Feel Emotionally Lighter by Cleaning Out the Clutter

Feel Emotionally Lighter by Cleaning Out the Clutter

Feel Emotionally Lighter by Cleaning Out the ClutterClutter produces harmful energy that sabotages us from achieving our personal best—it is the nemesis to success. It is deceptive because it manifests itself in various guises. Physical clutter is the stuff we fill our houses with to the point some people actually go into deprivation mode and develop an illness known as hoarding.

In our society, we have learned to purchase stuff not for the stuff itself, but for the emotions that stuff evokes in us. What we buy no longer serves a basic utilitarian purpose, but has come to denote status and a luxury lifestyle. The more we own, the more prestige we seem to have.

But clutter doesn’t just occupy physical space. Mental clutter is the critical and pessimistic messages we believe about ourselves that have been ingrained in us from childhood by our parents or other external influencers. Emotional clutter can be painful feelings we bury down inside ourselves ignore and don’t deal with.

It can also be the scripts we inevitably write about ourselves through life. “I’m too fat, I’m not loveable, I’m not attractive, or I’m emotionally weak.” You get my point. Regardless, we come to believe in these destructive messages. The longer this clutter is left to permeate in your mind or heat, the harder it is to emotionally detangle and clean-up.

It distorts our perception of ourselves; we’re convinced the world sees us in a certain light but it’s not true. No one sees us this way—it’s merely how we see ourselves. Athletes are susceptible to this type of mental clutter and must learn to identify and filter it out in competition. Mental clutter can also be anything that triggers a negative head space; unpaid bills, growing debt, lack of inspiration in a job, and parental guilt.

Clutter which occupies physical space can equally affect our mental and emotional energy. Feng shui practitioners argue that physical clutter is low, stagnant and confusing energy that actually drains energy from you. It can even block the flow of life events depending on where it’s located in your home.

The worst place for clutter is the bedroom. Our bedrooms are where we are at our most zen; they serve as our oasis for rest and reprieve from the outside world. For more than a year my bedroom had been cluttered by a mountain of clothes climbing the wall at the foot of my bed. Imagine a cyclone ripping threw your room and strewing your clothes everywhere—that was my bedroom.

Not unpacking my stuff led me to remain ‘stuck’ in a transient space for almost two years. “You need to clean-up the clutter in your life starting with your bedroom closet so you can clear your mind” a good friend advised me.

So together we tackled the clutter in my bedroom. “If it doesn’t make you feel happy or good about yourself throw it out,” she said. “And don’t worry about how much it cost.” By the time we were done half my wardrobe had been bundled into four bags for charity and two totes for consignment.

Now I’ve stripped my wardrobe down to what I love and need. Less truly is more. I feel a little lighter and less attached to the objects I own. The purging process can be very cathartic I can’t put it into words. I have freed up mental and physical space to allow the flow of good karma back into my life. And I’m on a path to live this lesson everyday and find joy in the little things, not in what I buy or own.

So say goodbye to the clutter in your own life and witness an emotional and mental transformation unfold. Amazing things will begin to happen. You will know it because you’ll feel it.

Vancouver Health Coach