It’s so hard to be productive and happy when there is either clutter or chaos in your life. You can’t see where you’re going because if you have physical clutter/chaos, you can be assured that you have mental, emotional and even spiritual clutter/chaos as well. That’s a perfect formula for spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.

Can you sit quietly and be relaxed without chatter in your mind? If the answer is no, if you sit and hear voices arguing back and forth telling you what you should or shouldn’t be doing, then there is plenty of clutter in your mind. What do you think you can get done when there is no stillness for you to go to? How can you possibly hear what the Universe has to say when there’s so much noise in there?

More importantly, once you realize you have all this chaos and clutter, what do you do about it? How can you get rid of it?

First, you have to decide that you want to get rid of it, that you want to clean it up. But in order to do that, you have to know WHY you want to create order out of chaos. And the answer “because that’s what you should do” is not the answer. Sometimes the clutter serves a valuable purpose. What would you be thinking or feeling if you didn’t have all that ‘stuff’ keeping you busy. Would you have to feel old pains, fears, anxieties? Often that’s the reason for the clutter. It takes up space and you don’t have to deal with the past and all the pain that’s associated with it. I know. I’ve been there and in many respects I’m still there even though better.

You have to decide that you want to have quiet and you want to face whatever might come up when you’re in the quiet. Are you ready to experience the feelings that might show up? Can you forgive whomever might have caused you that pain? Can you move on? Do you have other thoughts and ideas you want to put in that space? This takes some planning. Know what it is you want to put in there before you start trying to eliminate the chaos and clean up the clutter.

Then start with some basic meditation. If you’re like me, that’s not so easy. It’s hard to quiet your mind. But you have to try. It takes time to become good at meditating. But just start with sitting quietly and focus on a spot on your wall or a noise in your house. There shouldn’t be any distractions though – turn off your TVs and radios, make sure the kids are out of the house and you have a few minutes (it only takes a few minutes until you get comfortable and happy with it).

You should also consider journaling to get rid of many of the thoughts in your mind. You can do a “Brain Dump” where you get all your concerns and worries out of your mind and onto paper. Once it’s written down, it frees up space in your mind. It’s kind of interesting how that works. I have used that before I started doing any meditation. I think it’s based on the fact that once it’s written down you don’t feel as if you have to worry about it any more. So you can forget it. The brain cells you’ve been using trying to remember every little thing are now free to go on to something else.  They are no longer worried since they know you’ve got whatever it was down on paper.

Gratitude exercises are also helpful. The more you’re grateful and express that to the Universe, it calms your energy and puts you in greater alignment so you can move on to other things. You should make it a habit every day, to either write or state ten things that you are grateful for in your life. Try to include various aspects of your life too – spiritual, financial, health, well-being, relationships, etc.

It’s a good idea to write down the thoughts you want to take the place of the clutter. This can be in the form of goals or other ideas you want to work on. Have a plan for how you’re going to fill in the void.

Do you have any other things that you’ve done to clear the clutter? Share them with us if you do….

Terrie