What you can do: Box up extra items and put them out of sight, out of mind. Ready for a change? Swap boxes for a fresh mix of toys. Don't miss them? Sell or donate the extras. (No kids? Try the same technique with your clothes.)
Decluttering for a Healthy Mind
If you're looking for an easy way to reduce stress, decluttering your environment may be a good place to start. Getting rid of excess stuff can benefit your mental health by making you feel calmer, happier, and more in control. A tidier space can make for a more relaxed mind.
Still, the case for decluttering isn't clear-cut. Another study found that, while orderly environments are more linked to healthy choices, disorderly environments promote creativity and fresh ideas. If you value creativity, you may want to allow yourself to be a little messy in certain areas of your life.
While hoarding things can provide you with a strange sense of satisfaction, it creates clutter in your home and as an extension, in your mind. Anyone who hoards also experiences the frustration caused by overflowing cupboards and shelves. Clearly, hoarding can affect your mood.
But, although the initial enthusiasm was there, Debora highlights that it is quite normal to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of decluttering. Fortunately, she has figured out some nifty ways around this.
If you are unsure whether or not your cleaning habits are constructive or bordering on a compulsion, you may want to talk to your doctor or a mental health professional for advice. A therapist can help you determine which behaviors are healthy and which might need to be altered. They can also provide other coping mechanisms for depression, anxiety, or stress.
Hanley AW, Warner AR, Dehili VM, Canto AI, Garland EL. Washing dishes to wash the dishes: brief instruction in an informal mindfulness practice. Mindfulness. 2015;6(5):1095-1103. doi:10.1007/s12671-014-0360-9
Do you feel like your brain is in serious overdrive? A stream of clutter slowly turning your mental space into a chaotic mess? If the answer is yes, it means that your mind is frantically waving a red flag, begging you to free up some headspace.
5. Breathe: Take a deep breath. Pause. Exhale slowly. Repeat. How does it feel? Great, right? Deep breathing is a simple yet effective technique to clear your mind, induce tranquility and elevate your mood instantly. It lowers the heart rate and blood pressure and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which helps your body relax. Other than being a stress-reliever, breathing exercises also promote concentration and strengthen your immunity system.
9. Limit The Amount Of Media Intake: The media you consume has a huge impact on your mental health. We spend hours online: reading blogs, managing Pinterest boards, watching viral videos on YouTube, etc. This abundance of information can clog your brain, causing stress and anxiety. Limiting the amount of information you consume is necessary to get rid of all that media-related clutter from your mind. You can start by setting a limit on the amount of time you spend on social media. Also, be selective about your media consumption (avoid negative content, follow only reliable media outlets for news updates, etc.) and organize your email regularly.
I've been a lifestyle journalist for over half a decade, primarily covering all things food, culture, and wellness. Besides Forbes, my work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, MSN, NewsBreak, The News Hub, and more. You can also find me delivering bite-sized, evidence-backed tips on all things wellness and healthy living on my newly-minted podcast 5 Minutes to Wellness:
For many of us, decluttering serves as a sort of mental palette cleanser. Stressed out? Tidy your apartment. Unfocused and frazzled? Clear the mess on your desk. Down in the dumps? Reorganize your closet for a sense of accomplishment.
When the spaces we spend our time in are messy, we are likely to experience an ongoing sense of sensory overload. A cluttered visual field filled with untidy piles and random items that are out of place and in the way can be hard for our minds to take in and make sense of. This, in turn, can lead to the development of a bad mood. Worse, a sense of helplessness in the face of all that clutter can damage our self-esteem.
As you know, the Japanese organization guru Marie Kondo blew the country away in 2019, thanks largely to the Netflix show that brought her refreshing decluttering methods to households across the country. In fact, Today reports that thrift stores saw a huge surge in donations because of her popularity.But decluttering is more than just a trend. It has some surprising health benefits you may not know of. Read on for some great reasons to start decluttering today.
One of the best ways to help you declutter your mind is to take all those thoughts and tasks floating around in your brain and write them down. Getting them on paper takes them out of your head because it allows you to let go of the responsibility you have to remember them, thus decluttering your mind in the process.
Journaling can also be therapeutic. According to the University of Rochester Medical Center researchers, journaling is a helpful tool in managing mental health. It helps you organize your thoughts and understand your emotions, which is a healthy practice for your overall well-being. For journaling tips and best practices, check out this article.
You may have a long to-do list and feel overwhelmed on where to start, which keeps those items stuck in your mind, taking up valuable real estate. Once you data dump by writing down your tasks (see above), start to categorize them in order of importance.
Humans are not multitaskers by nature. Multitasking may seem efficient on the surface, but studies have shown that multitasking actually reduces productivity and fills your mind with too much activity. Instead, go down your list of priorities and focus on one task at a time to avoid mental overload. To avoid getting lost in time, you can set a timer for how long you want to spend on any given task, to ensure you manage your time well.
To change your mindset, you need to start challenging yourself. Is the thought accurate or is it distorted? Each time you prove to yourself that the negative self-talk is incorrect, your mind will start to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones. And when that happens, your mind will shift from feeling heavy, cluttered, and chaotic (negativity) to lighter and free (positivity).
Studies have shown that being in nature is associated with mental health benefits, including decreasing anxiety and depression. In a lot of ways, nature restores, refreshes, and invigorates you and your mental energy. Next time your mind feels heavy, take a stroll outside to clear your head.
Your brain is bombarded with sensory information all day, every day. Being on social media constantly adds brain clutter and can even affect your mental health by increasing depression and loneliness. Monitor your usage on social media platforms, and if you start to notice your mind getting cluttered by thoughts and feelings from triggering posts, it is time to take a break.
We all know exercise is good for your overall well-being, including your body and your mind. In addition to decreasing anxiety and depression, regular exercise can help you concentrate and feel mentally sharp for tasks at hand.
Decluttering is about much more than having space on your desk to place your laptop or room in the closet for new clothes. Having an abundance of clutter in our professional and personal spaces is a source of anxiety and unnecessary stress. It can be distracting, draining, and hold us back from productive work. Tidying our physical spaces and clearing out clutter can put us in a more positive, peaceful state of mind.
As daunting as it is to begin tidying our spaces, reducing the junk in our lives benefits our mental health. First, decluttering can save us valuable time. For example, clearing out unwanted clothing items in the closet means less time spent finding what you want to wear. Decluttering reduces the stress of losing things and increases our ability to find what we need.
Clearing out clutter takes time and can be difficult to start. Take it step by step and start with organizing one spot, like a messy cupboard, rather than the entire space. Set reasonable expectations and add tidying to your regular routine. Do a little bit of decluttering each day, and over time, the feeling of peace in your space will carry over to your mind.
2020 has forced a lot of us to take a step back and put many things into perspective. What is truly important? It may be different for all of us, but the main needs of all people are the same: health, happiness, and safety. The mind, body, and soul connection plays a huge role in all of our needs. We encourage you to use this time at home to strengthen that connection. Here are a few ways that decluttering your home and your life can help declutter your mind, leading to a stronger mind, body, and soul connection.
Take a step back, make inventory of what is truly necessary, and go from there. If it makes you feel good and happy, then it stays. If it starts to stress you out just by thinking about it? UNNECESSARY! Focusing on what your mind, body, and soul needs and does not need will help to strengthen the connection between all three.
Rather then spending time reading a feed, read a book. Instead of taking some photos for Instagram, take a quick morning walk. Rather than seeing what so-and-so Tweeted, notice what thoughts enter your mind with a morning meditation.
So if you've ever been gripped with the sudden desire to suddenly deep clean your entire home, or maybe you're motivated and inspired to suddenly reorganize every closet or pantry in your house, you're actually not alone in feeling this way. Research is telling us that a cleaning or a lack of cleaning can actually impact your mental health. Plus there's been no shortage of cleaning and decluttering gurus over the past several years, preaching to us about the importance of keeping a clean and tidy home. So with that being said, Dr. Potter, what is it about a clean and well-organized home that people tend to find so satisfying? 2ff7e9595c
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