Need some positive change? Declutter your environment.

Where is that positive change you’ve been craving? Do you find it hard to think clearly? It’s quite likely you are stuck in a rut, you are not feeling creative, and the flow of your energy has grounded to a halt. Maybe it’s time to make some room for new, fresh energy by decluttering your internal and external environments. Seasonal shifts inherently encourage this if we pay attention.

Clutter interferes with our energy field in so many ways. This principle applies in any physical environment, such as an interior room in your home or a garden bed in your backyard. Imagine if you never tidied up your office, or if you allowed weeds to choke out that garden of yours. Would you enjoy working at a desk covered with random papers, or walking by your once beautiful but now overgrown garden?

Let’s go one step further…how would it feel if you gave your office or garden a real facelift by changing up the space dramatically? Consider refreshing those areas by releasing your attachment to – yes, eliminating – what no longer holds meaning for you.

Making room for fresh growth

When we let go of the material possessions that we accumulate in life, whether in our home environment or in the internal “garden” of our mind, we make room for the new. Americans tend to be highly acquisitive. We live to shop, love collecting things, and in some cases we even horde. It seems to be imprinted in the pervasive culture of consumerism, and it affects us in numerous ways. This “stuff-ness” can impact our ability to make positive change because it interferes with our chi, or the life energy that balances Yin and Yang.

The culture of Japanese minimalism presents us with the idea that less is more. Against the backdrop of consumerism, especially in Japan’s urban centers, exists a quiet reverence for simplicity that underscores modern Japanese culture. Minimalism is evident in the interior home design that has grown in popularity in the West since the 1960’s.

The Japanese concept of ma is even broader than minimalism, because it begins where minimalism ends. Ma literally means gap or void, which denotes that there is beauty to be discovered in the emptiness between “things.” Consider in music, poetry and spoken language, the negative space between notes or words allows what is there to have more meaning because it is better able to stand out.

Simplify. 

Clearing away clutter is an easy way to make room for positive change in your life. Like weeding a garden to make room for the plants you want to showcase, getting rid of the things you no longer need or love can bring new life to an environment. Here are some ways to simplify your environment to release any stuck energy:

1. Take an inventory of the space you want to declutter. What objects do you truly love or need?
2. Remove anything that no longer serves you. Not feeling the love? Send those objects immediately off to the recycle bin!
3. Clean all surfaces and then take another inventory. Repeat until you are happy with the result.
4. Rearrange all objects according to their utility or their value on the “love” scale!

Now that you have intentionally created room in your physical environment for positive change, pay careful attention to how this makes you feel. Are you experiencing new vitality? If so, repeat this process whenever you feel stuck and unmotivated. In a future article we will explore the internal spaces of the mind for options to make room for positive change there, too!

I would love to read your comments, revelations and aha-moments on our website or Facebook page!

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Keep calm and Brumbylon.

Thanks for hanging out with me – have a great week!

~ Lisa

“The seed that grows toward the light begins in darkness.”