When I mention clutter, I wonder what goes through your head and what feelings come up for you?
Does even the thought of it turn you off?
For lots of us it does, because we know that clutter is present in our lives, whether it’s physical, mental or even emotional – the good news is, that you are not alone, most of us have some form or other.
I raise this question because I have been having a serious purge and downsizing my living space and it has been really challenging me to look at all my attachments in my life. I realised that saying I can let go of things and doing it are VERY different. I’ve been noticing my attachments and letting things go. This is freeing and empowering once you get past the “gunky” feelings!!
So, what has clutter, got to do with playing a bigger game in your life you might ask? I remind myself that “organisation brings freedom” and I like to add “personal power”. Being organised may be seen as being a bit square, control freakish, insecure, or even obsessive compulsive (when at extremes).
Perhaps you are organised and efficient in a few areas of your life, e.g. you have a tidy office (or desk) while at home you struggle to get the paperwork, or cleaning under control.
Maybe you are impeccably dressed at work, and struggle to get it together at home and socially.
Or, you have mental clutter, emotions are running your life and making your decisions for you. You're driven by them, rather than using them as a guide and making a choice about what is important.
You may store lots of “to do’s”, or emotions in your mind which is cluttering up your thinking, preventing you making solid decisions.
When our minds are clear of clutter, we can really focus, receive opportunities we might miss, if we are so busy or in a mental fog.
Life, becomes more simplified (although the challenges are there) we are able to handle life with more confidence and ease. Being organised helps gain clarity, and ironically creates more security and ease as we can find what we are looking for, creates a joyful space (when keeping only what brings us joy and is useful), have clear thinking space for work and social time with family, relationships and friends, spirituality, health etc. It also provides space for the experiences we want, to come into our life all of which is powerful.
"Nature abhors a vaccum" - so when we move things out of our life, it leaves room to bring in fresh, new experiences, and successes and positive feeling, it's like the natural cycle of the seasons. Hence the saying "out with the old in with the new".
Emotional clutter is often a form of protection. When we have “things” around us it can literally represent a barrier, even a blanket of comfort and security.
Often the things we keep hold of are sentimental from our family, loved ones, past experiences ; a job, relationship, event, or time in our life when we felt more joy, were younger or slimmer, and successful. By keeping these things, they act as reminders of happier times we might not want to let go of (at a sub conscious level) as this may be too painful.
Often we are not even aware that we are avoiding the emotions, we just get stressed at the clutter around us, which feeds into our emotional discomfort. The root emotion can be fear, fear of letting go, fear of being responsible for the “now”, which may mean really accepting where we are e.g. owning our feelings of inadequacy, lack of feeling loved, past failures etc.
Once we “own” up to ourselves, honestly (we may have shame, sadness, hurt, fears, anger, guilt, disappointment) it opens up a place of inner acceptance where we are not blaming (ourselves or others) but taking full responsibility for where we are, and what we really want. It's a chance to look at what hasn't gone well in our lives and where we want to make more helpful choices.
So where do you start to take back your power, that you may have given to your clutter?
In my next post we will look at some of the solutions, I've had to do it this way because this post was becoming so long, there was so much to share with you!
So stay tuned for the Clear the clutter "ideas" I'll be posting next week.
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