I have recently been in the process of de-cluttering my flat, and as it turns out, my life. Historically, de-cluttering has been very difficult for me, so this time I chose to ask for support. At the moment a beautiful friend has been coming over every week specifically for this.
We have been tackling one area at a time – whatever area I have been ready to look at.
Now that we have almost gone around de-cluttering every bit of my flat, I am aware most areas have just had the first go. I could in fact re-visit each area and go deeper.
What a beautiful metaphor de-cluttering is for all the issues and patterns I have been getting frustrated with in my life in general. I realised:
- I could look at my life as a big project like my flat, and see each issue as an area requiring a de-clutter.
- I can enlist help to stop me from getting overwhelmed when I have resistance.
- I can look at one area at a time, doing whatever area I am ready to tackle, to the level I am ready to and then later on I will quite likely see I could go back and do even more.
The fact that I was not ready to de-clutter some areas did not mean I was not committed to clearing my flat. In fact, my choice to focus on one area at a time and avoid overwhelming myself was very productive as well as deeply self-loving.
Also the fact that I could see the possibility to do more in many areas by no means reduced the fact that amazing, celebration-worthy changes had already been made.
In fact, my ability to know I could go deeper was testament to how far I had come.
Seeing this as a parallel in my life, I now have a different way of considering my life: that my ability to acknowledge there are issues to be worked on, and my choice to engage with the process in itself, shows how amazing I am. It is fine, and in fact useful, to tackle one thing at a time and at a pace I am ready for.
Enlisting support and inspiration when I feel I need it is being self-loving and responsible.
When I spot that more work is required in an area it is worth celebrating my readiness to go deeper. De-cluttering is an on-going, forever deepening project that will never end, because there is always a deeper level of amazingness I can develop – in my flat and myself.
This way of looking at life and appreciating its reflections has been inspired by the presentations and example provided by Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
By Golnaz Shariatadeh, BSc, London, UK
462 Comments
I have been supporting someone to de-clutter their home over the last few months, so coming to your blog today Golnaz, is so very timely. We have made our way through the first level of clutter which has been quite painful for this man at times as his wife passed away earlier this year, but with each item that has been cleared out he could not only feel the space in the home but also in him. We know that there is much more to go, but by taking it one step at a time, it can be the most beautiful healing process, on many levels.
We are very good at focusing on what’s wrong in ourselves and our environment and needs support or fixing, but there are many opportunities, sometimes overlooked, to simply feel and enjoy who we are and exactly where our life is.
Even looking at this picture in the beginning of this blog can make you feel overwhelmed, the ‘where shall I start’ question is right there, so doing one area at the time seems to me a great starting point.
Thank you for the gift of this blog. As I started reading it I could feel myself getting overwhelmed as I looked round and saw things to do, in fact not just a few things, lots, tonnes perhaps! I could feel the sense of where do I start creeping in and then I read this line “When I spot that more work is required in an area it is worth celebrating my readiness to go deeper.” Then my body eased. I am ready to see what I have taken as normal that is, in fact, not normal and do something about it.
Having recently had support with tackling decluttering my study I can attest to the value of having someone to be my own personal cheerleader, to reflect different ways to approach the task when I am getting stuck or going into overwhelm and to remind me to appreciate what has been achieved.
I love hearing about your decluttering Golnaz – just reading this made me feel more spacious.
What I love about this is the very practical approach of recognising that we can easily get overwhelmed if we look at everything that needs to be done at once and this can often immobilise us from just getting on with the next step.
What I have found is that having caught the decluttering bug, this opens the door to creativity as I get some super ideas while just pottering around the house….
Keeping life simple, means less stress and tension in our bodies so there is more space in our bodies for clarity and clear decision making which is supported by a well organised, clean and spacious home that is kept clutter free.
Absolutely Jacqueline we are supported on so many levels when we let go of complication.
‘Enlisting support and inspiration when I feel I need it is being self-loving and responsible.’ It is, asking for support is very loving towards ourselves – and normally others are very willing to lend a helping hand
I love how you take de-cluttering to another dimension here Golnaz. It’s so true that once we have cleared space inside us for more light, our spirit has a way of quickly junking it up – whereas we could focus on making even more and going deeper with Love than we ever have before.
I love the way you address declutterring in both a physical sense and as a metaphor for how we are in life. Much complication is caused by choices without physical manifestations. The way we interact with our environment reflects this.
True Golnaz de-cluttering is an ongoing never ending process, but always deepening process because yes, there is always more that’s why we are asked to enjoy the process and not focussing on an end result but to bring in appreciation and contentment to make it light and purposeful.
Yes when we focus on getting to the end of something we lose sight of how much there is to appreciate and learn in the process of undertaking a task.
We can often feel disheartened when things don’t change overnight or when an issue keeps resurfacing, but like decluttering a home, it takes time, dedication and consistency and sometimes there is something we were not ready to let go of or see the first few times round.
Yes, this is such Love! we are only given what we are ready to deal with and the opportunity that awareness offers let’s me know that whatever happens in my life, I am held by a Love I have yet to truly understand in full.
Yesterday I turned out loads of old electric light bulbs. They had been in a cupboard where I keep the hoover and broom and paper bags etc. The paper bags get cleared out regularly but the light bulbs have been there since I moved in to the property 13 years ago. I have been keeping them just in case. Amazing how suddenly after all this time I feel impulsed to clear all of them that are not relevant to my current use and take then to the charity shop. I feel younger and freer and less encumbered, and yes I can feel the space that moving them out has given…it seems far greater than the actual shelf space they occupied.
Feeling all that space in your body Elaine – and although we can’t see the new space in our body we sure can feel it!
Oh heavens, I have a box of light bulbs that are my just in case! I will check they are still relevant to the light fittings we have and ensure all lights are working so I am not leaving light unsparked! I can’t help considering if this is a metaphor for my next step in life…
Ooooh those ‘just in case’ boxes! I know them very well…
I’ve fallen in that trend too, from the idea of not depending on anybody or not investing money in the future for something that I have now. But this is a trap in itself that ends burdening me, as I don’t have to load something that I don’t need at the moment. Why not walk lighter through life without storing unnecessary things? Why not trusting that I will be supplied whatever I need in the moment I need it? Maybe is there some kind of control behind all of this? If so, let’s de-clutter control first!
Our lives can be so cluttered… Understanding and implementing simplicity is extremely liberating
Beautiful to feel your appreciation of how far you have come. For I too have experienced how appreciation confirms the activity or expression of love, consolidating a loving foundation for us to be supported to explore deeper.
Decluttering ourselves and our surroundings is a beautiful healing experience, and I find that when I let go of something within me that no longer serves me, some item/s on the outside will present themselves to be discarded of. A beautiful reminder of how our outer world reflects our inner world.
The old adage proving to be true Elizabeth; as within as without.
Yes.. likewise how our bodies feel is reflected back to us in our life and vice versa. If I’m feeling like I’ve got no space for anything in my life, I know the answer is to first look within: am I moving in and with the space that is naturally inside us, or compressing and squashing it through how I move? Am I focused on getting stuff done as quickly as possible, or enjoying my quality as I go?
The embracing of simplicity in all areas of life offers a space not previously available.
I had a brilliant decluttering few days at the end of 2017, I find it’s a great way to end a year – discarding what we don’t need going forwards and organising what really deeply supports us to take the next step in life.
It is always a great thing to attend to the small details in our life… In the simplicity of these details, we find expansion within our inner being.
I am consistently decluttering my life. In effect you live in order by simplifying everything. Life flows and there is a joy to staying focused and initiating what is next. Holding onto things doesn’t provide the Glorious next that is there always waiting ..
I feel when you start with de-cluttering it is very easy to go in overwhelm as in the process you become aware you need to clear every area of the house, of your life. So it has to be appreciated when you start in one part. And when you go to the next you can enjoy what you have done first which makes the next already lighter.
It is like overwhelm is the theme, music is constantly playing for which we can tune into whenever we wanted… Thing is there is a much better soundtrack to tune into… Gentler, deeper and so much lighter.
De-cluttering is like peeling layers of resistance to release beliefs, patterns and possessions we’ve attached to for decades.
This is a great point Annelies. Perhaps the overwhelm we can go into when feeling that everything needs to change is a trick to stay stuck in our clutter. When we do one thing at a time in a way that is manageable and supportive we can move mountains without stress or overwhelm.
Sometimes if we focus on all the areas within the house which need to be clear, it can get overwhelming, so it is far easier to de-clutter when we take one area or one room and start from there. The important part for me when de-cluttering is to finish the room and not leave a pile to do later.
Last weekend I spent the day totally re-arranging my room, cleaning out all of my cupboards and washing and ironing all of my clothes and ordering them differently in my wardrobe. I found that it really supported me during the week to really honour and care for myself- everything was in place and it kept pulling me up to this.
That’s true and a great point – the way we organise our things either pulls us up or down.