One of the leading hidden causes of depression and other mental illnesses is said to be excess clutter in our lives. The truth is we are magnets for clutter, and living in today’s complex world only exacerbates the problem. So, what do we do about it? Here are four ideas that will help:
1. Identify and Dispense with Physical Clutter
There’s the obvious presence of unnecessary possessions that hamper our happiness—more is not necessarily more, but the opposite is true. Less is often more. This applies to our use of time and number of committed activities, and our relationships so far as conflict is concerned, also.
The presence of material, chronological, and relational clutter is not all that’s in scope here. Our health, diet, and physical fitness are also reminders of the simple and effective life. As we set ourselves health-related goals, and plan on achieving them, we rid ourselves of enemies to our diligence.
Diligence is the key to greater physical prosperity, and nothing may augment de-cluttering our lives better than feeling good in our own skin.
2. Challenge and Debunk Mental Clutter
There’s a lot of potential clutter in everyone’s thinking, but it’s difficult to discover it when we are so used to thinking our certain ways.
Our relationships, capacities, and confidence all play their part in reinforcing established thinking patterns or paving new ones. Generally, all of this happens under the radar, at a subconscious level of the mind.
Understanding our pasts, and how they inform our present and future, is a key to challenging and debunking incorrect thinking that presents as mental clutter. Dealing with our incidences of rejection at the hand of others, for good example, may help in revealing the false thinking patterns we’ve established. One by one these can be repealed, but first we must become aware of them.
Dealing with our emotional clutter can help.
3. Deal With Emotional Clutter
We only have to think in terms of past, future, and present, again, to begin to understand there are feelings that present in certain situations—not all of these are positive. Indeed, some of these have created, or continue to create, much pain for us.
Emotional clutter can be classified as feelings that continue to take us in the wrong direction. If we accept these feelings are counter-productive, and unnecessary, we can begin to challenge the thinking behind them. We can use our minds to transform our thoughts and, therefore, our feelings.
4. Identify and Debunk Spiritual Clutter
False beliefs (which are nothing to do with beliefs in God, per se) are an insidious nemesis. These are the things that support superstitions, non-productive values, and ill-directed priorities.
These untrue beliefs affect our spirituality. Using our mind and our emotions we can search both our thinking and feelings for the presence of untruth. As these are revealed we can begin the debunking process, replacing them with beliefs that are enshrined in truth. This way our spirituality shores up our thinking and feeling.
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Clutter, as we’ve seen above, can be best categorised and dealt with in the realms of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, respectively. Each of these holds a key to unlocking more of the good life—that which is harnessed in truth.
Freedom awaits; if we identify, challenge, debunk, and rid ourselves of clutter. Simpler lives are abundantly powerful lives!
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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