I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few months during lockdown. This pandemic has given us all a lot of time to really see ourselves and how we fit into the world. I don’t know about you but my initial response to Covid-19 was to have a big clear out. Sorting through ‘that’ cupboard. You know, the one where you bung all the stuff that has no place of its own, so it ends up becoming a cupboard of odds and ends. So I got everything out, bought loads of storage boxes and then Marie Kondo’d it. The process was surprisingly therapeutic.
I’d been putting this task off for years and was just accumulating more and more junk, so I got a bit overwhelmed by it. Even if I shut the door on it all I knew it was still there, taunting me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t go to bed every night fretting about it, but then again, I started to wonder how much that overflowing cupboard and other seemingly overwhelming and therefore uncompleted tasks were bothering my unconscious mind whilst I slept.
Imagine if we unloaded that burden from our mind at night. Imagine then, just how much lighter it would feel; like taking off a heavy backpack rather than trying to sleep with it on. If all that your mind had to focus on at night was resting, then all that renewed energy could be put to better use. It wouldn’t be wasted on trying to process all the feelings of guilt over jobs left undone, or all the worry and stress of what still needed to be done. No, it would be free to focus on things like healing; repairing our emotional and physical aches and pains, so that we could wake up feeling robust and resilient. And whilst our full cupboards and to do lists would still be there every morning, we’d have the strength of mind to approach them with a ‘can do’ attitude.
So I’ve started doing this every night, mentally taking off all the baggage of the day and putting it on my bedside table with my watch, my glasses and my book. And do you know what? It’s paying off. I’m actually waking up feeling alert and refreshed instead of tired. I can’t actually remember ever feeling that way before, except when I was a kid. I don’t even need coffee in the morning. I know, right? And because I’m not tired, I find that grumpy mum has been replaced with calm mum. The kids are delighted!
And what about that cupboard? Well everything has a proper place now, sitting neatly in transparent boxes, which means I now know where everything is. Foot pump for paddling pool? Got it! Waffle iron that we bought ten years ago but only used once? Got it! Bullets for the Nerf Gun? Yep, unfortunately got those too. And I bet you can imagine how good that feels right? To be able to go straight to that one thing you know you need to get the job done and solve the problem. Of course you always knew you had it there somewhere, but accessing it wasn’t always easy. You’d resort to rummaging through mountains of stuff; rifling though drawers and making a mess in the process, maybe even gave up looking for it.
So I wonder if maybe you can see the value in this too? Sorting through the junk in the day, and then putting it to one side at night. Something to ponder…
For advice on how I can help you let go of stress and focus on attracting positivity and wellbeing, contact me.
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