Clearing Physical, Mental & Emotional Clutter Reveals Hidden Abundance

When my husband and I moved into our home in southwest Minneapolis, one corner of our basement became home to a collection of about ten boxes for over a year. I can’t even tell you why. I guess our motivation just dwindled throughout the long process of unpacking. Each time I walked down the stairs to do some laundry or to feed my cats, I’d see all those boxes and just think, Ugh. We really need to take care of that stuff.

One rainy September day, 18 months after we moved in, we went downstairs, and in an afternoon, we just plowed through the task. We wound up donating or tossing about two-thirds of it. We hadn’t needed it for a year and half; we certainly didn’t need it then! Now that corner is clear. When I look over there, I notice the light pouring in the window. The physical space is clear — but so is the space in my head that was perpetually occupied whenever I looked at that unresolved pile of boxes.

It is an interesting and difficult issue to address, this intense emotional connection we sometimes have with the things we own, including our “intangible” possessions — our health, our beliefs about ourselves and others, our old grudges and unresolved pain. All these things take up space. Sometimes they take up so much space that there’s isn’t much room for anything else. We wish for simplicity — but letting go can be difficult and sometimes even painful for a number of reasons, even when hanging on is to our emotional detriment.

One reason is just how our brains process input. We have one neurological path that could be considered “the path of reason.” That’s the part of our brain that looks at a chair and sees an item made of wood and fabric. The other neurological path is one that is profoundly and instantaneously linked to emotion and memory. When it sees the chair, it remembers all the things — pleasant and unpleasant — associated with that item. So something as simple as a chair could, for its owner, be deeply symbolic of experiences like suffocating guilt, a failed relationship, grief, or a sense of being constantly overwhelmed. It’s easy to see how a house or a heart filled with these triggers can become a tough place to live peacefully.

Heidi DeCoux, a very good friend of mine, is a professional organizer specializing in home organization. According to Heidi, the cycle of physical and emotional chaos can be explained this way:

Clutter, everyone says, is the problem. Actually, …the lack of space is the real problem. When there is no space, there is no possibility to grow and no room for anything new. Instead of forward, positive growth, we experience more crowding and filling.

Gail Blanke, coach and author of the book “Throw out Fifty Things,” recently gave an interview that I was able to listen to. She explained that removing clutter is not so that you can live in a spotlessly clean environment (in fact, an obsession with this type of “perfection” can be its own type of emotional clutter). On the contrary, clearing clutter is so that you can make space for new ideas, possibilities, and forward movement. This is Heidi’s philosophy in her work as well: “Organizing is not as much about organizing things as it is about seeing people transform.”

Blanke often refers to the “Rules of Disengagement” which is a kind of litmus test for letting go of the things that hinder us:

* If the thing, the idea, the feeling, the person weighs you down, consistently hurts you, holds you back — let it go.

* If the thing, the idea, the feeling, the person just sits there, takes up space and contributes nothing — let it go.

* If you deliberate constantly, endlessly weighing the pros and cons – Should I keep it or should I let it go? – then let it go. Heidi says, “The things you feel guilty about letting go of produces an atmosphere of guilt – I don’t know anyone who can grow in that.”

* Don’t make it so difficult. Things that cause us constant confusion and pain are not the things that are meant to be in our lives.

This is the time of year when we start consuming and accumulating in earnest. It seems like the perfect time to stop and breathe and ask: What could I be letting go of? What in my physical or emotional environment is no longer helping me move forward in my life? What might there be room for in my life if I let go of these items, this broken relationship, this disappointment, this fear?

To fill in space is a human tendency. Therefore, the important question becomes, “What do I want to fill it with?

Heidi DeCoux is a professional organizer & creator of The Fast-Filing Method home office filing system. To get her FREE Kit: The Fast & Easy Way to Get Organized & Stay Organized, visit ClearSimpleLiving.com. Siri Myhrom is an educator & therapeutic writing facilitator. To get a free subscription to Siri’s e-Magazine, Winter Oak Weekly, visit winter-oak.com.

How to Attract Money

Using the Law of Attraction to attract money, win the lottery and other neat stuff. Includes help on common mistakes people make when using the Law of Attraction, how the Law of Attraction works, the TWO vital aspects of attracting money and abundance. How to tell if you are blocking abundance, plus strategies for using the Law of Attraction to win the lottery and draw forth abundance from other sources. read more

---

Weight Loss & Law of Attraction

The law of attraction works according to your dominant thoughts, emotions and beliefs. Whatever you focus on the most is what will appear in your outer circumstances. So – what have you been thinking about much of the time? Being overweight and feeling unhappy about it? Feeling frustrated because dieting is so hard? Worrying that you won’t be able to lose weight in time for summer? Needless to say, this line of thinking will only continue to create what you DON’T want. read more

---

Releasing Resistance

Dissolving Blockages to Allow Your Heart's Desires. When using the Law of Attraction to manifest things you want, you may encounter a common problem - RESISTANCE. Resistance is like a big blockage in your energetic signal that blocks the arrival of the things you want to manifest. Despite spending hours visualizing, despite being very clear about what you want, resistance can block it. This guide explains how to know whether you have it, and how to clear it. read more