Start really paying attention to the noise that you let seep into your eyes and ears.

Oblivious, you then form opinions that aren’t your own, simply because you heard it on the radio. Subtle opinions, biases, and judgments creep into your mind and embed thought structures. Watching or listening to anything and everything just because it’s on doesn’t bode well for your psyche. Afterward, when it comes time to work, you’ll find focus more easily than before your mini-retreat. Look at the trees sway, the clouds float, the stars shimmer. Let the breath come and go naturally, and the eyes roam wherever they want. Take a break from the chores, from the duties of the day.

This means no TV, no conversation, no reading, and no problem solving. Let your mind shut off from having to process, apply, or interpret information. With so many options, stress doesn’t stand a chance. Watch comedies, hang out with funny friends, go to a comedy club, read the Sunday comic strips, or play with your kids or your dog. Practice not taking yourself so seriously and laugh more often. It brings balance to your psyche because laughter is presence. It eases defensiveness, lightens your emotional load, and lifts stress off your shoulders. Laughter has been proven to be the best medicine for relieving stress.

Like in therapy, simply letting it out is healing because we’re relieved of the burden of keeping it all inside. The more you do it, the faster the peace comes. Try to journal every day for however long it takes to feel peace on a topic. By writing down your thoughts, worries, hopes, and experiences, you are finding respite from the chatter inside your head.Įven though you’re still thinking of these things as you write, it’s like you’re observing the situation from ten feet away, no longer completely absorbed in the emotionality of it. Whether digitally or with paper, journaling is a wonderful release of pent-up thought. Some ideas: time with a friend, an award at school, your seatbelt, your breath, the colors in the park, and even the nourishing beauty of a rainy day. Spend five minutes every day to note at least five things you’re grateful for. It’s hard to be grateful and angry at the same time. Taking time every day to consider your blessings will help bring balance to your life. It’s saying that what you have is enough. I then made a conscious choice to declutter my life, starting at the root of it all-my mind.īut how do you begin to clear away the clutter you can’t see?ĭecluttering the mind requires us to become intentional on where we place our attention and how we spend our time and energy. It wasn’t until my college years away from home that I started noticing how my mind was the cause of any clutter I carried with me nothing and no one else was to blame.Īfter a huge quarter-life crisis, I saw how I was compromising my own clarity and life balance with my own head-trash-the junk I kept upstairs. The claustrophobia of my childhood left me wanting to live clutter-free. Probably didn’t help that Mom was a shopaholic and Dad was a packrat. Raised with four siblings sharing one bathroom, one TV, and one telephone, let’s just say it got ugly. However, a big family tends to hold all sorts of clutter. Clearing Clutter At The Rootįortunately for me, I grew up in a big, loving family. It can get so jumbled and disorderly up there that we end up lost in la la land. Mental clutter pulls us off center, disrupting our balance. And when we’re not clear-headed, we lose the connection to ourselves, our environment, and our lives. When we’re caught up in our heads, distracted by worry or fear, we’re not present or clear-headed. Stumbling over words, unable to make a point. Leaving the water running or the stove on. But the most distracting and debilitating cluttered space is in our heads. In some part of our world, we face it: be it in our closets, in our offices, or even in our bodies. “Life is as simple or complicated as we make it.” Donna Smallin

Declutter your mind