By Ronald Wayman
Clutter can be incredibly damaging to any lifestyle. It can weigh down the mind, heart, body and soul. When a person addicted to keeping clutter is asked to clean house, they will often cringe because each item kept has a purpose, a reason, a safety feeling. Clutter is a buffer against the unknown. Clutter is a protector. But this does not have to be so. Clutter in reality is not truly safe and not truly a protector against the unknown. It just may seem so.
Excess weight on and in the body is a mirror of the clutter in most overweight individuals. I have noted that many people who have cleaned up their life start losing weight. They act out what they feel around them in their environment. And if they clean up their environment, subconsciously they are cleaning up internal sabotages to weight loss.
I received this email from my client Suzie about clutter and weight loss:
“Hey Ronaldo!
I did get your letter. Thanks.
I think you pretty much nailed it down on everything.
Basically my whole focus right now is on losing this excess weight. It’s just so frustrating! And when I look around at all the things I have to do it makes me crazy and with all the junk I’m hanging on to I could just scream. And yet when I go to clean or organize it, it’s like I don’t know where to put everything or how to organize it and some days it feels like I’m going slower than tar. I don’t know what things to keep of my children’s and I’m afraid if I get rid of something I might need it again.”
I know this is just a big hang up, but there are a lot of people like me out there with the same problem. My neighbor said it was hard for her to throw some things out, too.”
My reply:
Hi Suzie,
Thank you for your email.
You say in your email that your focus is on weight loss but it seems to be on “the clutter” and getting rid of it. The great part is – getting rid of clutter is one the key areas of weight loss – both physically and emotionally/mentally. The problem might be the focus that you apply to the all that clutter in your home. That focus makes the clutter even more negative. Every time you feel guilty and blame yourself when you see the clutter you will lose more personal power to those stacks.
Start seeing the clutter as a subconscious message from inside that you want to clean up the junk inside but your body is having a hard time knowing what to do with it once it is up. Take the clutter as messages of deeper unorganized stuff that can now be cleared. Most who do this stop blaming themselves and change their focus to cleaning up their life, body, and home with a positive opportunistic attitude.
So, Suzie I want you to do some writing. Sit down, take a deep breath and answer some of the following questions:
Why do you keep focusing on the clutter?
Why are you “safer” keeping the clutter than throwing it away?
It could be a childhood trauma or simply conditioning from parents.
I want you to try to throw some clutter away and write about the feelings you have.
I want you to try to throw out some junk food out of your diet and write about those feelings.
In regards to my statement in earlier email:
“The more we become aligned and have integrity with our inner values such that they are automatic, the more likely we will create what we want in our life.”
I notice that I receive and give that which I value most. If my values are conflicting, then the results of my life will be conflicting. If my values are non-conflicting then my life creates peace, joy, and fun. That is why I want you to become clear on you and your inner values.
Reply to the questions above and also prioritize your values for me.
Thank you
Ron
| “Ron, thank you for helping me to see clearly and to see past the clutter of all my projects and ideas. Thank you for helping me with two of my children when their health was so poor. You got them back on tract so quickly. I am amazed.” – Phil W. WVC, UT |
What are the parts of clutter?
I just asked my wife this question and she replied “Oh, PLEASE!”
So I asked my teenager, what are the parts of Clutter?
Maybe clutter is like a prepositional phrase, An English teacher told my teenager that a prepositional phrase is like – “anything that a squirrel can do to a tree Over, under, around, through.”
Clutter can be everywhere.
Where is the Clutter in your life?
Here are many examples:
Physically:
On the Body: excess weight
In the Body: eating too much, eating in clutter fashion (whatever is in the refrigerator goes in)
On the counter: excess papers, to do lists, magnets all over the fridge, leftovers,
In and on the refrigerator: leftovers, magnets all over the fridge, papers on top, salad dressing bottles all used and then ignored for a century, vegetables bought and then stashed away in some bin.
In the Garage or carport: boxes leftover from your last 3 moves, homework assignments kept from yours or your children’s classes, financial records and stubs from 14 years ago in a box near the other boxes of precious things.
Emotionally:
In the Heart: Feelings buried alive, worries, anxieties, frustrations, resentments about things that happened long ago but still pumping energy through the heart and body.
Mentally:
In the Mind: Beliefs of “not good enough,” not enough of anything – money, sex, love, food, etc., beliefs of “I don’t deserve” and other similar cluttering beliefs.
Spiritually:
In Soulfulness: Trying to do too much and scattering yourself with too many projects and aspirations, Letting everyone else dictate what you are to be doing, Resenting lack of control, fearing more than trusting.
Write about what physical and nutritional Clutter that could be affecting your path to weight loss in the body and clarity in the mind, heart and home.
| “Wow, my back pain is gone. I am losing weight. I still want a new job, but you have helped me deal with this one. Thank you again.” – Karen S. Tigard, OR |