Mind Chatter: Decluttering the mind.

Time for seeing what patterns show up in your external world that are results of your internal world. If you notice that there’s clutter some place in your home or car it is usually the same thing going on in the mind. How many thoughts are going on, arguments, are you being positive or negative on yourself? By shifting the thinking that is going on, we can declutter our lives.

Start with the mind. Check in with thoughts, emotions, fears, anything that doesn't best suit your goals. Making goals and knowing your progress has nothing to do with  making yourself wrong for NOT making the progress.

It starts for us as kids and if no one taught us a way to manage and be creative in a positive way, we find our selves living in similar situations we did as teens. That’s as far as we got. It's like a garage that keeps getting garbage and gold thrown in and over time is piled up.  Time to let go of the garbage but have to do the weeding through the stench to find the gold!

The old self, the teen is doing the tossing here. Never got past what it was like to live with your parents? Did they not teach you how to manage? Were you having to survive something in the family? Were things expected to be too clean, so you had too much pressure?

How do you choose what it is to be now, at your age today?

There's two sides to this one. If it’s too neat and you’re worried about what other people think and are really aggressive about it, it really is the different side of the same coin. Still based in the past and what you were not trained on how to be peaceful. Overwhelmed again? Don't know where to start? Too much to do? Your answers are wrapped up in the question.

The trick here is to create from how you see yourself as Peace-full --- instead. How you would like it to be.

Not-Perfect-Living in action:

FIRST. If things are cluttered spend a week only touching 5 things a day. It takes the stress out of feeling overwhelmed. Then see how it is at the end of a week. And don't add to the pile. If you have a free day, you still only touch 5 at a time. Then you go to another space or go for a walk but leave the mess for an hour in between taking care of 5 things.

If you are totally a neat freak because of doing it right, challenge yourself to not touch anything for a few days. Wipe the counter but catch yourself pressuring to dust, vacuum, what is wrong, not enough, still dirty. Just an exercise, and if the idea bugs you and you think I'm wacked for suggesting it, there may be something in there to look at. No jazz = nothing to learn, little bit of jazz and defensiveness = something going on from the past, something to learn.

SECOND: Get a team in place to support you in changing this and feeling Peace-full. I know someone who has monthly work days at other people's homes. A group of 8 and every month they go over one day and do a “honey-do” list for each other. Ever notice it is easier to work on someone else’s stuff than your own?

THIRD! What is the mind saying during all this? Is it at peace and totally comfortable? Are you making yourself wrong, making me wrong, having a list of should’s, someone else needs to be the one to do this....are you defensive? overwhelmed? Shut it off! Call it the great debate. You think a negative, you debate it back with something that calms you, a support of what you are doing well and how much progress you have made. Get some masking tape and make a bracelet and mark on it every time you have a negative thought about anything and see how much time you spend there!

 Not-Perfect-Living doesn't mean justifications and ignoring what and where you wish to be. It means naming what is not perfect and choosing something different.... declutter the chatter. Get clear on what you want, know who you are and know that you can do and be anything, in any way. What is relaxing? Does it feel good to sit in that space? Does it feel good and Peace-full to listen to your chatter every day? Is everyone else in your family/friends comfortable around you and in your space? Declutter! Hey, maybe you can make some money on selling it! Sell your mind chatter!!! 

www. WiseConsult4u.com (Adapted from Elaine’s upcoming book “It’s All Good: Journeys in Not-Perfect-Living” © Elaine Clark, M.A. WiseLife Consulting 2008)