Have you ever felt so stressed out and then stop and look around the room? It’s messy and needs to be picked up, and then you feel even more stressed out? If you’ve ever felt this way, then you know that clutter can lead to more anxiety and stress. For more info about living without clutter, please read my post about Simplifying Your Life with Minimalism.
Jaya Jaya Myra writes the following article. If looking around your house and seeing all the clutter makes you stressed out, this article is for you.
May 10th is National Clean Your Room Day; so now is the perfect time to declutter that messy room of yours! But wait, did you know that cleaning your physical space can also improve your overall mind-body wellness as well?
Jaya Jaya Myra, former immunologist turned mind-body wellness expert and bestselling author, highlights the importance of decluttering your physical space in order to improve your overall health and wellbeing.
“Physical clutter equals mental clutter: it’s impossible to have a clear head when your space is dirty or unorganized. When someone comes to me to learn meditation or mindfulness, one of the first things I have people do is clean their house and keep their primary living space organized and clutter-free. Eliminating external clutter makes it much easier to meditate and be mindful, and it will also improve your mood, reduce stress and anxiety and more.”
Jaya Jaya Myra
Here’s Jaya Jaya Myra’s
4 Tips to Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety Brought on by Clutter
Tip #1: Start Small
Pick the room you spend the most time in. Commit to keeping it clean and clutter-free. Once you do this it will become easier to tackle those other places that need more work
Tip #2: Identify How Stuff Makes You Feel
Take time to feel how things in your space make you feel. If something you have doesn’t make you feel good, for any reason, get rid of it to make space for something that does. This could be a piece of art, furniture, clothes, dishes, or just about anything. The stuff we have becomes a trigger for different emotional states, so when you choose to only have things around that evoke happiness or contentment, you create that in your life
Tip #3: Breathe
Even cleaning your space can be daunting, so take a moment to breathe deeply and focus on the space you want to create for yourself. Breathing is connected to good mental health and lowering stress levels, so take a deep breath or ten before you start. It will help you focus and get motivated
Tip #4: Create Beauty
Committing to creating beauty in your space is a powerful way to ensure you focus on feeling good and keeping your mood up. Maybe this is a bouquet of flowers or potted plants, a beautiful piece of art, or something handmade. Whatever you find beautiful, add it to your space. This will help you create what you want and be willing to let go of things no longer serving you.
It may seem like you can’t possibly take the time to clean out your room but believe me, it makes you feel so much better. For me, I can’t work at my desk unless the desk and room are cleaned. I feel out of sorts and unable to focus with all the clutter around me. So I will stop and clean up pretty quickly and then sit down and get back to it.
As mentioned above, start small or even in a small space where you spend most of your time. If you work from home, focus on getting that spaced cleaned up. I’m sure you spend a lot of time there and can benefit throughout your day from a tidied up space.
I’ve also found it helpful to only have things you really love in your home. You tend to want to keep the space tidy when you love everything around you. Plus when you look around it makes you feel happy.
Happy decluttering!
