This is an article from the Huffpost that I just had to share. I don’t usually post other people’s stuff in my blog, but this was so right on that I had to. This is my favorite topic because helping clear your interior AND your exterior clutter is what I do! Organizing your office is just icing on the cake. Bottom line: You can’t BE your Best Self if your inner AND exterior spaces don’t reflect and support your Best Self. xoxox Jennifer
You know those thoughts that you have about 100 times a day that you’re not good enough, you’ll never make it, you won’t ever get what you want, blah blah blah?
All that is clutter.
We are all mentally cluttered. We all have these types of thoughts flutter into our minds everyday, messing up the place.
From the moment we learn our first word and take our first piece of advice, we let in the clutter. We store ideas, cling to memories, form habits and collect beliefs.
Not all of it is negative, but anything that distracts you from the you behind the name, beneath the skin, before the accolades, is clutter.
All those beliefs you have of I can’t do it, I’m not enough, and I’m not lovable, is clutter.
Clutter clouds, corrodes and covers up. That’s what it does.
The good news is, we don’t have to stay buried underneath that junk. We don’t have to lay prey to its lies, limitation or lack. With clutter out of the way, we can live up to our highest potential and our purest truth.
How do we get out from under the heap?
We clean the mind like we would a house.
In a house, we have to declutter the closets, throw out expired food from the fridge, dust the cobwebs from the garage and let in the fresh air.
The same attention to detail goes to cleaning the recesses of our minds. We need to deliberately go in, clean out the unnecessary and complicated. We need to clear disempowering beliefs away so we can add in empowering ones. We need to throw out the fear and let in the love.
To become sensitive to the clutter in our minds, we have to become mindful.
One technique to hone mindfulness is meditation.
Meditation is how we get clear.
That anxiety, that overwhelm, that fear that keeps you paralyzed can all be cleared with a regular meditation practice.
The purpose of meditation is to clear the mess that’s keeping you small and scared. The stuff keeping you depressed and powerless.
Meditation is our look inward. When we open our inner eyes, we see that we are love, freedom and peace. Pure and simple. But we let clutter blind us to that truth so we don’t see it! …Then we begin to forget it.
Unless we do the work to regain clarity.
Meditation To Clear The Clutter
Here’s a quick meditation to clear mental clutter. Read it a few times over and then practice it on your own. This will help you return to the clarity you were born with.
Sit upright with your eyes closed. Take a big inhale breath and on the exhale, think about relaxing your facial muscles. Inhale again and on the exhale, think about relaxing your shoulders and chest. Do this inhale and exhale over and over while relaxing the rest of your body, top down, belly to feet. Don’t rush. When you feel your body fully relaxed, bring to your inner ear the sound of the ocean. Can you hear it? Wait until you hear the sound of the waves. Listen to that sound a little longer. Picture the waves now, watch them crash against the rocky shoreline, with you standing safely on the pier observing it all. The ocean is strong and mighty. It reminds you of how powerful you are. The sunshine overhead is warm and bright. It reminds you of how pure you are. As you gaze upon the waves, imagine they are washing away the grudges of yesterday, the worries of today, fears of tomorrow. Witness “I’m not good enough” be carried away by the kelp. See “I’m not lovable” disappear under water. Let every foamy mass wash you clean from the inside out. Surrender to the ocean 10 of your clutter phrases. Listen to the phrase with your inner ear and then hear the waves suck them up and pull them out to the horizon. As the waves retreat from shore carrying your clutter load, say, “thank you.”
Do this for 15 minutes. When you feel complete, open your eyes.
This is an easy meditation to do every morning to clear mental clutter, or anytime you feel overcome by disparaging and fearful thoughts. Let nature remind you who you are and how you can declutter anything that stands in your way.
Get your clarity back.
Yvette Bowlin, HuffPost Contributor
The Declutterist
