to control. It is our choices that we make that allows us to feel our truth and in that bring divine love in all that we do.
Great point Cathy, and this is where we can turn everything around, by bringing first a quality of our true selves, not the broken down, stressed, anxious, fearing to be wrong, not true self that many of us live and deliver to our family, friends and work. It is through first developing that inner quality and living it, that we can then understand what we can bring to the world.
Thank you Kathy, this is perfect timing reading this blog today as I have a lot of things that need doing and your words beautifully support me and remind me of what truly matters – ‘I have discovered that it is not about ‘what’ or ‘how much’ I do, but the quality in which I am doing it.’
Anna thank you for your lovely comment. We all get caught up with how much we have to clean and the tasks we set ourselves up to do when it can be kept as simple as just doing what it feels in your body to do for that day in cleaning because you are bringing the loving energy that is needed in everything you do instead of pushing self to get everything done from your thoughts of it has to be done.
Life has become simple and fun, how gorgeous is that Kathy?
I would love you to come and clean my house, what a beautiful energy you would bring.
It is so simple what you share here yet so powerful. It is not a big deal to be connected with our bodies and with the true quality of the moment, really enjoying and appreciating what we do, yet the difference in the quality is ginormously huge compared to when we are not connected and in our minds.
Joshua thank you for your beautiful comment. Connecting to our bodies is so powerful, bringing love in the quality for all equally. When we are in our thoughts we make it about self and can feel the body not at ease but in the doing
And in this dis-ease we tend to escape further into our minds as it is not nice to feel this state of being in our bodies
“Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease. I feel light and there is a flow in what I am doing.” Totally agree with you Kathy – there is no tension in the body when we are connected and in our natural rhythm, all tasks are completed with no stress or anxiety and that feels pretty awesome for us and for everyone else too.
Shelley thank you for your lovely comment. It is awesome when we are connected with our bodies everything feels at one in all that we do with love and rhythm, for all equally.
It is our loving imprint that makes the difference. The mood we are in, our thoughts and the way we move, whether we are in connection with ourselves or not, makes a huge difference to ourselves and to the people who will live in the space. I recognise how I was too, Kathy, trying to get everything done and be perfect without a clear foundation for how I was in myself. How lovely is it now to understand how we can be responsible for all of our actions and create beautiful feelings in the rooms and homes we care for?
Thank you Kathy for a really great blog, this has highlighted so much for me to really ponder on and observe in my self as I clean my home.
Working from our body and not our mind and it does not feel like work at all!! Great sharing, Kathy.
So true, and the best part is we don’t get exhausted in the process when we stay connected to our body.
I do agree Kathy that life is so more enjoyable if we live from our body. Life is just so beautiful when we connect to our bodies and live from there, with our body as our compass and guide in life. And although it looks in contradiction I too experience that when I am very loving and in consideration of myself I can more things get done and I too experience a flow in that too. It is like a magical way of working, things get done with ease and flow naturally from one to another, always in consideration of my body and what it is capable of and what it needs.
When the world values the worth of quality over quantity, I can see an abundant of systems changing.
My first job in Australia was as a housekeeper in a top hotel. Looking back I am astonished at the amount of work I managed in a day. I was then a manic of perfection, checking every room after it had been cleaned. My pride resided in a job well done. I was devastated if a guest reported a light bulb blown or not enough tea bags. I remember a strike when most chambermaids stopped work. The housekeepers had to replace them. It was a crazy week during which I did an enormous amount of work. At the time it felt good. Here I was demonstrating my worth. I was dependable, hard working, dedicated….. The reward for all this hard work was a stomach ulcer. But at the time I was unable to see the connection. I have considerably slowed down my pace and introduced self care in my everyday living giving myself time to smile and enjoy life.
It seems to be such a common experience that we are all out there working super hard, trying to get everything done, and to please everyone. Yet there is that small, but ever so important ingredient missing – the central tenet of WHY we are doing all those things. When love (in truth, and not the slightly soft mushy kind) is placed at the center, and an awareness of our own self care to support that, that hard work gets filled with the very best quality and far from draining us, it supports us, enriches us, and feeds us back the same love we put in.
This is so refreshing to read and so spot on when you say cleaning is all about the quality that the cleaner is in. What’s lovely about this is that the quality goes both ways – back into the body, in support of it during cleaning and beyond, but also out into the room and the items being cleaned. I’ve noticed what you describe about staying with the body and not slipping back into the mind, especially when negotiating with the vacuum cleaner or scrubbing hard to remove a mark. Because when I do, I quickly get a familar shoulder ache reminding me I’ve overdone it and lost connection to where my body is at. So there’s nothing quite like cleaning for reminding me of the real need to move harmoniously and with real care for my body as I sprinkle my quality back into the house as I go.
“Since I have become more aware of how my body feels in everything I do, I get more things done with ease. I feel light and there is a flow in what I am doing.” I know this too Kathy. It is amazing how much we can get done and how lovely it feels when we do things when we are connected to who we are.
Kathy you make an important point that how the house feels reflects the quality in which the cleaning tasks are done. I too have discovered that the simple task of making my bed lovingly in the morning does indeed lighten my room, and amazingly anything that is out of place is easily seen and adjusted.
Thanks Kathy for expressing the importance of its not what or how much you do but the energy in which you do it in.
Thank you Joe for your response. We are all taught to do more than we can and get lost in the doing instead of being in the quality of energy that brings love in all that we do.
Kathy I too throughly enjoy cleaning and it is a task that when we are connected to ourselves feels amazing. I love making my bed in the morning it lights up my room. Thank you.
Hi Kelly, thank you for your loving comment to the blog. Cleaning is something that has a deeper level of understanding when we connect and that everything we clean and touch feels beautiful in the way we do our work..
Having an awareness of our body’s communication with us really is very powerful. We do of course have to choose to listen to it and honour what we feel! The intelligence of our body is great and it has a natural innate harmony deep down that we can connect with and live from practically day-to-day. Thank you Kathy for sharing how your life has become simple and fun and the support you lovingly give to others through the quality of your work.
Hi Fiona, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. Our body is amazing when we choose to feel and trust what is truly going on. Through what we feel brings in the quality of our work.
Hi Fiona, thank you for your great comment on the blog. Our body is powerful when we choose to connect and feel what is truly going on in all that we do.
What you are expressing Kathy is so true. I have walked into homes that are pristine but there is a feeling that something is missing, and then walked into a similar home that looks spotless but there can be a warmth and nurturing feel in it. How we are in all we do is powerful and can be felt. What you are now leaving behind in your healing imprint will go on to love and support those that use the space. Thank Kathy for creating awareness around everything we bring.
Hi ch1956, thank you for your loving comment to the blog. Bringing love in all that we do, brings through the energy of divine love in everything we touch and do, allowing for the space to feel more loving and supporting.
This is a great marker for anyone “I feel light and there is a flow in what I am doing.” I know for me, when I feel heavy, I am complicating things or feeling stuck, I know I am not really in a flow with myself. I know when I am feeling light, I am really connected with myself, things do flow, words just come to me, I can write what needs to be written and I then allow what needs to come next, to come effortlessly. That feels right.
Hi raegankcairney, thank you for your lovely comment to the blog. It is so lovely when we feel everything we do from our body and the flow it brings in all that you do, without any effort, just clarity and love, it is beautiful to feel.
So true Kathy, I have had the same experience, the job is hard work when I am thinking about finishing, how much I’ll get paid, why is this such a mess, resenting how physically hard it is, etc. as opposed to staying with my body, feeling me and each moment, the job is easy, is done more quickly and I feel great afterwards. So simple and more and more automatic when I start a job. What a difference!
Hi Mark, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog. When we come from love, it does not matter what we are doing, everything flows enjoying all that we do.
It is awesome that you felt the quality of your cleaning when you were honoring your body and your own rhythm, compared to just ‘getting the job done’. They may all look the same, but feel entirely different.
Hi Sarah, thank you for your beautiful comment. It is amazing when we connect with our body how much it shows us in all that we do and the quality we bring through, the difference it makes in our life.
This blog shows how we can get things done, but in what quality? Our body will tell us how we are living, and often a stop comes with illness or sickness and we have an opportunity to feel the quality we have been living through the choices we have been making. This is a great example of how life is about quality – not action, but what is awesome is that when we bring the true quality of our love, care and connection, the quality of our action in fact increases as it carries our quality, rather than a doing or activity based on fear, anxiety or other ideals.
There is such a difference in the way you do things, and I loved reading how you now work with love, and how that changes the feel of the spaces you clean. Everything has an enormous effect.
When someone cleans our workplace with that presence and loving attention, you can feel it in every corner. You can feel it when you arrive in the morning. It is a blessing to enter the place and start the day. Thank you to all the cleaners.
Julia thank you for the appreciation for the cleaners and how you feel the blessing of divine love in the space and work place in the way the cleaners bring loving attention and detail in the presence of cleaning
Thanks Kathy, lovely reminder to commit to stay present and connected with my body as it creates such a flow in whatever needs to be done during the day. It is that simple and yet the result is profound and joyful.
Hi Carmin, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is truly inspirational when we come from love in everything we do.
Kathy, this is such a great blog for everyone, no matter what work they do. What a blessing your clients receive by having you clean their homes with such love and care, both for yourself and for them – inspirational!
‘When I stay connected to my body I have more clarity and I know how to be; time is no longer an enemy’ – this is so profound and powerfully said Kathy. I was always one that was chasing time thinking that there was never enough of it in the day. But as you have shared I have also discovered that when I stay connected to me, my body and whilst in motion, I have more awareness in that moment of what is needed to be done and how it can be done to support this connection. And with this time opens up as I bring to the space the steadiness of me and the Love that I am and no longer need time to identify me.
Hi Carola, thank you for your beautiful response to the blog. Time when treated like a friend gives us the space to be divine love and bring that love in everything we do through the body of expression.
I have been feeling what you say in your blog, that when I am aware of my body and feel at ease through my gentleness and loving attention, time stops being the enemy, and I am less tired and more vital. My home also feels more tidy and lovely, I especially like when you say: “I am aware of not pushing my body. I work gently and my body knows where and how to place things so that the room feels harmonious. I love to do the little things that make a difference.”I have been feeling what to put where so that my home reflects back to me all that attention and love.
Hi juliamanbos, thank you for your loving response to the blog. Our body is so beautiful and amazing when we connect and all that it shows us in everything we do. It is not about time, it is the quality we bring into the work that makes everything feel lovely and harmonious.
Hi Brendan, thank you for your great response to the blog. When we truly feel and honour oneself, it is so empowering that everyone is lovingly supported.
Hi sarahflenley, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. Our bodies are truly amazing when we connect to self and what they show us is how hard or loving we can be in all that we do. It is great to allow our bodies to feel our beauty in everything we touch.
Kathy what a wonderful blog. Your honest words are a good reminder for me: “When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do and I can feel that this way of being is acting against myself and against time.” It is very easy for me to slip into the driving and it needs my constant awareness to stop me doing so and to come back to my body. I wonder how many people are living in this drive as well and getting ill. Is it not that by living our lives like we both describe- we are going to ruin our health system without even knowing that we do so?
Hi esteraltmiks, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is not about the quantity in the doing, it is about the quality in how we do them, that shows us in our body when we are truly connected to self in all that we do.
Kathy this is a beautiful and inspiring sharing of how you re-connected to your body and how your loving choices changed the way you worked and the way you felt.
Anna, thank you for your loving response to the blog. Our choices are so amazing when we choose love, it brings beauty, joy and harmony in all that we do.
Body. Body. Body. Body. It’s all about the body isn’t it. It can share so much wisdom with us if we so choose. Gorgeous to read your decision to return much more to connecting to your body and to feel your loveliness in that. Inspiring and what I needed to read today.
Sarahflenley thank you for your lovely response. It is all about the body it is what shows us how we are feeling and what quality of energy we are doing things in. We can feel the ease in the way we do things or push ourselves to exhaustion all because we get caught up in the doing and not feeling.
Yes Brendan – it is self-full to support and honour ourselves which totally goes against the grain of what we have been otherwise fed of it being selfish.
It is really amazing to feel the difference when you walk into a room that you know has just been cleaned… seriously its such an amazing feeling! Energy shifts dramatically when we can bring presence in all that we do. When I clean, maintaining that level of presence can be hard, but when I do hold it, I have notice that I don’t have as much stiffness or aches at the end. A great blog to read!
Hi Donna, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. You can truly feel the difference when you have love in all that you do and everything feels so divine. Allowing self to be present in all that we do, allows you to bring all that you truly are
I find it amazing that you felt to go deeper with the service you offered. Many are happy to provide a high standard and leave it at that, but you chose to go further and bring in other aspects – awesome!
Hi Rebecca, thank you for your loving response to the blog. The more we connect and become aware of our body, the more we come to a deeper level of understanding of what is truly going on in our body. We then come from a true loving expression in all that we do.
Thank you Kathy for a great blog, I can relate to what you have shared, the continual drive in the doing, really being a slave to work. I am gradually learning to bring presence when I am cleaning my home, feeling more into what to do for the day, instead of ticking off the chores as done and then on to the next one, wanting to get finished.
Hi Jill, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. When we are truly connect to our bodies, you can feel everything you do with an ease without trying, pushing or being hard on your self and all that you do is without any effort and everything feels and looks amazing.
Hi Kathy,I really enjoyed reading your blog – and what struck me was the responsibility we each have as to ‘the way’ we clean house, whether it is for ourselves in our own little nest or for someone else, whether it be in a business establishment or somebody’s home – it feels to me as we scrub, polish and wipe we are placing an imprint of one sort of another with every stroke. Now being more in our awareness we can feel the importance of our presence, of our feeling and the energy we have chosen to be aligned with, whether it be of doubt, resentment etc. or one of knowing of our connectedness with the divine of ourselves within and the joy that can be imprinted gently and lovingly wherever and whatever we are doing.
Hi Roberta, thank you for your beautiful response to the blog. We each have a loving responsibility in everything we do. We sometimes forget that our homes and work places are just as important as our everyday chores in the way we do them. Bringing love in all that we do with our presence, feels amazing as we complete each day with our beautiful expression of joy doing what needs to be done.
When we work with the momentum of stress and always pushing ourselves there seems to be no room for appreciation for what we are actually achieving and doing. This is an important part of building a loving foundation towards ourselves and everything else we do in life.
Hi matthew, thank you for your response to the blog. Stress and pushing one self in all that you do, brings so much pain in the body, not allowing to feel and appreciate everything you do in a loving way.
This blog highlights for me the true meaning of carelessness: when we literally don’t care about ourselves or those around us enough to take care in everything we do knowing it makes a difference and leaves an imprint for another or others. I like Elena Light’s comment about folding her clothes. How we leave things is how we or others find them so we have an opportunity to bless our days in everything we do.
Hi elainearthey, thank you for your response to the blog. When you have not cared about yourself, you realise that nothing is done in love when you have lived life in the ideal and belief that everyone comes first, for such a long time until you come to a loving understanding to be honest with oneself.
Places that are cleaned with love and are appreciated for that love, offer me a healing the moment I enter. Thoughts change, body posture changes, even the senses transfer different information. I might have been hungry before and suddenly feel nourished.
Hi felixschumacher8, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog. It is so loving when you come from love in all that you do and everything feels complete, the body feels amazing without any tension, tiredness or stress, you leave a beautiful energy for all to enjoy.
A great blog Kathy, it sounds like you have had a complete transformation. I can imagine how lovely it would be to walk into a house or a room cleaned by you.
Hi nicolesjardin, thank you so much for your beautiful response to the blog. Everything feels lovely when it is placed when you are connected to your body and bring your love in everything you do.
Thank you Kathy for sharing the joy of reconnecting to and honouring your body. A remarkable turnaround.
Hi Marica, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog. It is truly amazing when we connect and honour our bodies, bringing love in all that we do.
It’s so interesting how our body tells us with illness when we aren’t living in a way that’s supportive. Working how you said, in constant fear of being in trouble, would have your body so tight! I have felt it too, when you’re tiptoeing around, body tightened and ready for the onslaught. It’s completely draining.
Hi Emily, thank you so much for your beautiful response to the blog. It is very draining on your body when you are not connected to yourself and do not notice how your body feels until you get ill. Then comes the realisation of what has truly been going on, because of living in constant fear and being on the alert.
Hi Kathy, I love this blog and how you listened to the stop moment when your body reflected its dis-ease at the way of living. To clean homes in the way you now live feels beautiful. I recently have felt more connection to how my body feels at work and if I lose that connection it soon tells me!
Hi judykarenyoung, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog. It is truly beautiful when we connect to our bodies in all that we do and everything we do feels complete with no effort, just being you with love of who you truly are.
Hi Ariana, thank you so much for your loving response to the blog. It is amazing what goes on in our head of thoughts that it is sometimes difficult to get the clarity of what is truly going on until you come back to self in just changing the smallest thing done that you find that you can truly connect to your body and feel the love in all that you do.
Thank you for this awesome testimony. There is such a difference in doing things to have them done and doing things in a quality that you can do things without getting drained or exhausted. Knowing this is such a great step into healing exhaustion and enjoying my life.
Hi Lieke, thank you so much for your great response to the blog. Allowing oneself to just do things in connection with the body brings the quality and space to enjoy what you are doing without being drained or exhausted in all that you do.
It’s so healing and affirming to read your blog Kathy, and see the loveless hard way that I often drive myself to get tasks done. I see a pattern then of getting exhausted and giving up and retreating from the world. Its like I swing from one extreme to another.
Hi Thomas, thank you for your beautiful response to the blog. We have been taught to get things done not matter what or how we are feeling, which takes us in the swings of the ups and downs in life, instead of truly doing our tasks in a loving way for self and others equally.
Love it Kathy. Everything you talk about is self-care. Looking after ourselves first naturally allows us to then look after others, rather than trying to care for others first. It’s beautiful to switch the order in how we operate, one way drains and exhausts the body, the other energises the body.
Hi matthew, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog. We can often feel guilty when we start looking after self because we have been taught that everyone else comes first. When we break that ideal,belief and pattern about caring for one self how beautiful your body feels and how amazing it truly is.
“I have discovered that it is not about ‘what’ or ‘how much’ I do, but the quality in which I do it”. Yes and I find if I stay consistently in this quality, then the way my body feels, truly appreciates it.
Hi Deidre, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is all about the way we live in the quality we do things each day that truly supports our body.
I was raised with very similar beliefs, to always put other people’s need before mine. I was seen as being a good person, doing the right thing by constantly trying to please people. I also found this way of living very draining, tiring and I became exhausted. Now I take a different approach, I have learnt to take better care of myself, by listening to how I feel about things before I say ‘yes’ to people. As in, is it out of sympathy, recognition, to please or to fix? If I feel any of these, I can choose to say ‘no’ to the need to help or to fix a situation or task. This new way of saying ‘no’ has been extremely supportive and loving to me and to others around me. So, now when I help others with the feeling of joy and love, it feels completely different. Everything just comes together. When I choose to operate in the energy of love, this brings harmony and joy into my life and others’ too.
Hi chanly88, thank you for your great response to the blog. The word No is sometimes hard to say as we were always taught to say yes to everything we did, making everything about others first, through the ideals and beliefs. You can truly feel when you honour self first and truly love all that you are, you then come from a loving understanding in all that you do for self and others equally without any need of needs from self and others.
Cleaning in such quality makes something really cleaner, even if for the eye it is equally clean. I love the freshness when the quality of cleaning applies.
Hi emfeldman, thank you for your beautiful response. Quality is truly amazing when you bring it through in your work, everything feels complete without any trying.
Your article was a great reminder of such an important concept that can be applied to so many areas of our lives. As when driven by time, ideals and expectations it is so easy to forget that the quality of anything you do is compromised and the flow and space available to you with connection and awareness are near impossibilities.
Hi Samantha, thank you for your great response to the blog. We have all been taught through ideals and beliefs on how much we do each day and the quality was never considered in all that we do. It is so beautiful when we truly do all that we do in the divine quality of love and how we feel from within.
I know how different things feel when they are done in the love and care for the body doing them. It makes so much difference. For a long time I was still focused on working in an energy that was going to improve the space, but now I know that to bring it back further to listening to the care I need to take for my body means the rest takes care of itself and the feeling is there. I also discovered that if I used earplugs while vacuuming, I wasn’t in such a frantic rush to get it over with. The discomfort of the noise was a huge element to my unhappiness with the job.
What very loving way to vacuum Amanda, I never thought of that. It is so amazing you taking so much care and love in your job. I am inspired to try this too.
Hi Amanda, thank you for the great response to the blog. It is so loving and caring when you make it about your body, and not in the head. Staying with the present in all that you do, does not take you away from who you truly are and all that you do is in love and light of your divine truth.
Beautifiul Kathy, by observing how you were feeling each day and recognising the push and drive you were in, you have turned your whole approach around to one that is loving and nurturing and still gets the job done. Of particular note is the quality in which we do things, and your clients are getting an absolute bonus having their house cleaned physically and energetically and they are also left with the imprint of it all being done lovingly – gorgeous, for them and for you.
Hi Jo Swinton, thank you for your loving response to the blog. It is truly amazing by observing how we feel in our body and working through our body is truly loving not only for self and for others equally. Work is then bringing the beauty of your true self.
Thanks Kathy you offer some very sound and practical advice on how to carry out a days work in a loving and considerate manner, much appreciated
Hi Joe, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. Life is simple when we come from the inner heart and body in our every day living in all that we do
Hi Linda, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog. Our body is truly amazing when we connect within and the quality it brings through, not only for self but for all equally to truly feel the divine love that we all are.
I love your blog Kathy, it is an awesome reminder for us to connect within and choose quality instead of quantity. It’s not about how much we achieve but the quality in which we do it that matters. We all hold this divine quality within and it is accessible at any time anywhere.
Kathy it’s really great to read about how you have transformed your experience of cleaning. It amazes me to read yours and others articles describing how when we turn our attention from outside of us to towards us then our experience of whatever we are doing changes. Including amazingly our experience of time. I feel it explains a lot about why the world is so out of kilter when we consider how the majority of people are focused on everything around them rather than within them.
Hi Alexis, thank you for your amazing response to the blog. It was so lovely to read. I feel it is easy to focus on things we can see outside of us but not wanting to know what we are feeling from within because we do not want to feel the truth. The body knows more of what is truly going on than our eyes seeing what we think is going on.
Hi Kathy, bringing this level of awareness into whatever we do can have such an impact on our well-being. If we work with awareness of our body it allows us to know when to stop and rest rather than the push through to get it done. Your blog shows you have completely changed the way you work and its a great example of not to forget to truly care for ourselves at work as well as elsewhere.
Hi judykarenyoung, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. We sometimes forget how precious and amazing our body is and that work is just part of our day. If we care to listen, feel and honour our body, work then becomes a part of being love in all that we do.
Great comment judykarenyoung. I agree, this blog is a beautiful reminder for me too. To learn to take care of myself and to be aware of what energy I choose to run in – as in a rushed and pushy energy, or gentle, efficient and loving energy. I constantly switch back and forth with what I choose, but I know now that with practice I can choose to live with a loving energy consistently.
Kathy, thanks for such a insightful blog. Your comment ‘… I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked’ really struck me as reflective of my experiences. I am slowly changing my work habits and agree that listening to my body first and foremost and bringing that quality to the task at hand feels amazing.
Hi Helen, thank you so much for your amazing response to the blog. It is great when we identify our old patterns and work with them in a loving way. Feeling our body first in all that we do, gives us clarity, showing us that it is all about the quality, not the quantity in achieving the work for the day.
Thank you Kathy. It is lovely to feel how you now go about your work with so much more presence and tenderness and not pushing your body which is the norm in this line of work. I love that you are still enjoying your job with no need to change your job but simply re-imprinting with a quality of gentleness and tenderness in your body
Hi annemarie, Thank you for your beautiful and loving response to the blog. Our body is so amazing, full of wisdom and the knowing of truth. Connecting with your body brings harmony and joy in all that you do.
Thank you Brendan for your loving response to the blog. It is always beautiful to share with others what one truly feels from the body.
Wow! So what our bodies want naturally is not always what our minds are driving us to do! That is huge. And the quality of which of the two we choose is HUGELY different.
Hi Joshua, thank you so much for your great response to the blog. It is amazing what our bodies show us in what is truly happening within us what we feel, the mind always tries to take us away from our inner truth of truly feeling.
I know that experience you are talking about Kathy when I connect with my body and suddenly there is so much space created to do what I need to do and in the quality that I want to do it in. It is priceless.
Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much for your loving response to the blog. It is great when we have an awareness in connecting with our body and how beautiful it feels in the space we have created in love.
That workaholic drive really is a killer, what I have found as well that comes with it is a constant justification of why life has to be this way – as if not working to such extremes is not even on the radar or in the picture, working harder only makes the situation worse. Not that long ago I would of baulked at the idea of just stopping to feel my body (thoughts of ”But I have SO MUCH TO DO” – *Insert drama here*’) But gradually I am learning that stopping is very important, regardless of how busy the day might be. One way I can do this at work is by drinking water frequently which leads to frequent loo breaks – in those short breaks I can take a deep breath and settle myself once again. This helped yesterday as at work there was more work to do than normal, situations like this in the past would have sent me into a complete meltdown of stress and anxiousness. While not perfect I felt these stop breaks were a huge support as I did not feel as stressed or anxious as I had previously.
Hi leighmatson, thank you for your great response to the blog. It is amazing how work seems to drive us if we allow us to let it run our life. The ideals and beliefs always creep in when we start feeling what is truly going on.
Wow Kathy. How many people want what you have! What a wonderful lesson you share with everyone when you started to discern the value and loveliness you felt after cleaning came from the quality you did the cleaning in. It sounds obvious but its not. Haven’t we all been taught it is about getting the task at hand done, crossed off the list with only a millisecond of satisfaction? Isn’t our world geared for results with no regard for the quality of energy used to get them? Kathy you make this point clearly – the quality that a task is approached with is what counts and this quality feeds us back with longer lasting satisfaction of a task done from and with connection.
Hi Deanne, thank you for your lovely reply to the blog. It is all about our quality in what we bring through.. Our body is so amazing in what it shows us when we are connected to self in all that we do.
I love what you say here about lovingly making your bed to have that imprint when you come back to it later that evening. I do this with somethings like folding my PJ’s and would love to make this more consistent in everything I do.
Hi Samantha, Thank you for your beautiful response to the blog. It so lovely what you shared about being consistent in what we do.
It was one of the first things I learned from UniMed student when I went to my first retreat in Vietnam. She was folding her clothes so lovingly and gently so I couldn’t resist to ask-Why do you spend so much time folding T-shirt? She said simply that she is going to wear this T-shirt again and she would like to feel this love which she is putting to folding it.
It made sense. Ever since if I don’t take time or put my clothes away somehow I can feel the disregard and carelessness in my body. The same way if I do it lovingly I can fell the warmth and care.
Elenalight, doing that loving folding of my clothes was my first expression of self care, I knew I needed to introduce that self nurturing into my life, but had no idea of where to start. The ripple effect of that one practice has spread, and is still spreading, and I love to come home each evening to the loving welcome I left behind that morning.
Hi catherine, thank you for your lovely response to the blog, It is truly amazing when you do everything in a loving way from a beautiful connection from within yourself and how it all reflects back in everything we do.
This story reminds me of my first session at the Universal Medicine Clinic and it was a Esoteric Breast Massage and there was something about being in that place (which I know now as being a room of soul-full love) that when I took my top and bra off, I folded it with the the most love and care I had ever done before. It was like the place was asking that of me without asking me at all. It has continued and I am so grateful for it.
I agree Elena, I feel the same when I have finished washing my clothes and dried them, I would be tempted to wear them before ironing them and I have done this several times, when in fact the feeling is not the same at all when they are ironed (with love!).
Totally agree Elena, how we leave something is then the feeling we return to when we come back to use it again…. and putting a bit of love in makes a big difference.
Great comment elenalight – Lately I have become aware of the fact that I often just throw my clothing on the floor when getting undressed to shower and in the past I justified this by saying “it’s just going in the wash” but the fact is this disregard meets me every time I interact with that item of clothing. Thank you for sharing so openly here and helping me to feel this.
It’s amazing how the quality of everything we do – whether large or small – can be felt far beyond the time of the actual activity itself.
Hi Brendan, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog and appreciating the sharing and for being inspired by it.
I am sure you would be a lovely cleaner to have after reading what you have written here. It’s sweet when people clean for you but are respectful to put every thing back where it was otherwise you feel a little bit invaded.
Hi arieljoymuntelwit, thank you for your lovely response to the blog and for sharing what you felt about cleaning.
‘When I stay connected to my body I have more clarity and I know how to be; time is no longer an enemy.’ I have this feeling sometimes too, as if I fight with time. Staying connected with my body, being present, and not letting my thoughts go into what is next is a tool to feel more spacious in my body and in what I have to do in the moment.
Hi Annelies, thank you for your great response to the blog. It is amazing what our body shows us in what is truly happening and time tries to take us away from who we truly are if we allow it to.
When we begin to bring an awareness to our body that we haven’t had before, and feel how it responds, the difference when we lose that awareness is huge. When we are aware, as you have shared, everything flows with ease and there is no strain on the body and jobs that previously would have exhausted us no longer do. And when a house, a room, an office, a building etc, is cleaned with love and joy, it can definitely be felt.
Hi Ingrid, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is great when we become aware of what is truly going on in our bodies. You then realise how much love and wisdom they hold for us to feel and share.
I can agree Ingrid but it is also that awareness of how our body is feeling that is so confirming that there is no way we would want to have to put ourselves through the past behaviours that we used to use to get through the day such as stress.
Staying connected to ourselves, to our bodies, as we express in any way, be it cleaning or singing or building, is a profound doorway into an ongoing connection with the divinity that is there for all of humanity to connect with, anytime, anywhere.
Thank you cjames2012, I love your response to the blog. I loved what you said that staying connected to ourselves and to our bodies is always the connection to the divinity for all of humanity.
Your new rhythm sounds gorgeous and so very nurturing! Thank you for sharing the difference between staying with your body, or escaping into our mind. “I was constantly afraid of getting into trouble and never had enough time to do my job because I was doing other peoples’ jobs!” Wow, I have definitely experienced this.
Hi ariannekasi, thank you for your beautiful response to the blog, and relating to what we do for everyone else at the expense of our bodies because we allow fear in our lives.
The way things feel when they are cleaned with love cannot be matched. I love how my bed feels when I make it beautifully, or how the kitchen sink sparkles when I have cleaned it, the way the whole house feels when the floors are done. And you are absolutely right Kathy, you can feel it if someone has done it in a rush or cranky to be doing it. Having things clean is important to me and I have to be careful not to push or go and go and go to get everything done. I love sharing the cleaning with all of the members of the house, adults and children, everyone choosing the job they love.
Thank you Kate Robson, what a gorgeous sharing, I can truly relate! I love the feeling of quality!
HI Kate, thank you for your amazing response to the blog. It is so lovely that you allow others to share with you the cleaning and allow them to also feel what is truly going on in the home when you are cleaning, which allows everyone to work together as one in bringing a depth of love in all that you do. When cleaning in love everything feels beautiful and complete and it is a joy for all to be in.
I love it how our bodies always show us the truth of how we are completing a task. Thank you for sharing Kathy.
Hi karenmuntelwit, thank you for your lovely response on the blog. It is so enjoyable to hear how other women can relate to their bodies knowing what is true for them by the choices we make when we honour ourselves.
Thanks Kathy for sharing how much can change in our lives when we choose to care for ourselves and honour what our bodies are telling us.
Hi Penny, thank you for your loving response. Our bodies are so beautiful to feel all that we are, full of wisdom and knowledge.
That self imposed idea of ‘having to get the job done’ is so fraught. Breaking this cycle remains a work in progess for me, but more and more I am able to catch myself before my body lets me know that I am pushing myself in unloving ways. Thanks Kathy for your enlightening article.
Hi Jennifer, thank you for your great response to the blog. It is amazing when the awareness is there for us to make a choice.
‘Later I realised that this way of going about my job was connected to the fact that I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked’. I have been brought up with these belief system as well. How great to read your turn around in the way you work now, to let go of old beliefs. I will follow your example and will make my bed playfully, love it.
As a client of yours Kathy, I know that the way in which you care for and nurtured my space left a lasting impression long after you had left. It provided me with an opportunity to step up and show the same care and love when I clean my home, creating a loving, spacious environment.
Hi Annelies, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is wonderful having fun and being playful.
Hi Brooke, thank you for your beautiful response. It is great creating loving spaces in your home to support you.
Hi Marika, thank you for your beautiful response to the blog. It is amazing to feel your own space when you have left it in a quality that feels so loving. That is the beauty of feeling love.
I enjoyed reading your blog, Kathy, as I know the being perfect thing in my job as well. This is a never-ending story and in truth left me unsatisfied. It is so true that when we are connected to our bodies it makes a big difference.
Hi Kerstin, thank you for your lovely response to the blog, our bodies are truly amazing when we choose to connect.
Quality is everything, my favourite line of your blog was “When I stay connected to my body I have more clarity and I know how to be; time is no longer an enemy”. Just a beautiful example of how we can choose to be with ourselves in everything we do.
Hi Jade, thank you for your great response to the blog. It feels so lovely when we connect to our love in everything we do and know the difference it is about quality and not the quantity of how things are done.
Awesome blog, I can so much relate to it, specifically with cleaning, it had to be done in this one push to get over it and I had for years a cleaning person because I couldn’t stand the pressure and I felt it was hard work. Since four years now we don’t have a cleaner anymore and it is a family responsibility and for me it was a learning to get out of control and also make it part of my daily expression as a quality I bring into my home. Today I clean very differently and it is build into my daily rhythm, no more big exhausting cleaning days, just little joyful stops to re-imprint the house.
Hi Rachel, thank you for your great response to the blog and sharing how lovely it feels each time you re-imprint your home with the joy of cleaning.
I can so relate to your comment at the end, ‘when I stay connected to my body, I have more clarity and I know how to be’. It supports me and everyone around me, there is a lightness and a flow around everything I do. Thank you for the reminder.
Hi Gill, thank you for your lovely response to the blog.
This is awesome Kathy I love how you bring so much responsibility to cleaning. Imagine if we all brought that level of responsibility to all the jobs we do, I would imagine we would be living in a very different world.
Thank you Kathy for a great blog. Being caught up in what we think other people’s expectations are of the work that we do IS exhausting. Well done for taking yourself to a new quality in the way you are being when you clean your clients’ homes.
Hi Janne, thank you for your lovely response to the blog.
Cleaning is such an art and can leave the home or workspace feeling so different, so light, clear and spacious. It is lovely that when you clean feeling you, being respectful of your body, not only do you benefit but there is a positive effect on the space that is palpable.
The workaholic martyrdom you describe Kathy reminds me of how I see many men and women – especially women – work in the nonprofit sector: always for others (clients, their staff) never with themselves in mind. Or should I say never with themselves in body. I know this pattern all too well myself!
Dear Kathy, I really appreciate your blog, I too used to clean in the way you describe, setting myself time limits and pushing myself to get what I wanted to get done in the time. I found in this way of cleaning, I was not open to feel what was actually needed on that day. Now that I too clean connected to my body and my loveliness I often find that as I am cleaning, something will need attention, this was what I was missing before. I was so focused on doing what I wanted to do that I was totally missing doing what was needing to be done. This has and still is an amazing journey, not only am I getting the cleaning done, I am also doing some little extras as I feel to and I feel the space in time is there to do this.
It’s completely the opposite of what we have grown up to think, but I find too that when I make loving choices and focus on the quality of energy I am in, tasks and events seem to flow easily. When I push and drive to achieve some kind of goal it just ends up with difficulty. I had a strong reminder of this today, so it’s very confirming to read your words and be reminded that love and life are simple, when we choose love. Thank you Kathy for clearing this up for me.
My house has changed so much over the last few years, as I have cleaned, cleared and got rid of so much stuff, especially tons and tons of books that looked good sitting on a shelf in my living room, which I never read. The energy in my house feels so much clearer and spacious as does my body. If feels every time I cleared or healed something in my body or life, a good clear out would follow in my house…
Thanks for a wonderful blog Kathy. What a wonderful healing your clients get each time you clean their house in such a loving way.
HI Peter, thank you for your lovely response to the blog.
Kathy I was exhausted just reading your blog! I am so glad you came across the teachings of Serge Benhayon and were able to see such wonderful results from your changed attitude that must feel so beautiful now that you are honouring and self nurturing yourself. Your family must see such a difference and have more off you to share. I have been putting others before myself most of my life and it is lovely to realise they still love and appreciate us and the world won’t stop just because we take time to look after ourselves also.
This is a beautiful reminder Kathy, that we have to bring the quality of love in everything that we do and I totally agree with you when you say “that it is not about ‘what’ or ‘how much’ I do, but the quality in which I am doing it”.
I can also relate to what you write: “There was no joy in my life, only pain and sadness from not being able to stop myself from this workaholic way of living.” For me this was also the case and I can now feel the great appreciation for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine who have provided me with the healing and teachings to make it possible for me to stop this old way of living. By stopping this old way of living I have now the opportunity to live another way, a life dedicated to love for myself and society as a whole.
Hi Nico, thank you for your amazing response to the blog. We are truly blessed to have be shown by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to truly live life in a more loving way with self and others equally.
I can so well relate to what you write about your time as a housekeeper, as I have experienced the same when working as a housekeeper – and I also was brought up with the constant reflection that everything was more important than yourself.
Since gradually feeling that I matter and am lovable I have made a lot of different choices and now have a totally different approach to work, my daily life and me. So much simpler and more loving :o)
Hi Michael, thank you for your wonderful response. It is so lovely to be aware of our choices and the difference it makes in our work and daily life.
Kathy, this is a beautiful reminder of how it doesn’t matter what you do, but the HOW you do it that counts. Making what you do about love, completely changes how you feel about what you are doing.
Hi Donna, thank you for your response to the blog. It is great when you make everything about love.
I too was brought up to put everyone before me and was very confused about the difference between being selfish and looking after myself. listening to the old body is the only way forward
I love the way you express to be playful when making your bed. This inspires me to try this – every day, not only once in a while!
“Time is the Enemy”
If this is how we approach our everyday activities we will surely lose out.
Thank you for sharing Kathy, as it is a topic so reliant, as most people are run be deadlines and cut off dates.
If that be placed on by their boss or themselves.
“The more I connect with my body the more love I feel. The more love I bring in my body, the more I become aware of the way my environment feels” Thank you Kathy for such a lovely reminder.
Hi Francis, thank you for your great response and there is always a beautiful awareness in us all to just connect with our body.
Wow Kathy, you put love into cleaning, and you sound like you have fun doing it.
Hi Bernard, thank you for your lovely response to the blog, Bringing love in all that we do feels pretty amazing and always a joy to be with you.
There is also a sparkle that comes from love and care that is not available in any supermarket or store. I have a feeling that the houses you clean, Kathy, shine super bright.
Hi Joseph, thank you so much for your beautiful reply to the blog. Love shines in all that we do from love that is true from within.
A m a z i n g blog, Kathy. Amazing transformation in your life. It’s all in the quality. In the listening and honouring the body first. Thank you for the inspiration to stay connected at all times. Welcome JOY – into my cleaning!
Hi Nathalie, thank you for your lovely response to the blog, it is amazing how much joy you feel when you honour your true self in all that you do.
Thank you Kathy, it is so important for us to understand that not the amount of things we are doing but the quality we are doing it in is the key and how that always comes back to how we are with ourselves.
Hi Esther, thank you for your lovely response to the blog and connecting to the awareness of the quality we do things in, not the quantity.
I recognize what you write. When I am more with my body, I get more things done with ease.
Hi Caroline, thank you for your response to the blog, it is great to realise how beautiful our body feels when we connect with ourselves.
What a beautiful imprint you leave after you have finished, one that would be felt by everyone that lives or visits. Such a simple choice to make and the healing is there for everyone to experience, especially you.
Hi Ch, thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog.
Kathy thank you for this wonderful article and the level of service that you offer.
What I can feel is that when we place another person or anything first before being connected to ourselves, it never works.
When we practice self-love the whole world benefits.
This says it all …’The more I connect with my body the more love I feel. The more love I bring in my body, the more I become aware of the way my environment feels.’
Hi Kathryn, Thank you so much for your beautiful response to the blog. The love that we all are is pretty amazing when we truly connect to our body. What a great reflection.
This blog is a perfectly timed piece to read for myself. Thank you for sharing just what I needed to hear.
Hi Tracy, Thank you for your beautiful response to the blog.
Thank you Kathy for the amazing insight into how we all can be with ourselves in any activity we do, be it work, rest or play.
Hi Andrew, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It was great to share what you felt.
Hi Eva, thank you for your lovely response. With love Kathy
What a beautiful turnaround Kathy – thank you for sharing your inspiring experience.
Kathy, you draw the distinction between work and life being one of the same so well here. If we live life with love, so too is our work this, and the opposite of abuse being the same. And that when we come back to our body and feel its communication we have the perfect opportunity to respond and change back to love. How you work now feels so spacious I can feel it in the way you write!
Thank you for sharing your experiences; I relate well to such a blog. I have earlier in life and again now, spend much of my working day cleaning. It’s incredible, if you allow your mind to take-over, how quickly you can drain yourself of every last bit of energy. Versus, when you’re within your body and at flowing with ease, a day of cleaning is super connecting and fun.
It is amazing how time seems to expand when we are aware of our body while doing things. This brings a quality to the actions and everything flows with a natural rhythm and our enjoyment of this leaves a light playfulness in the room which is left for others to feel.
Kathy, your blog resonates with me a lot. I used to clean houses full time and I would not stop, even eating my lunch in the car to get to the next job. My focus was always on getting the job done and not on the quality in which I was doing it. This is something I am acutely aware of at the moment having taken on a bigger workload. Our focus on quality is ever deepening.
I like what you write about playful cleaning. I will certainly take that into my housecleaning. And make my bed playfully…
Not only is it a change in the way you clean by being more gentle and harmonious within a house but you are actually bringing your own personal quality. It’s no wonder your having fun with it. Cleaning can be so playful when it’s done this way 🙂
Thanks Kathy
It feels so true for me also that I am feed back in my home the quality of energy I have chosen to be in when approaching the job of cleaning.
Clearly their is only one clean choice!
Thank you Kathy for sharing your blog. I too have changed the way i go about cleaning my house, rather than doing it just to get it done, (tick the box) when i am aware of how my body is moving and feeling as i do the cleaning, it no longer becomes a chore, instead, i realised how much i do enjoy cleaning. And when its complete, its awesome to just stand back and look around how gorgeous the space is.
Hi Johanne, thank you so much for your response on the blog. Sharing with us how much awareness you have when cleaning and how lovely it feels when it is complete, feels beautiful.
Thank you, Kathy, for your blog. I can relate to what you are talking about very well. I always tried do my best in everything I do but very often it felt not good enough. As well as being nervous about time – it is running and I need to do so much more or faster. Then I started practicing conscious presence an presented by Serge Benhayon and time stretched, I’ve been just doing things, my mind was following my body and it felt so quiet, no rush. And yes, the quality of the place I feel after doing things this way is much lighter and clearer.
Re-reading your blog Kathy again allowed me to feel how far I have come with cleaning. I like to have a clean house and like Kathleen Baldwin in an earlier comment who said she would know when things were not quite right by the state of her house. What I have noticed is how I have used tidiness and cleanliness to control my life, I was a slave to it and it was more important than how I was feeling. Over the last 6 months I have let go of the control and that has allowed me the space to clean as and when I can without the pressure that I put myself under, this has made a huge difference to how I feel about cleaning….no set rules, no perfection and the house is still clean.
” I was brought up with the belief that everyone and everything came first before I did, and this belief programmed the way I worked.” I find it amazing how we take on others beliefs, as I have done also, and made them our own, which then shapes our lives and the way we are with ourselves and others. Great that I can now recognise them and let them go.
Hi Susan, thank you for your lovely response.
Hi Kathy, great to read your blog this morning. It gave me a moment when I could both appreciate how far I have come with my own presence, the rhythm in my day and how I keep my house and also the areas where I could go deeper with it. Definitely a work in progress for me. Thank you for this lovely blog.
Hi Jane, Thank you for your lovely response and sharing the reflection of appreciation when being in presence and rhythm in the day.
Kathy, I can really understand the pattern of wanting to please others and being driven to do a good job at the expense of myself. To live and work this way is physically and emotionally exhausting. By shifting the focus to looking after myself first makes all the difference and work is no longer done in resentment; also a greater amount of work, in higher quality can be done as a result. It’s quite amazing feeling the change.
So true Rachel for I am beginning to realise it basically comes down to the fact we can align to the tick box mentality and drive to get things done – often at a push that is at the expense of our own bodies, or focus on quality.
Your blog is great Kathy,so I keep returning to it!
It is amazing to observe the way we can create space and time when we are present in our bodies. When I am present in my body and create space in the mornings, then I am not rushed and the day flows and I am also less tired in the evenings. I find it truly miraculous!
Hi Maryline, thank you for your response. It is lovely how we can allow ourselves to bring all of us in everything we do when we are present in our body.
Hi Kathy, it felt tiring just reading how you used to live and clean, but I do recognise the pattern and held the same belief of putting everything and everyone before myself, which led to a serious health issue for me and one year not able to work. I had to learn to put myself first, and that I count in this world. I had to relearn how to self care and self nurture which has made a huge difference in how I feel in my body having a huge and positive impact on all my relationships.
Hi Jacq, Thank you for your response. I love what you said, that you felt tired reading how I used to live, what it shows is that just by reading something that feels tiring how much the body feels from the energy and that in the doing how much we take on… perhaps not realising it until we either get sick or the body brings us to a complete stop.
That old programming of everyone else comes first is a killer and has been a hard one for me to reprogram, as sometimes I still go there – but not nearly as much as I used to. It is great to be aware of these traits.
Hi Kev, Thank you for your response. It is great that you have the awareness of when ‘everyone comes first’ allowing you to work with yourself to be more aware of when you go back into that old pattern; and how lovely it feels to know that it was just a belief we took on.
Thank you Kathy for high-lighting that it is the quality we do something in that is the key and this comes with connection to the body. I am finding this and as I work with it, I notice how different it feels and that there is definitely a flow to what I do without getting tired.
Absolutely Ruth, the quality we do things in is the key. I have found that if I do a movement that is hard then the hardness returns to my body and it is an abuse. But if I consciously apply tenderness to my every gesture then my day flows more tenderly and I tend not to be so tired at the end of my day.
Hi Ruth, thank you for your response, it is so lovely of you sharing how you are noticing about the quality you do things in and the difference in the way your body feels. Our bodies only deserve love and nothing less.
Kathy great blog and you highlight something we’re all driven to ignore, how we feel. We get so lost in getting things done, we forget to feel us in there and then of course, what quality is it? I love how you’ve reconnected back to you and how your body feels. Great reminder for me, I have been and can still be the Queen of Doing, but more and more I’m learning to honour my body and how it feels.
Hi Kathy, the point you raise about doing other peoples jobs to the point of exhaustion for yourself in fear of losing your own job rang very true for me while I read your blog.
Hi Shami, thank you for your response. It is amazing how far we go when living in fear of losing your job, and what we do to ourselves.
Kathy I love this realisation…’ I could feel that if I was tired and did the cleaning in a pushed way, the quality of the cleaning and the house reflected that back ‘… how true that is! I too enjoy to lovingly make my bed in the mornings and feel all that love when I snuggle down in the evening.
Kathy, This is a powerful statement worth reading many times.
“When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do and I can feel that this way of being is acting against myself and against time. My body then becomes tired, aching and exhausted.”
I am learning not to live in a way that ‘acts against myself’ and it is highly encouraging to see how completely you have changed the ingrained way you used to work.
With awareness, a simple choice, commitment and consistancy anything is possible.
I really enjoy cleaning my flat when I’m feeling great. However, I can push myself to get it done when I’m already exhausted because of how I’ve been living up to that point. Then the emotions kick in and the negative thoughts and it’s a downward spiral from there, where my body aches more from pushing it so hard.
Hi Natalie, thank you for response, it is great that you have the awareness of how your body feels and in the way you are cleaning.
I am constantly working on finding my edge…on knowing if I’m ‘pushing myself’ (over riding my bodies wisdom), always asking if my body is up for doing this just now or am I too exhausted? Getting better at it all the time!
Hi Kathy, I can relate to a lot of what you have written, especially cleaning my own house in resentment and how my body would physically hurt. Every time I hoovered it would trigger this anger at having to do everything and feeling like no one appreciated my efforts. These days I have learnt to ask for help, instead of being a martyr and I actually enjoy cleaning.
Thanks Kathy, I can relate to a lot of what you say. I work as a Gardener and I have to get a certain amount done each day to make a decent wage so I used to push myself and not stop for breaks with no regard for what this was doing to me physically. I now find that I can still get as much done in a day if I am not rushed, as the day seems to flow a lot smoother. I also realise I don’t really need to take breaks but usually take at least one to eat something. Before I needed the breaks but just overrode the need. It still amazes me how time becomes your friend when you treat yourself like a true friend.
Hi Kev, thank you, I truly love your response. Time, it is truly a great friend, and breaks are more loving to have when you feel to eat. Amazingly how beautiful it is to work and the day just feels so complete at the end.
I love your comment here kevmchardy – “It still amazes me how time becomes your friend when you treat yourself like a true friend”. Therein lies the key – being a true friend with myself has been, and continues to be the most amazing revelation, bringing a deeper awareness within my body and this leads to what Kathy expresses so beautifully – “The more I connect with my body the more love I feel. The more love I bring in my body, the more I become aware of the way my environment feels”.
This is an awesome realization about time, Kevin. “…time becomes your friend when you treat yourself like a true friend.”
Doesn’t this show just how loving and supportive the universe is in it’s offering of constant guidance? “This is the hard way, this doesn’t flow” ; “This feels smooth, this works well”…
Hi Jane, thank you for your great response. It would be lovely to share the wisdom in our education so it can prepare us for the world.
Kathy, I recently observed some of the things house keepers need to do, such as having to constantly bend over to change sheets etc., and it really made me appreciate that sometimes this must feel uncomfortable for the body, especially if there is pressure to get things completed in a certain period of time. The way you have described how you work here – listening to your body – feels like such a supportive way of working.
Something that certainly helps in an industry like this, and that is very much needed.
Its beautiful to read how you have changed your approach and how that actually supports you and others, when you used to be of the opinion that putting others first was the way to go.
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Kathy I just want to say wow because the way you express in relation to the connection to your body is very evident in it and it just felt like a wow to me. Thanks I’m inspired to deepen my own connection.
Hi Judy, thank you so much for your loving response. I truly appreciate that you felt the wow and are inspired to deepen your own connection. It truly feels amazing.
Hi Rowena, I love your response, thank you. It is amazing how our body shows us what is truly happening and to appreciate ourselves in the quality way we live and work.
The reflection of the same simple ethic with the work team would be pretty amazing and truly enjoyable.
I completely appreciate all you have written here Kathy. I too have come from a place of overriding my physical body in the drive to work, work, work, always more to do. My health also suffered enormously with migraines being very common, as my frustration levels were extremely high. I too have Universal Medicine to thank for enabling me to pull up, stop and begin to create a completely different way to live and work and thank goodness, my health has improved beyond comprehension and the quality of my work has followed suit. Wouldn’t it be amazing to guide a whole work team with the same simple ethic? What an amazing job they would do!
Thank you Michelle for your lovely response. It is amazing what the body can express when we choose to feel and how the quality of life is more joyful.
For me there is so much to explore in terms of the time we have to do things. How time goes fast or slow depending on how I am in doing a task. Kathy, your blog offers a great example of giving yourself the time that you need and bridging the quality to the work you do.
Hi Stephen, thank you for your lovely comment. Allow time to be a friend so that you can truly be with you.
You have set a great example Kathy, for people with ‘deadline driven jobs’.
Your nurturing breakfast and pre-work preparation is clearly a very important step
in the process of producing your high standard of work. As you say, the deadline
instills fear which is self-imposed by the mind.
Thank you Jonathan for liking the blog and feeling it is a great example.
I have started to realise that there is a way to have fun with everything that I do. If it’s cleaning, being at work, doing exercise. I can either put pressure on myself by saying it has gotta to be done this way, or at this time, or I can resent doing it because I’m tired and don’t really want to; or I can relax a little and ask myself, how do I really want to do this – can I do it delicately, and enjoy it? If I’m tired, can I do it gently, or at a different time? It makes such a huge difference to the way I feel, it’s a difference of being stressed, tense and miserable about it, or actually feeling joy when doing the washing up and feeling sexy when doing my exercises. It’s a very precious lesson I’m learning…
Thank you Vicky for sharing your response to the blog. Having awareness of how your body feels when you connect, the love you can feel is truly amazing.
It is great what you write about having the body as a marker “when I stop being aware of my body the mind comes back in”.
And this was really lovely to read “The more I connect with my body the more love I feel. The more love I bring in my body, the more I become aware of the way my environment feels.”. Very inspiring, thank you.
Thank you Kathy for a great blog. My husband and I take great care about cleaning. We have a particular time (almost set in stone like a ritual) in our week dedicated to it and there are other times where other cleaning jobs are done depending on what needs to be done on an irregular basis. We love a clean and tidy place and we put presence in our jobs so the house feels even more lovely.
Hi Maryline, your response to the blog is so lovely, thank you. It is beautiful to read about the way you work together with your husband to support each other in taking care in your cleaning and bringing in the loving essence of your presence and love what you do.
Thank you Kathy, for a lovely article. I can identify with the way that you started listening to your body, rather than being driven by your mind. It was at one of Serge Benhayon’s Livingness workshops, where he demonstrated placing a chair down with consideration for its future occupant, rather than just the manipulation of an inanimate object, that I was first shown this.
Now I try to use this technique to get people to close the car doors gently and lovingly!
Hi Jonathan, thank you for your great response to the blog. It is great when we have the awareness of doing things lovingly instead of taking everything for granted in the way we live.
Thank you Kathy, Most people don’t associate love with cleaning nor that feeling how one’s body feels can help us get more things done. “When I stay connected to my body I have more clarity and I know how to be, time is no longer an enemy” – in my experience this is absolutely true. Whenever I rush it’s as if I can feel myself not in sync with my body and I might bump into things; and yet I can go at the same speed and if I am fully conscious and present with myself in my body, as you say, I find that things have a flow to them and time seems to expand.
Thank you Elaine for your beautiful response to the blog and sharing your experience – when you are not connected with yourself, how you rush and nothing feels right. It is amazing when you allow yourself to feel your body, how it shows you what is truly happening, letting time just be, which gives you more clarity in all that you do.
Your blog is amazing Kathy Avram and as someone who loves cleaning, I really get what you are saying.
I, too, had no joy in my life and could not stop myself from the workaholic way of living before I came to the work of Serge Benhayon.
Today everything about cleaning is quality and there can be no other way. Trying to have a super clean house no longer is the goal. We live in what I call a ‘work in progress’ home that is clean and tidy but there is always more but it gets done in its right time. There are days when me and my husband will focus on doing extra cleaning jobs and other days where not much is done and that works.
What I have found that is interesting is that on some days, I somehow have space available to do an extra job like clean out a drawer or deep clean a saucepan with a brillo pad to bring it back to life and appreciate it for the job it does for us.
I know Kathy that all your clients are blessed to have you clean for them – thank you for sharing your story.
Hi Bina, Thank you so much for your lovely response to the blog and sharing how you truly come to understand about the way you clean. When we are connected to our inner self, life and work feels amazing and we enjoy all that we do in the quality of the way we do things. It is all about quality and not quantity. We are so blessed to have been inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and now know a different way to live, enjoy and appreciate who we truly are.
Hi Bina and Kathy. I love what you say Bina about ‘work in progress’ in the house. The fact that you don’t put any time pressure on yourselves. And it’s true – space does open up when you allow it to.
I love cleaning and when I truly want to clean the place it just feels amazing and there is a sense of completeness at the end of it. But this is not for just cleaning, this is for anything I do. But when I go into ‘I have to’ or ‘I should’ the anxiety comes in and it feels like a chore and I end up resenting the fact that I am doing something I don’t really want to do at that moment.
Hi Kathy, I can completely relate to how time works in relation to my body. When I actually prepare for cleaning with a meal that equates to the physical work I’m about to do, followed by a nap afterwards or a rest – the quality of the clean is so much more exquisite and takes half the time.
If I just clean to get it done quick, I miss bits and the end quality of both me and the task suffers greatly – be it an aching back, sore arm or a streak on a mirror that I missed.
Top blog, thank you for sharing!
Wow Kathy, this is a very honest and inspiring article. I often clean my house in a way that feels like I’m up against time, reading this makes me aware that I can easily be in my head thinking ‘I’ve got to get it done’, rather than actually feeling my body and enjoying cleaning the house, ‘feeling light’ and with a ‘flow in what I’m doing’.
Hi Rebecca, thank you for reading the blog and responding, I feel we take ourselves for granted when it comes to working and doing things without realising how much effect it has on our body and what the body is showing us at the time – It is wonderful to have that awareness of how we feel and do things with a natural flow and enjoying all that we do instead of fighting ourselves to get things done.
Hi Ryan, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is amazing when you work with the quality and not the quantity of how much you do and the loving energy is what takes care of everything that is needed.
I love this blog, as it is a great reminder for me to listen to my body more at work. During our busy period, it is easy to override my body and I suffer the consequences later but the signs are always there – it could be a back ache, sore right shoulder, a headache, poor sleep, eating too much and the list goes on. Thank you Kathy for sharing your experiences at work.
Hi Julie, thank you for loving the blog, it is great that you have the awareness now of what is truly happening and the way we override all that we do because we are always in the doing, instead of listening to our body in truth.
Hi Jacky, thank you so much for your great response to the blog. It is amazing when you have the awareness of the loving way to be with yourself and to understand what you have been doing and then changing your way of being – truly loving and living your true self.
‘I felt anxiety, stress and tiredness to the point of being numb in my body – but I kept pushing myself to the limit.’ I feel every woman would relate to this Kathy, an inspirational post, thank you.
This is very inspiring and having recently increased my work load – thats what we call it a load. Work expanding, how about that? feels more enjoyable already!
And I have been getting very clear signals when I am going into the drive to get things done by experiencing a sore left shoulder. As soon as I accept that I am enough, regardless of what I get done or not the pain disappears. Accepting and appreciating myself seems to be key in this unfolding process of learning, to express more and actually work with love.
Hi Vanessa, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is pretty amazing when you understand and know the real truth about the way we do things and your body confirming what you are truly doing not what you think you are doing. Cleaning is about enjoying you first and then bringing that into the cleaning and allowing it to be expressed.
Very true Kathy and Vanessa, and when you let yourself really enjoy being you it is surprising how much you can do and yet effortlessly.
Kathy and Vanessa, it’s so true when we enjoy being ourselves in every moment then what we do is so enjoyable, it doesn’t matter what job. There’s more space created and time just expands. So when our work load is piled on we can flow through it. How beautiful it is.
I love that Vanessa, recently I have had an increase to my work expansion. A very different way to word it and look at it.
Gosh. That is so true. “Work load.” Not much chance of that being fun!
Hi Anna, thank you so much for enjoying the blog and allowing yourself to have the experience and awareness of taking the time in all that you do to support you.
Working with your presence and commitment is truly loving who you truly are and honouring all that you do.
I am truly blessed to have lovely clients working together in bringing the joy of cleaning in all that we do.
This is awesome; I almost want you to come and clean my house! But I know that making the time to do it for myself, as a nurturing and supportive activity, feels so incredibly lovely that I don’t need anything except my own presence and commitment to create the same experience for myself. What a blessing for all your clients to have their homes cared for in the way you do.
Great Blog Kathy, cleaning is a great way of exposing how we live our life. If I let my mind run the show and forget about me, my body now shows me instantly with back ache and whereas before I would over-ride that to get the job done, I have learnt to stop and feel what I have been doing to get back ache. This has changed the quality of how I work and as you say it is so much easier, and the pressure to get the job done is no longer there.
Hi Alison, thank you for your lovely reply on the blog. Life is so much enjoyable now that we feel into what is truly happening and allowing ourselves to be more aware in what our body feels. Our work is not work but doing things with ease and letting go of old patterns. It is about quality not quantity in all that we do.
Yes I agree, Alison. There are certainly different ways to approach cleaning and how we choose to do it impacts the body so much. Over-riding to get the job done is definitely something I can relate to. This has in the past made me associate housekeeping with hard work, when actually it can be a joyful, light work and this feels great.
The words “I have discovered that it is not about ‘what’ or ‘how much’ I do, but the quality in which I am doing it,” ring out loud and clear for me. Thanks for the reminder that it’s the quality I choose to be in that makes the difference and that this applies to every aspect of life – no matter what the activity or location. Choose to connect to the love we naturally are and then all that needs to be done can be done with love at the helm. How awesome is that!
Hi Judith, thank you for your beautiful words. Choosing the connection to love can only bring more love in our life and in everything we do. That is the only quality to be in all that we do and live.
Hi Amina, it is so lovely of you to enjoy the blog and thank you for your response. It is truly amazing how wonderful our body is to feel each and every day to live in the moment and enjoy everything we do.
Kathy, I love the way you have described how when we stay with our body, “time is on our side… nothing is too big or too small” and cleaning house is such a great way to check in to how present we can be with jobs that could be done “on automatic pilot”. As Gayle says, your insights can be applied to everything we do, thank you for a great blog to help re-imprint the new year.
Bernadette, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is great that we are all aware that our loving body is our marker in everything we do and that through all that we do, our body can show us what we are actually doing and feeling… that time is no longer the driver of our day when we are present, it is our friend. It would be great if this awareness could be incorporated in all fields of work, not only in our homes.
Thank you Kathy for your blog. I can relate to much of what you say and found it an inspiration to have your honesty presented. As Stephanie mentions, your quote “When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do”. Definitely one to watch. As you say, the more loving care we take of ourselves, has a direct affect on how we do what we do, and I too have noticed I actually have more time and get more done when being aware of my body.
Beverley, thank you for your response to the blog. It is so great to hear how much we are all aware of the mind taking over, and the more we feel our bodies the more we start to be aware of how we are doing things. We now know that our bodies are so amazing that the more we feel, the more we know what is right for us in caring for ourselves in a more loving way.
Thank you Kathy for your inspiring blog. How easy it is to forget to put ourselves first by not feeling what is true for the body moment by moment. How true your sentence is –
“When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do”.
Stephanie, thank you for your reply to the blog and I love what you pointed out about the sentence “when I stop being aware of my body my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do”… I feel this always happens when we are always working against time and trying to fit all that we can do in the day, instead of appreciating ourselves and feeling what is right for our body and being aware of the moment with presence and clarity in all that we do.
Hi Kathy, thank you for revealing yourself in this blog. I suspect many of us will see ourselves – no matter what job or profession we may be in. In my case, I just need to substitute housekeeping with being in administration work. And it does, as you point out, also apply to how we care for our own homes – and outdoor spaces. It used to all be a chore, a never ending chore, that just the mere thought of “the endless list of what needed done” was enough to make me want to go back to bed. But once we make the leap into ourselves, living from the inside out, it all becomes rather effortless – and even enjoyable. 😉
Gayle, thank you for your lovely response to the blog. It is so lovely to point out that making the leap into ourselves and living from the inside out, it all becomes effortless and you start to enjoy life in an amazing way of being… as I expressed in the blog nothing is too big or too small, everything comes with ease and you bring more divine love in all that you do.
Hi Kathy, thank you for an awesome post. I really loved the line “When I stop being aware of my body, my mind comes back in, driving me in everything I do”… for me this is what I really relate to and know that if I stop feeling me, then my mind takes over and ‘runs’ the show… literally. Thank you for your reminder of a more loving way to BE.
Sue, thank you for sharing your response on the blog. It feels like the mind has driven us for such a long time that we had forgotten about our bodies. It is only when we start to be more aware of how we feel in our body does the divine truth come out, and then we are more aware of who we truly are and can be more loving in all that we do – not only for ourselves, but in all that we do.
Great post Kathy, I also run a house cleaning business and can so relate to what you have expressed here so beautifully… Especially the making your own bed and having your home in order and how that supports you. I can always tell when I am out of whack by the state of my own home. If I have neglected it, it is a sure sign that I have once again gone into that space where everyone else comes first. The space where I have never enough time to get everything done that I have committed to. I find that I then need to stop and lovingly put energy into my own needs until I am back including myself, my body, and my needs lovingly in my day. And then as you wrote so expressively “staying connected to my body… time is no longer the enemy”. And this… “not only supports me in everything I do but those around me”. And you are so correct when you state that then life becomes simple and fun as this is also my experience. I find I no longer feel like Cinderella – the victim of her circumstances – but rather Cinderella, the claimed princess of her own life!
Kathleen, thank you for your response to the blog and your experiences. We all feel in the way we do things in our work and about our body, and truly know what our body feels and is telling us what is truly happening, because our body is our divine home and our home is what we bring into the work we do and live in – both are as important as each other because they are our balance in the way we live. We forget how precious we are and lose ourselves in all that we do, instead of valuing all that we bring in and our true self.
Thanks, Kathleen, I love this comment about the claimed Cinderella, rather than the victim of circumstance.
Great Blog Kathy. Thank you for your comment Kathleen, I can relate to this part very well – “I can always tell when I am out of whack by the state of my own home. If I have neglected it, it is a sure sign that I have once again gone into that space where everyone else comes first. The space where I have never enough time to get everything done that I have committed to. I find that I then need to stop and lovingly put energy into my own needs until I am back including myself, my body, and my needs lovingly in my day.” So beautifully expressed.
Hi Natalie, thank you for your great comment and expressing what you do when you feel that you are not with yourself.
Thank you Kathy. This reflection unfolds just the way you describe yourself to have unfolded – from the tension and stress we hold when we are not self aware, to the tender way you describe caring for yourself and doing your work when you are ‘with you’. We are all involved in looking after our environment – our homes or workplaces etc. and you have reminded me again of how all my work reflects how I am being. Thanks again!
Bernadette, thank you for your sharing what you felt about the blog. Our bodies are so precious and if we only allow our selves to feel in all that we do, we become more aware what feels right in how we do things and everything starts reflecting back to us if we have done it in a loving way or not. When we forget about caring about ourselves, we let the work drive us instead of us driving the work…
Interesting isn’t it, how we focus so much on getting it right for others, trying to please, and how we do so at the expense of our own bodies. I feel that your statement, “I have discovered that it is not about ‘what’ or ‘how much’ I do, but the quality in which I am doing it”, can be applied in all walks of life, and in any job/work that we do.
Carmel, thank you for your interest in the blog and the statement you pointed out that it is not about what we do or how much we do, but about the quality we do it in. This has been a great experience for me as I was programmed to complete as many things in my day and felt pleased about myself based on how much work I completed in that day, and not truly understanding the quality I did my work in, or how my body was feeling. It would be great if we could bring in the awareness of how we bring the quality of what we are doing in any job – and then the work we do would make just a difference in the work places and our homes.