Saturday Journaling Prompt:

What aspects of my life could benefit from decluttering?

Watch on YouTube for MAXIMUM ENJOYMENT

Clutter! Clutter! Clutter! Most of you have it in your life on some level or another. And when you think about clutter, it usually brings to mind a bunch of disorganized stuff, causing jumble and mess and invading your space in a less than flattering way.

A whole year’s worth of newspapers taking up residence in the hallway. Empty soda bottles piled up in the yard. Old plates and glasses boxed up to go nowhere. Clothes, too big, too small, out-of-fashion, missing buttons, or missing pairs monopolizing your wardrobe. Just piles of broken or unused junk scattered around the kitchen, the laundry room, or the garage.

But the clutter that engulfs your environment is not just physical. Anything that doesn’t support your growth or stands in the way of you living a full and vibrant life is clutter. It needs to go. You need to declutter

Clutter can be old and outdated ideas and thinking. Women belong in the kitchen. Homosexuality can be cured. Interracial marriage is a sin. My race is superior to yours. I’m stupid and will never get any further in life. If the ideas you hold about life, yourself, and the world keeps you stuck, keep you in the past, or limit your thinking. You need to declutter.

CLUTTER CAN BE TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS. Friends who don’t want to see you succeed. They’re jealous of your new relationship and can’t wait to see it fail. They drain your energy, are controlling, and use manipulation to get their way. The higher you climb the more insecure they feel. The lower you fall, the happier they are. Their negativity consumes you. People can block your path and stifle your progress. You need to declutter.

CLUTTER CAN BE BAD HABITS. You’re smoking 20 cigarettes a day. Sleeping until noon. Eating junk food morning, afternoon and night. Gaming has overtaken your life. Glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon are getting bigger and more frequent. Your gym membership is missing in action. And procrastination has long set in. Bad habits keep you in the dark, are barriers to your potential, and threaten your health and well-being. You need to declutter.

YOUR LIFE CAN BE BLOCKED BY EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL CLUTTER. It hides behind your sense of failure, and thoughts of guilt, shame, and unworthiness. It cripples you with resentment, negativity, and anger. It holds you, hostage, to your past trauma and pain. You see the world through the lenses of fear, apprehension, and mistrust. It’s almost impossible to move forward if you’re stuck in a cycle of sabotaging and destructive patterns and beliefs. You need to declutter.

CLUTTER CAN BE BOTH DIGITAL AND A CONDITION FO YOUR MINDSET. You have over 2000 unopened emails clogging up your inbox. You owe a ton of people a response from weeks ago. Last month’s gas bill is still sitting in the mailbox. You’re behind in your taxes and your financial plan, well, has no plan. How you manage your money, you manage your life. Chaos and disorder on the digital plain are usually coming from a space where there’s a lack of control, discipline, and order. You need to declutter.

As humans, we have emotional attachments to things. We are sentimental and want to hold onto past memories, via the items we collect over the years. But clutter can have a negative effect on your mental health and well-being. Clutter causes cloudiness of the mind, impacting your ability to think straight or to respond sharply. Without clarity of mind, you can feel lost, confused, and overwhelmed all of which may lead to anxiety, stress, and depression. Clutter keeps you in limbo, unable to make decisions about your future. It denies you a sense of autonomy and control.

On a practical level, clutter hinders you from being productive and moving efficiently through life. Spending hours searching for car keys or whatever else, that may be buried somewhere under a mountain of clutter, means your time is being diverted away from enjoying the more pleasurable things in life. And dust, mold, and animal dander collect around clutter making it hazardous to your physical health. Friends may be shy to stop by and be totally turned off by a house full of clutter.

The clutter in your physical world clutters your mind and spirit. It cripples your ability to grow and live freely. If you don’t control your clutter it will eventually control you. Declutter your life so you can live in peace and harmony and bask in the beauty around you.

Raise your awareness of clutter in your life by making lists using these 5 questions.

They should help you to identify the clutter around you and begin to make powerful change.

1. What do I have in my life that is not loved, beautiful or useful?
2. What in my environment drains my energy? (example work/ home/ vehicles etc.)
3. Where is my lifestyle out of harmony and balance?
4. Who and what have I outgrown in my life?
5. What “ shoulds” Are zapping my energy? What do I need to let go of?

Make lists for each question over the week ahead and choose three actions to do in the next month.

JOURNALING

Journaling allows you to create a coherent narrative of your life. Essentially, a story of the events and experiences that you integrate into your overall perspective of life. It helps you make sense of the world in relation to your feelings and thoughts from a more positive and holistic place. Thus Journaling deepens your understanding of your inner framework and creates a platform to process and express your deepest emotions. Knowing who you are at a deep level makes your journey happier and lightens your load. It gives you greater autonomy making you less prone to depression and anxiety. Commit to Journaling. Be consistent and have fun!

With grace and gratitude

Michelle

FREE COACHING RESOURCES

and weekly inspiration