Moving Mind Like Moving House
What parallels are there between cleaning out the junk from home and cleaning out the junk from your mind?
I have had some odd thoughts go through my mind of late, and one of which came about when I was cleaning out some cupboards and reflecting on the amount of junk that I seem to have accumulated. And honestly, I don’t want to face my garage. It has “STUFF” piled up that needs sorting into shredding, and dumping, and packing away (old files) into boxes or selling.
I was ruminating about how we acquire so much and such a lot of it is worthless, and yet, such a lot of it is worthwhile. I mean to say, surely I will need that roll of white paper again one day? It’s important to keep those old certificates isn’t it?
(No, never mind that they are years old and no-one is even interested because there is no accreditation connected to them; I should hang on to them in case one day, I want to show them to someone! This is where you need a good friend to say very loudly and firmly “SERIOUSLY? NO YOU DON’T NEED OR WANT THAT ANY MORE, JUST GET RID OF IT NOW.”)
LET IT GO?
The garage is rather like our innermost mind’s locked vault where we store thoughts, emotions, and memories that we’ve accumulated over our lifetime. And some of those can be quite depressing. And how many of those do we hang onto because:
a. we don’t want to let them go,
b. we don’t know how to let them go, (I can help with this)
c. we cannot recognise the impact on us, so we haven’t bothered to sort them into positive impact and negative impact, to even recognise how it is affecting us.
So often, we are completely unaware that we are still receiving an impact because there is a blocking or gateway filter from our subconscious. We are not consciously aware of what’s going on deep inside the subconscious, and that filter makes it difficult to recognise we need to do the clean-out.
In the garage there are all those boxes of stuff that we have forgotten about and forgotten what the contents were, until we start trolling through it, like a trip down memory lane. Some of that trip invokes pleasant happy feelings, while others? Well, let’s not go there just yet.
Now I’m sure that you, like me, have things that can be recycled, sold on eBay or Gumtree, or at a GARAGE SALE!! Let’s see, there are two, not one, but two cat beds (Master will only sleep on my bed), a cat tunnel that he was disdainful of, some fishing gear, some camping gear, a fish tank stand minus the fish tank, a fold-up camping table, a squash racquet, various novels…. yes I’ll stop there before I embarass myself any further, oh and there’s the hutch for a desk and …alright I hear you I’ve stopped.
Which means that inside your mind, there are bound to be old things that you can shake out, dust off and THROW OUT, or simply repurpose them to a higher value. How can you do that with the stuff in your head? Well, unless you have a Stephen Spielberg creative streak those old ideas might not be worth anything…, and they might be. Ideas – get them out, write them down in a special book and decide what to do with them, and that empties that closet.
Next, what can you learn from the challenges, difficulties, sadness, mistakes, wrong-doings of the past? By learning what you will do or as Meatloaf so beautifully sings “…I just won’t do that”, you’ve learnt and that makes it okay to let go of the experiences and memories of the past that have been hindering you or holding you back, keeping you stuck in the past.
As one of my clients said about a long-ago and frightful experience, “I had no idea that I could think of myself as resourceful during that time, and you’re right, I was being resourceful.” She felt so much better afterwards because it was a real light-bulb moment for her. Isn’t that a wonderful example of re-purposing some old beliefs into a positive framework for your mind?
I’m going to put a challenge to you, (and sigh, that means me as well)…
Here’s the challenge: clean out that old stuff from the garage, or kitchen cupboards or the sideboard or the basement or attic and notice what happens inside of you… and your mind.
Physically, I’m betting that you will feel lighter and more energetic for it. Mentally, I’m betting that you will feel happier for it. Why? Doing physical activity is a complete reflection of doing internal mental activity. And in the case of physical junk in the garage, I think you have to do more than simply visualizing a clean garage. Or maybe not … Maybe visualise it all gone and don’t blame me if you get robbed.
Remember the old saying: everything out there is simply a reflection of everything in there.
So, here’s the question: will you take the challenge?
Let me know in your comments what you will clean out from your physical environment and let’s report back in 14 days from when you posted your comment. After you have done the challenge, repost what the effect has been on your mind, body and soul, let us know what happened. And of course, if you need a friend to help you clean out the dust and gunk from your mind, well then…
I think it is possible to clean out both mentally and physically (internally and externally) on a major scale and, well, that’s what I did recently when I cleared a mental pattern with the help of my beautiful friend Jennifer Peterson (Mob: 0412 111 038) from Mackay. That, however is the topic for another blog post another day.
