I finally took the bit between my teeth last weekend. With twenty green plastic bags under my arm, I descended into the basement to 'do battle' with an accumulated mess. Since I run my thriving business from my home, there have been many opportunities to use the basement as a temporary storage unit – (temporary, as in seven plus years).

Garbage wasn't the only thing to come out of the basement by the end of the day. I also emerged with a good feeling. “Why,” I asked myself, “does cleaning out the basement feel so good?” My first reaction, of course, was that it's similar to banging your head against a brick wall – it's lovely when you stop.

Then I gave more thought to the matter and realized that there was much more to it than that. It had a great deal to do with the unconscious weight that all that 'mess' had been applying to my state of mind. Subliminally, I always knew the mess was there, waiting for my attention, and I was ignoring it. Believe me, now I'm free of it I am very conscious of the negative influence it was having on everything else in my life. Let me explain.

The way I see it, we all operate on several levels. At the foundation level we are physical beings with all the usual 'senses' – touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell. At the next higher level we're emotional beings afflicted by 'love' and 'fear', each of which has many variants.

Then above this, we are mental entities, capable of reasoned thought, discriminating opinions and judgments. Finally, at the top, we are spiritual beings – not purely in a religious sense, but in a wider definition where we care, share and extend ourselves for the benefit of our fellow beings.

What does this have to do with garbage? It's all a matter of 'flow'. Flow is a natural state where things 'happen' in our lives. Our energies are balanced and actions are both easy and productive. When we experience this state, we'll often say “I'm on a roll!” Life is a pleasure because all the right things are happening, and we do not have to push or struggle as much as we do in other circumstances.

As I said, this is the natural way of things. So why doesn't it happen all the time, or more often, at least? It's because the natural flow is blocked or impeded in some way, and this can happen at any one or more of the four levels of our being.

At the physical level, it's junk. That's right, it's all that mess with which we surround ourselves. It gets in the way, just by being there. Life is too messy - space and clarity are reduced. We need to push against the mess in order to make any headway, and this takes a lot of unnecessary energy and wasted effort.

At the emotional level, there are two aspects – unresolved conflicts (grudges in our lives) and unexpressed feelings and attitudes. Both of these have the same effect, they are a burden upon our soul and they diminish the joy we could be experiencing in life.

The third level, the mental or rational one, is more complicated yet. Here we could find broken agreements that cause us to doubt both ourselves and others, incomplete tasks or unfinished business which give us reason to doubt ourselves and, most elusive of all, a lack of vision, clarity and/or purpose in our lives which means that we have no direction to follow.

Lastly, there's the spiritual level blockages. Have you ever wondered why the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, both fed by the waters of the River Jordan, are so different? The former is so salty that nothing can live in it, while the Sea of Galilee is full of life and promise. The only difference is that the Dead Sea has no outlets, the Sea of Galilee has several. What this tells me is that unless I care, share and extend myself in the service of others, I'm likely to die, just like that body of water, the Dead Sea, which benefits no one.

Food for thought? Here's a suggestion. Why don't we each invest a brief period of time during the next four weeks – say thirty minutes each week? The first week, let's clean up a physical mess of some type, or at least, make a start on the process.

The second week, we could identify an unresolved conflict in our life and attempt to make some measure of peace. The third week could be spent finishing some incomplete task or making good on a broken promise. Then the fourth week we will be feeling really good about ourselves, ready to offer a helping hand to someone else who might possibly need it.

The benefits from all this will be remarkable, I promise you. You'll find new energy, new clarity of direction in your life, a substantial relaxing of your body, a lightening of your heart, a weight off your mind and a rejuvenation of your spirit. All this will be possible - simply because you've freed yourself to “go with the flow”!

When was the last time you visited the Andros Website? Perhaps there's something there that could help you!