Five Ways to Declutter Your Mind

Organizing your inside is equally as important as tackling the outside. So much of what people carry with him manifests itself as physical, mental and emotional clutter. It is one reason I try to help my clients get to the route of their clutter. This is the best way to be aware and work through the emotion, thoughts or words that hinder the full organizing journey. In this edition we will focus on mentally decluttering. All tasks (good, bad or otherwise) can weigh you down especially if they are connected to big emotion.

The brain can become fatigued with the plethora of things we hang onto. Decision making can become a real chore, shutting down the necessity in making a decision. Feeling stuck is one of the biggest side effects of mental clutter. Stimulus from so many different people, places or things make it necessary to declutter.

The goal of mentally decluttering is personal for you. I am not a Professional Therapist and if you feel you need more support for your mental state than this blog provides, please consult with someone.

Healthy and Happy Ways to Declutter Your Mind:

Keep A Journal

Personally, I find a journal good for everything. in talking about decluttering the mind, a journal can really allow you to throw all of the thoughts floating around and capture them on paper. From the paper, you now have a birds eye view of what was going on in your mind. I highly encourage you to sit with your purged thoughts and determine what is really true and what is a made up useless thought. Hang onto the good thoughts and let the others go in the trash or shredder. Create a daily/weekly list of things that you need to do I cannot stress this enough! Taking a few minutes as you begin the week to get a rough idea of tasks, deadlines or other important things will un-jumble some of the thoughts that hold up progress due to overwhelm. Either the night before or the morning of, take a look at your weekly list and plug in the most important tasks for the day. If you complete those and have extra time, have some others listed. (do not feel you need to do those tasks!) Writing these things down creates a paper to brain connection which is essential to completing tasks. This exercise frees your mind from carrying so much of what you don’t need so you can focus your brain on what you do need.

Get Outside

Every day you can benefit from some outdoor time. The body and mind love to be connected to nature. It should be at least 15 minutes, the more the better. If you can be outside in your bare feet, even better. There have been many studies about the importance of grounding ourselves, that is bare feet and outside. Most of us fail to get outside much and rarely go in bare feet. Walking outside brings benefit to your mind and
your body. It is so healthy for us!!! Start small and work up to a good walk each day.

Sit Quietly

Our world is so noisy!! Think about how much time you actually sit in silence, probably not much, am I right? Silence is just YOU, unplugged!!! As you begin this practice you may even struggle to sit in silence without a phone, headphones, tv or music for five minutes! Start there and gradually increase. You will find yourself wanting to sit longer and longer. Pick a time that is practical so you can be successful. Trying to be silent
when you have little children running around is not practical. You may try to get up a few minutes earlier or stay up a few minutes later to do this. It is worth the sacrifice it will take for some of us in the beginning.

Hang Out With A Friend or Family Member
People who bring positive energy to the relationship are great people to have a phone call with or a lunch date. I encourage you to avoid the person that drains you, this is not part of decluttering your mind. Laughter is a wonderful way to release happy chemicals in the brain that make you healthy and happy.

Taking care of your inside is essential in living organized. Clutter builds up over time until it invades all aspects of your life. Learning some healthy ways to declutter your mind can help prevent further issues with clutter.