Photo by marklarson @ flickr
Indian proverb
There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms – a physical, an emotional, a mental and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.
It really is important to fully furnish each and every room to gain the fullness life offers.
Balance in life is paramount in order to succeed.
Begin at the beginning and remove emotional clutter
Curb the Clutter Photo by lylamerle @ flickr
Clear the clutter video
Remove emotional clutter
The main reason people end up stressed and out of balance is because we are not emotionally clear. It is easy to get so emotionally cluttered we can no longer even take inventory of what all is in there, stored away for decades. We often know we don’t feel as good as we could but just can’t easily articulate it and point to any one situation. The reason for that is because the emotional clutter is layered up like piles of dirt on a shiny diamond no one can find.
Clutter shelves photo by YellowDog @ flickr
Extremely cluttered conditions video
Emotional clutter builds up over time
Emotional clutter builds up over time. That clutter is like unwelcome cobwebs. When we are not visiting our emotional room soon after any life event it can disturb our inner house. Sometimes a life experience is just annoying like opening the door and a wind gust throws in a layer of fine dust that is easy to remove.
Other times an ongoing chronic life event can get overwhelming where it feels like you are buried in a blizzard trying to dig yourself out. Then there are those rapid fire intense life situations that feels like a hurricane came at you so hard you end up part of the Blue Roof (tarp) Club while waiting for repairs, left wondering how long it will take help to arrive in your personal disaster zone.
Cluttered desk photo by ChicagoEye @ flickr
Layers of life events create emotional clutter
Many life events come our way. The important thing is to take notice of the effect upon us emotionally and spiritually. Do we lose hope? Do we question our faith? Are we angry, fearful, resentful or disappointed?
Most of all: What do we do with these emotions? The worst thing to do is ignore them. That’s when the clutter pile starts looking like a landfill dump.
The second worst thing is to set them aside for examination at a later date. Human nature being what it is that’s when procrastination comes in. We like to avoid what we think may be unpleasant or difficult. The thing is that when we visit our inner rooms on a daily basis none of this examination is difficult and takes little time. It’s the mile high pile that can be overwhelming.
Eye closeup photo by Nikki L. @ flickr
First step to removing emotional clutter
Who wants to experience joy only every now and then? Why not a steady stream on a daily basis? The first step to removing emotional clutter is to set aside guilt and self-condemnation for getting into this fix in the first place. Relax. Mankind has had this issue for millennia and will continue until universal spiritual principles are taught to every generation in the schools and at home instead of only in a religious situation.
Too often people have been taught to get tough, deal with it and move on. That’s usually the response of others who have yet to develop emotional maturity in the area of compassion for others. While it’s great to learn to be tougher and eventually move on, there is little taught about the process of achieving that success. People are just expected to do it because they are considered to be inconveniencing those around them. That’s an attitude that does nothing to contribute to the troubled person’s ability to process. In fact, all it does is create another layer of emotional resentment added to the overwhelming pile.
Take your focus off others and place it on the inner you
Don’t allow other people to influence you into feeling guilty or unworthy. All this does is cause you to focus upon resenting them. Instead, focus upon the emotional clutter as a project of an inner room you want to air by throwing open the windows to bring in fresh ideas. Take your focus off what is outside of you and place it on the inner you. That brings a calm and clarity, especially when lovingly visited with only kind emotions. There really is something to be said for the philosophy of being kind to yourself after you have heard a litany of negativity from toxic people.
DREAMS photo by stephentrepreneur @ flickr
Get happy, get organized! Video
Second step to removing emotional clutter
Visualization. Good old-fashioned daydreaming is what visualization really is all about. What could be more fun than that? You get to create situations in your mind and dream about what could be.
Sofa on a cloud photo by ….. dotted ….. @ flickr
Visualization is a valuable tool for removing emotional clutter. Using this technique to help heal is easy and useful on a constant basis. There is no end to the ideas you can imagine to solve any problem. Solutions always take place in your inner rooms. Our best inspiration is waiting there for us to visit and decide to use for our benefit.
Rusted office files Photo by biskuit @ flickr
Visualization exercise
An easy inner mind exercise is the one of emptying your filing cabinet. How often do we find ourselves buried in a sea of paperwork at work or in our home offices? Well, the same holds true for our emotional clutter.
Imagine your filing cabinet stuffed so full you can’t close the drawers no matter how much you push and shove to try to force it. You see manila folders all over the floor piled high up against the walls. Loose papers are falling out and spreading all over the place in a total mess. You can’t even walk into the room without wondering if you will slip and fall. The bookcases are a total disaster. You can’t find anything as it is all out of order. The same holds true for confused emotions not knowing how to express themselves.
Put your 800 pound gorilla to work FOR you
Closeup gorilla face photo by TXZeiss @ flickr
See yourself rolling in a really huge garbage can. Make this visualization fun. Enlist an 800 pound gorilla to sweetly be your clutter aide. Now start emptying that filing cabinet. Make sure you remove every piece of paper. Remember nothing is important in this room and it all has to go.
Keep going through all your files. Trash all the files sitting on the floor piled high. Hand them to your big gorilla to put into the garbage can. Now go to the bookcases and clear the shelves of all clutter. Keep nothing. Your gorilla is strong enough to carry the files to the trash.
Achieving your goal
Notice the clutter is beginning to disappear and you can now see the floor again. Look! The computer desk is right where you left it! Look! You can see the bookcase once again! Inner progress is wonderful, isn’t it? Inform your sweet gorilla to wheel the garbage can out to the street for trash pick-up in a few moments.
Make sure you go to the window and wait for the garbage truck as it suddenly arrives. You and your gorilla are enjoying the moment. He has his big arm around your shoulders to congratulate you on a job well done. You both smile and high-five as the garbage truck empties your can and starts to crush all that clutter that once overwhelmed you.
It’s been a good day. Success!
Success is won on a daily basis
Black and white dress for success photo by _cr_ @ flickr
Success is won on a daily basis. Use this visualization for several days in a row. It’s like dressing for success on the inside. What you will find out is that emotional clutter was just an unconscious habit. Habits don’t go away overnight.
New habits can develop
New habits can develop. The habit you are developing here is the habit of removing emotional clutter before it can build up into an intolerable mess. Your goal is to remain emotionally clear and you achieve that goal by removing daily clutter.
The next step to maintaining your joy is how to stop the emotional clutter from developing to such an intolerable level in the first place.
Balancing rock of Green Bay, Fish Creek, Wisconsin, USA Photo by James Jordan @ flickr
Summary
Balance in life: important
Balance in life is paramount in order to succeed. Joy is necessary to maintain your balance in life. The best way to maintain your joy is to remove emotional clutter.
Emotional clutter builds up over time. The first step to removing emotional clutter is to set aside guilt and self-condemnation. Take your focus off what is outside of you and place it on the inner you.
Visualization is a valuable tool for removing emotional clutter. Success is won on a daily basis. Use visualization for several days in a row. Your goal is to remain emotionally clear and you achieve that goal by removing daily clutter. There is no end to the ideas you can imagine to solve any problem. Solutions always take place in your inner rooms. Our best inspiration is waiting there for us to visit and decide to use for our benefit and our healing.
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