Those who know me know I am passionate about two things: health and organizing. These two topic come together in surprising ways. It’s best expressed by organization guru Flylady in her book “Body Clutter” and follows her housekeeping mantra that “You can’t organize clutter - you can only get rid of it.” So much for Spanx!
But I just completed an audio book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering. This is as much about the mental clutter between our ears as anything we have hiding in our closets.
STICK WITH ME HERE.
I pulled into the Iron Pit parking lot and had one of those driveway moments where something really profound and/or interesting is emanating from your radio, and you have to stop and hear it to the end.
The author suggested that there are only two reasons we keep things that we don’t love or can’t use.
We are either holding onto the past, or are afraid of the future.
Maybe it’s something someone you once loved gave you, or maybe you’re afraid that a future without this thing might be a less secure place.
People new to the Meltdown are at a critical time in the change process we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
The old things you’re hanging onto might be the habits that don’t promote your health, or an identity as someone who can’t or doesn’t do physically active things, or a mindset that the body you have is the one you are ‘stuck’ with. NONE of these are ‘things’ you _have_ to keep. They may all be things that served you once, but they are no longer necessary and in fact are counterproductive to achieving what you want to do and be NOW.
When you catch yourself hanging onto old thought patterns and ways of self-identifying, stop, acknowledge that that may have been true in the past, but that just like that Color Me Badd poster that once adorned the wall of the room I shared with my sister, it has lived out its useful life and is now a dated relic of old you. (Youtube that one yourselves and don’t blame me when you want to expunge the Earth of every copy of your high school yearbook…) 😀
All the best,
Marcey
Coach Marcey Tidwell is started as a client with NGPT in January 2011. Joining the team as an accountability coach, she wears many hats in assisting the Meltdown Nation! Nurse Marcey by day, she brings a wealth of knowledge the program!
