Spring cleaning your mind

Your mind creates your experiences of life, impacting on how you feel, how you show up in the world and the actions you take every day. When you wake up to the lies and stories you tell yourself about how you’re not good enough, smart enough, will never have what it takes to be successful, we become mindful about what goes on in our minds.

Cleaning our your mind clutter can be overwhelming to start with when you realise just how much mind clutter you’ve accumulated over the years.

Podcast fave Tonya Leigh suggested a way of clearing the clutter that starts with  picking one area in your life that is causing you the most suffering or pain, or the area of least satisfaction, or the area you’re most excited about improving.  Then figure out what’s in that area and pull everything out in the open, and decide whether that thought belongs in that space, or is it creating the results you want in your life.  If not, it’s time to let it go.

She suggested it might be easier to write down all your thoughts about this area of your life.  This allows you to distance yourself from it and look at it more objectively.

You need to be clear about writing the facts e.g. how much you have in your bank account, if finance is the area you want to work on. Decide what your thoughts are about this fact.  Some may see that as more money than they could ever dream to have, whilst others may consider it not enough.  We can all have different opinions about the same fact.

You may feel that some of your thoughts, the ones you’ve felt for a very long time, are true.  You’ll need to decide which of those thoughts or beliefs you want to change and ask yourself the Marie Kondo question of whether it sparks joy, confidence, passion, abundance or whatever it is you’re looking to create. If it doesn’t then it has to go.  Does this thought belong in your future?

You won’t change anything overnight but what could you practice making small shifts towards and what will you be willing to let go.  One day you’ll realise you no longer or rarely thing about it anymore.

TL implores us to thing like the person in your future and start cleaning up your mind one thought at a time.

I have plans next year to start working hard on one aspect of life that I am currently dissatisfied with, which when I think about it, does probably cause some suffering and pain (not physically). I’m not sure how I’m going to tackle it yet, but in my mind I have a brainstorming mind map of all the people it would involve with some clear aims and actions around it, and what I would determine as success criteria.

Maybe when I get that area of my life sorted, it’ll be one less thing to worry about.