Have I been able to inspire you with last month’s post to do a Love Tour in your home? I truly believe that our homes are a mirror of our souls. Everything around us reflects — in one way or another — what is going on inside of us. Our home reflects how we treat ourselves, which is why I say decluttering is self-love.
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For example, if you have chaotic surroundings, your mental and emotional state is in turmoil and chaos as well. Clutter overloads our senses, just like multitasking overloads our brain.
My all time favorite quote is by Hermes Trismegistus:
“As above — so below,
As within — so without.
As the Universe – so the soul“
His wisdom is thousands of years old, but was dismissed for a long time. Scientific studies are now able to prove this concept by watching and analyzing our brain waves.
It is widely acknowledged now that the outer environment indeed influences our mental state — specifically our stress levels. A calm environment makes us calmer, while a cluttered environment stresses us out.
The size of an American home has almost tripled in size over the past 50 years. An average household has 300,000 items in it! 25% of the people with a two-car garage can’t park their cars in it because the garage is full of stuff. Only 32% can park at least one car.
Even though our houses are bigger than ever, almost 10% of American households have to rent a storage unit to store some of their things!
All this “stuff” weighs heavily on us. You might not consciously feel it right now, but you are like the proverbial frog that slowly gets boiled in water. You don’t notice it at first. Once you start decluttering and organizing your surroundings, you will feel a weight being lifted off your shoulders.
I hear this over and over from my clients, and here is a comment I received during one of the “Decluttering is Self-Love”-Challenges:
“I have a whole new perspective now, and my relationship with “stuff” has evolved along the way. I have removed literally 2 truckloads of stuff from my home so far. Stuff that has been weighing me down, mentally and emotionally. What a relief.” -Lea
A cluttered home and environment stresses us out in the best of times. When we are doing good and our life is normal. But imagine for a minute that you experience a trauma or grief. For example, the loss of a loved one, a bad accident, or a scary health diagnosis. Now more than ever, you need a supportive, calm and peaceful environment. One that doesn’t stress you out on top of it all.
This is one of the main reasons I help people declutter and organize. I know from experience that a supportive environment can help us to get through tough times, when we need all our energy just to get through the day.
If our environment is set up to support us, and our (automatic) daily habits keep things effortlessly going, it is like a comfortable mattress that softens the fall a little bit. It is structures and habits that act like lifesavers. (I actually wrote a blog post about this already 4.5 years ago here on my website).
When clutter and chaos starts building up around us, we should pay attention to what is going on inside of us. Or, if you notice that a loved one, a friend, or a neighbor all of a sudden has a cluttered and messy home, it could be a sign that something traumatic is going on. It can be an indication of something challenging happening in their life, and a sign that they might need help.
In situations like this it is very helpful to have a clutter clearing practitioner or coach like me that holds space, assists you (or that person), and helps you get started. As I said in my article “Principles not Rules”, if you tackle too big of a project and don’t manage your energy while decluttering, you quickly start to feel exhausted. You might crush and burn in the middle of the project, which would be counterproductive in this situation.
Now even without trauma or grief, if you just have a sense of “stuckness” or feel disoriented in your life, or you are longing for more drive, more love, more clarity, more luck, more flow, more abundance in your life, you can start with your home.
Whatever you focus on will grow. If you focus on positive, beautiful things, and clean and clear space you will attract more of this in your life. If for example you want more clarity in your life, start creating more clarity in your home.
- Clean up the mess, remove the chaos, get rid of the cobwebs and dust bunnies
- Start implementing daily habits that keep your home organized
- give all the items a home and whenever you use something put it back
It sounds simplistic but it really helps. I am not saying it’s the cure for all, but it supports all the other efforts you are making to overcome turmoil, stress, and the sense of feeling stuck.
To summarize, “As within so without” goes both ways, while our home is a mirror of our soul, we can also turn this around and create the calm outside to influence our inside (our soul) and find more peace within.
We do that best remembering that, a few minutes a day keeps the chaos away.
CONNY GRAF
Conny Graf is a Swiss certified Expert in Finance & Accounting, a certified Clutter Clearing Practitioner, Astrologer, Coach, Podcaster and the founder and owner of From Chaos to Peace Consulting Inc.
She’s helping people create supportive, clutter-free environments in their home, office, files, and finances but more importantly, she helps them develop habits and systems that prevent clutter from creeping back in. Clutter Clearing is not just about purging and organizing, it’s about exploring and releasing the limiting beliefs we tell ourselves and the stories that keep us stuck in the past. Dealing with clutter brings us up-to-date with who we are right now and where we are heading in your life and business while being organized is simply a side-effect.
Her mission is to help people understand that decluttering is self-love, and a few minutes a day keep the clutter away. Come on a journey from chaos to peace with ease.
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