Declutter Your Mind

It’s been a bit since I wrote , a lot of things have been happening around here. And while change is good, it doesn’t always feel that way in the moment.

The last several weeks each time I sat down to write something about my class that I’m learning it just kind of left in a breath. My inspiration has been dampened a bit and you know what that’s ok. It really is OK. If it’s one thing I’ve learned in my journey with mental health it’s – I have to take it easy on myself. 

Things can wait, things will not fall apart if I take time for myself- this includes laundry! It can wait, sure it will pile up, but it’s not going anywhere. I won’t lose my mind over hustling around cleaning clothes. My kids have things to wear, it’s not the end of the world. 

Micro tasks help me out a lot. Pardon me for keeping with the laundry theme but I had four kids under the roof at one point and that’s a lot of laundry plus my own. Five loads ( not even counting bedding or towels)

 I could look at the whole picture of oh my god five loads of laundry! Or I could look at one basket and not thinking about anything but that one load. Focusing on setting clothes in the washer, or transferring them to the dryer, or even taking them out. Keeping my thoughts solely on what is being done in that moment, even if it’s the task of washing my hands.

That mindfulness, refocuses your attention to what is in that moment compared to things that are outside the moment. What’s for dinner, was the bill paid?, what’s wrong with the car, an old conversation with a friend, or a mistake made earlier in the week. All of that is clutter in your mind and it just ends up weighing you down in the end. That clutter of thoughts grows into stress and tension in your body.

Just like you declutter your house, you have to declutter your thoughts. I have two ways to declutter my thoughts, the first one I’ve mentioned already above, it’s just a matter of being mindful of the present moment. What’s actually happening around me? If I’m doing laundry, there’s no reason for my thoughts to be worrying about a bill that’s due in three weeks now is there? No, so I let that go. There’s no reason for me to be upset at forgetting to pick up an extra loaf of bread yesterday is there? Nope, let that thought go. I ask myself questions and by answering them one by one I end up letting go of what doesn’t matter and isn’t actually happening in the moment. In the end I am able to focus just on the laundry, or the main task at hand and not be tense while ten other thoughts or more are bouncing around my head. It’s natural to have thoughts, but those stressful ones don’t have to be at the forefront all the time. It takes time to re-train your brain to let those thoughts that don’t matter go. 

My second way to declutter is journaling. Just writing random things down to get them off my mind and walk away from it. It helps a lot and sometimes I end up throwing the paper away because I realize after getting it off my mind non of it even mattered to start with, which then makes me laugh ! How silly it is to let my mind fill up with such silly things? Ha! In the end if I can laugh at myself I know I’ve decluttered well enough, and I feel much better.

However you declutter your thoughts, remember to be kind to yourself while doing it.  Try to do some micro tasks instead of looking at a huge list of things to do. Make a big deal when you finish a task, blast some music and dance if it makes you happy. Slowly and surely you’ll get better at managing your thoughts and things won’t seem as big a deal as they did before because you’re able to handle it better. 

How do you declutter your mind? Do you have any tips on how to deal with stressful thoughts?