The declutter process is powerful to use at the beginning of the calendar year, but it’s something we can use at anytime of year too. As I move through my birthday month, I’ve noticed there is a little more to clear out at home. Birthdays, of course, are our own personal new year.
Clearing your space is also something that is really helpful to do at the beginning of a new chapter. It can be a cleansing and healing thing to do following a loss of some kind. Maybe after the kids leave home, after divorce, changing careers, moving home, retiring.
It’s an empowering and refreshing practice to close a chapter on the past and whenever we want to have a new beginning. This is because the declutter process gives our unconscious mind the message we’re having a fresh start. When our unconscious mind is onboard, then the changes required to create the next chapter become a whole lot easier.
A 2019 article written by Libby Sander, Assistant Professor for Organisational Behaviour at Bond University states that clutter can affect our anxiety levels, sleep and ability to focus. It can also make us less productive, triggering coping and avoidance strategies such as snacking and watching a lot of TV.
The article also goes onto say that our physical environment can affect our cognition, emotions and behaviour. This can also affect our relationships with others.
But having a good clear out is about more than just our physical environment. As with most things, to bring about positive and sustainable change in our lives, the process needs to be holistic. The physical environment is just one part of it.
Decluttering the physical environment isn’t always easy
One of the most difficult things about clearing the physical declutter is letting go of things that have emotional attachment around them. The famous organisation personality Marie Kondo advises to let go of things that don’t bring us joy.
It has also been said that when we hold onto things from the past it makes it difficult to move forward. While I agree with this, in many ways I also challenge it. Because it’s our choice whether we allow anything to hold us back. It’s really more about the emotion we associate with it.
For example; I have a beautiful blue dress I wore to my mum’s funeral 30 years ago. I’ve never moved it on. I purchased it because she told me she loved that colour on me. So even though I wore that dress for my mum’s funeral, it brings happy memories of her.
So bearing all this in mind, the question “does it bring happy memories?” could be added to the inquiry, “does it bring you joy?”.
Clear out the mental environment to bring positive life experiences
The quality of our mental chatter is pretty much determined unconsciously until we begin to bring conscious awareness to it. And if our mental chatter is negative then it needs to be tossed out.
Negative self talk over time brings us down. And if it’s our most common mental pattern, it affects our energy and ability to live our best life.
Looking for the negative is the way we are naturally wired. It’s part of our survival mechanism, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change it. Change though requires a conscious choice.
Become aware of any negative mental patterns and self talk you might have. Make a firm decision to throw them out today. Set an intent and write down that you are consciously choosing to think positively.
Developing a gratitude ritual is one of the simplest ways to do this. You can also consciously look for good things in life on your daily walk. Or even when you’re doing chores.
Give your habits a good declutter with new awareness
There are a lot of new year’s resolutions or intents floating around at the beginning of the year. A lot of them are about stopping a bad habit or starting a new one. While this is a fabulous practice it’s interesting to note, 50% of those intents have been forgotten by March.
The one intent I rarely see is the bad habit to be thrown out and the new habit to adopt written into the same statement. Including both in the same intention is essential. Because when we stop doing something we create a void. And quantum physics says that everything is created from a void.
This means if we intend to stop doing something, we must first explore what positive habit we will replace it with. Because if we don’t then it is quite possible that another unhelpful habit will appear in the void. And the opposite also applies. If you plan to start a new habit then you must make space for it.
For example; if you intend to get up early to go for a morning walk, this is a replacement for sleeping in. But when you look deeper, it’s also vital to start going to bed earlier so you get enough sleep. That might mean you need to stop the habit that’s keeping you up late.
And it’s the same for throwing out negative thought patterns. You need to decide what you will replace the negative thoughts with.
Create space holistically to experience a positive new chapter
This awareness can be applied to so many different things. We already know that most personal stylists suggest a wardrobe declutter before buying new clothes. It creates space and allows us to see which clothes we want to buy.
Nutritionists tell us what foods to stop eating and which to start eating. This gives a very clear example of why we need to create the void. If we don’t stop eating the unhealthy foods while introducing the healthier choices, we may gain weight.
By making our declutter about more than just our physical environment, we give ourselves space to thrive in the best chapter of our lives.
If you find changing your mental chatter or stopping your bad habits a bit too challenging to do alone, working with a good and experienced coach can give you the support you need to make the changes doable and sustainable. Book your initial Connect Call Here to see if coaching with Deb is a good fit for you.