Mindset
Ready for a spring clean?
von Babett Wollin, 10.05.2023
After a quite long winter this year, everyone is very happy to see the first signs of spring. Do you also feel this excitement, hopefulness and overflow of energy in spring? Wonderful. Then here comes my invitation: use this energy to do some tidying up in your life. Get rid of clutter.
With getting rid of clutter I mean any clutter, not just the obvious physical clutter in your home, the clothes or paper work, but also digital clutter on your computer or your phone. Of course my special invitation is to declutter your mind, to clean up mental clutter, a type of clutter most people do not even realise they have. But more about that later.
BENEFITS OF DECLUTTERING
Why is it so important to clean up all these types of clutter? Because we need to create space, physically and also mentally. If everything is stuffed with clutter, with too many things we do not need, we become stagnant and there is no room for anything new to enter. There is no opportunity for flow in our live.
Letting go of clutter means letting go of old things, letting go of the past and that is not always easy. Our subconscious mind loves the familiar and the old stuff feels familiar to our mind. The known promises safety and keeping you safe is in fact one of the main tasks of your mind. So, it is quite likely that your subconscious mind will show resistance when you plan to get rid of clutter, for example in the form of procrastination.
The good thing is, that you are aware of this situation now. You know why your mind reacts like this and the understanding helps you overcoming it, knowing that after you got rid of clutter in your life, you will for sure feel great about it.
IT IS MORE THAN CLUTTER
Last year I interviewed Kerry Thomas, an expert on decluttering and she said something very profound:
‘Every clutter is a postponed decision.‘
I think this sentence is so powerful and can be really helpful in overcoming cluttering our homes, work spaces and our minds. Just think about it again. Every time we do not tidy away something or resolve something it is not just some clutter we have created. It means something far more profound, namely that we have postponed a decision on that something, a decision we most probably will never take. So we collect all these postponed decisions throughout our lives which at some point leave us stuck.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENS WHEN I HAVE CLUTTER IN MY LIFE?
Let’s have a look at an example: We all had a situation where we received an email and thought ‘That sounds interesting. I will look at it tonight.’ but then never looked at it again. Of course, this email still sits in our inbox, together with the ‘other ones’ that had a similar fate.
But what does that do to us? It is not just an untidy inbox and too many mails sitting there, not being looked at. It is a burden on our shoulders that grows bigger and bigger until one day it seems unsurmountable and we cannot bring ourselves to start decluttering. It creates pressure, stagnation and a heaviness we actually do not want in our lives.
What would be the solution? Decide straight away. If we use the same email example, decide immediately whether you want to and will have the time to look at the email and if the answer is ‘no’ then delete it straight away.
Use this approach for all different areas in your life. Never postpone a decision again but decide straight away. Do not say, I will tidy something away later if you already hold it in your hand. Do it immediately. You will find that this will bring a lot more clarity, space and flow into your life.
DECLUTTER YOUR MIND
Now, let’s talk about mental clutter. What we have said above is also true for mental clutter but there is added difficulty. We live in challenging times in terms of mental clutter. Every waking moment we are bombarded with ‘information’. Everything sounds interesting, fascinating or helpful. We want to read this book, listen to that podcast, watch this series recommended by a friend and read the interesting blog, maybe go to that promising training course… the list is endless…
… and we register all these things on our mind, to decide about them or do them later. But similarly to other clutter, that ‘later’ might never come. As a result, we clutter our mind to an extent that we feel stuck, almost frozen, confused and unable to take meaningful decisions.
Again, like with other clutter we are full and become stagnant. There is no space to move and even think clearly. Mental clutter also creates a restlessness and a lack of focus. It disperses our energy. Therefore, my invitation to particularly focus on clearing up the mental clutter. It is critical because the inside influences our outside circumstances. Getting clear on the inside will get you a long way on the outside.
I LOVE MY UNTIDY DESK
I love my untidy desk and I know where everything is. Do I really love it? Or do I just find it hard to keep it tidy? If my desk is always very untidy and cluttered this gives a strong indication on what is going on inside of me in relation to my work. Are there many unstructured thoughts, many ideas, too many things I want to do, but I never get the time to do them? Do I have too many things on my plate? Then chances are that my desk reflects that on the outside. So just do a little check around you. It gives good indications on the areas to focus on, starting inside.
Clearing clutter is all about doing. Therefore, I want to share a practical exercise now to take inventory and then get rid of mental clutter. Take a journal and go through the following steps. It is important that you do this exercise in writing.
EXERCISE TO CLEAR MENTAL CLUTTER
- Make a list of all the mental clutter in your mind. All the stuff, the thoughts that are going through your mind, the plans you have, maybe some new year’s resolutions not yet implemented. Just brainstorm it without the need to put it into a particular order. Just write down what comes to your mind. Let it flow.
- Now look at your list, go through it again and prioritize the different items: 1 – very important to me, 2 – quite important to me, 3 – would be nice/interesting but I do not really need it or have the time, 4 – don’t need it at all. (be very strict with your 1 and 2 priorities, only have very few of them). Realize that it is impossible to do everything.
- In the next step, cross out all the 3s and 4s. Make a conscious decision and really let these things go. If they come up in your inner dialogue again, reconfirm your decision that you let them go. Observe how you feel.
- Then look at the 1s and 2s. What are the decisions you postponed or avoided in the past? Why do you avoid them and are you able and willing to take a decision on them now?
- Take your decisions for the 1s and 2s and create a plan how you can integrate these things and concepts into your life. Then go for them with all your might.
- Repeat this exercise whenever you feel mentally stuck and overwhelmed.
AVOIDING NEW CLUTTER TO BUILD UP
Clearing up existing mental clutter is an important step but equally important is to avoid creating new clutter. The times we live in require extraordinary responses and precautions from us. Here are some ideas to prevent new clutter building up:
- Restrict daily time on social media, the internet, the mobile and TV.
- Do regular social media diets, e.g. have a media free holiday.
- Do regular weekends without any media.
- Go for walks in nature or to a café without your phone. Use the time to think and to enjoy yourself.
- Do not watch TV, search the internet or look at your phone after a certain time in the evening.
- Do not have a TV in your bedroom.
- Unsubscribe from anything that you do not need.
- Turn off unnecessary notifications (Apps, Mobile, Emails)
CREATE SPACE FOR YOUR LIFE
These are just some examples and I am sure you can come up with more. All the different action steps have one thing in mind: giving you space. If we only consume, there is no space for ourselves. But we need space for new things to enter, space to think, space for creation, space to develop and grow.
This is your life and time and space are very important. Realise that you have the say. You can decide. In fact, you are the only one who can take this decision! So give it some effort. Claim space for yourself. Take action. Set up a couple of new rules. It will create profound change for your life, more clarity, balance and more happiness.
If you need more help cleaning up mental clutter, limiting beliefs or bad habits, a RTT™ Therapy is the perfect tool to do that. It works with the subconscious mind in order to identify and resolve limiting subconscious beliefs and blocks. Releasing them creates space for new things to enter. RTT™ is also a great tool to introduce new habits into your life.
Secure your free discovery call today! I am looking forward to talking to you.