This month has been about decluttering my mind. At the beginning of the month, I felt overwhelmed and stressed. After trying the techniques I mentioned in this blog, I feel a little more balanced. I’ll be on vacation for a week and plan to just let go of a lot of things while we are away.
I’m looking forward to the next quarter and what I can accomplish. I haven’t decided what I’ll work on in July (for decluttering), but I have a list to chose from.
While reading an article about decluttering your mind, I found this info:
“Make a list – There are days when you are probably trying to hold so much information that you lock up your ability to make forward progress. Write down all your worries and fears then stash it away. You’ll feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. I like to keep my worries and fears for a month and set a reminder on my calendar to look at it in a month. 75% of the things on the list end up being things that didn’t even matter to me any more after a month had passed.”
I find this interesting, because this would most likely be helpful to any of us. The things we worry about don’t happen, and that time has been wasted. Our mind is trying to find a way to deal with it. I like the idea that we should just stash it away. I think this is also a better way to calm the mind and focus on the present moment.
http://www.workhappynow.com/2010/02/10-ways-unclutter-your-mind/
I like the idea of clearing away clutter to help gain mental focus. When there are things in my room that I don’t find important or essential…it just creates a distraction. And sometimes it makes my mind more cluttered.
After having our home turned upside down over the last few months, we’ve slowly been putting things back together. The bedroom is the only room that is organized. It makes me happy to spend time there. My home office is almost back to normal, and the living room as well. When a room is completely together, I feel better and I’m more focused.
My schedule for the next quarter has relaxed a little and already I’m able to concentrate on what I can accomplish when that happens. When I was younger, the more classes I was taking at school, the more I accomplished. Clearly, that is no longer true. I think when we have too much on our to do lists, nothing gets accomplished completely. When we focus on what is important, the things that don’t matter just fall aside. I think I lost track of that for awhile this spring. My head became over crowded with many things that just didn’t matter. Over the next few months, I’d like to adjust into a more productive and satisfying life by becoming more focused on what’s important.
“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you…If you don’t life controls you.” Tony Robbins
Interesting quotes about uncluttering the mind:
“To change skins, evolve into new cycles, I feel one has to learn to discard. If one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects. They reflect one’s mind and the psyche of yesterday. I throw away what has no dynamic, living use.” Anais Nin
“Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!” Og Mandino
Right now, I need several hours each day to unwind. It doesn’t matter what I do during the day, I still feel like I need that time. I wish I could use that down time more productively. It feels like I’m wasting time. I’ve been working out more lately and I feel better, but still need that time. I’d like to be more conscious and use that time wisely, instead of sitting in front of the TV.
Over the next few weeks, I plan to consciously spend less down time doing nothing. I hope that some of these other uncluttering my mind techniques come into play to allow me to need less down time.
It’s amazing what taking 5-10 deep breaths feels like. Most of the time, I’m breathing shallowly and quickly trying to speak as fast as I can. Taking a few deep breaths makes a huge difference. Some days of the week, I teach 2 classes and have a short break in between. I eat quickly and try to close my eyes for a few minutes and take a few deep breaths. It’s amazing how much better and relaxed I feel after I do this. It completely changes my state of mind. I feel almost instantly better. It also helps me to declutter my brain a little.
Try it now. You’ll see what a difference it makes.
In an attempt to unclutter my mind…today, I spent some time trying to balance my chakras. I had this done a few weeks ago at the wellness festival, but things seemed a little more hazy after that. I believe that when the chakras are balanced…life is balanced. And I believe that a few of mine are unbalanced.
Over the years, I’ve collected numerous items related to chakras including: stones, CDs, music, etc. I used most of them today. It was a lot to take in. It might have been easier to take a little time each day to balance one before moving to the next.
I feel relaxed, but a little disoriented. It might take a little time to set in.
Here is a link that I used as a guide:
Ok, so I like TV as much as everyone else, but the fact is I am filling my mind with clutter when I watch it (I am not referring to just the commercials). It has the opposite effect of what I am actually trying to achieve right now. Most people think watching TV relaxes them, but all of the noise actually creates the opposite affect. Having a conversation with a friend, listening to music, going to dinner or reading tends to calm my mind and allow me to focus on that person or task. Typically, when I watch TV I also do other things at the same time and I end up distracted. If I am cleaning the house and have the TV on…it’ll take me longer to complete what I need to do.
I have heard numerous stories over the years from students who have gotten rid of the TVs in their homes and I cannot argue with the results they have seen. One student said that he took his kids over the house of a family that didn’t have a TV and he watched his children play with theirs. He said he was deeply disturbed by what he saw, and that he realized how much smarter their kids were. He said he was actually embarrassed by it.
Another student decided to get rid of his TV altogether. He is, what other instructors (and I agree) have called “freakishly smart.” This is what tends to happen when there is no TV in the house. We will find things to fill our time and it may make us smarter.
I would love to get rid of our TVs and immediately after I say that I think of all of the reasons why I can’t. I think I will start with trying to watch less TV for awhile and see how that goes. Ironically, I turned off the TV while watching this because it became more difficult to concentrate.
I’ve been reading a lot about ways to declutter the mind and everyone seems to have a different opinion on what will do it. There are a few things that make sense to me. One is exercise. I can work through a problem or think about what needs to get done that day when I take a walk. As one writer put it: “Spending some physical energy clears the mind.” I can relate to this because I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. At times, I’ll take a long walk just to get something off my mind.
The other side of this is overthinking things and driving myself crazy doing it. In the big picture of life, I know it doesn’t matter, but I still find myself obsessing about certain things. Lately, I’ve had so much on my mind that I can immediately dismiss these things because I just don’t have the time or energy to deal with them. But it would be nice to have a better system in place to deal with them when things slow down.
Another thing that helps me is to write things down. When I feel overwhelmed, making a list of what needs to get done is helpful to relief stress. I have a free app on my ipad called “Errands” and I can put to do lists on whatever day they need of get done. Things don’t slip through the crack when I use it. And it helps to keep my mind uncluttered.
365 days to clear the clutter 